Hi all, About 30 people enjoyed a brilliant fall day birding Presqu’ile Park. As Ian Shanahan was under the weather I filled in as leader with assistance from Ron Tozer and Bill Gilmour, as well as lots of spotting help from the entire group. In some ways it was a quieter day than we have been experiencing over the past week with no big flocks or concentrations, but we still managed 84 species between 8 a.m. and 130 p.m. We started at the Lighthouse which was dead, but got better as we birded along Paxton Drive, then we made a stop at Calf Pasture area and then on the Beach birding between Beach 1 and 3. We concluded just outside the park gate at 240 Presqu’ile Parkway (the former mini putt golf course) for some hawk watching and lunch.
We had some close up shorebird flocks that included 2 adult White-rumped Sandpipers mixed in with the Semi’s, Leasts, Semi Plovers, Sanderlings, patches of warblers totalling 15 species including an early Orange-crowned spotted by one lucky observer as well as Wilson’s, Cape May, Bay-breast, Pine, Black-thr Blue and Green, Parula, etc. Ducks were not well represented but did include a female Pintail with Canada Geese and a tight flock of 20 W-w Scoters far out in Popham Bay. With mild north winds we managed a bit of a hawk flight passing over the gate area which included Bald Eagle, Harrier, Sharp-shinned and Cooper’s, Red-tailed, American Kestrel and a Peregrine. Other notable finds included a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, several Philadelphia and a Blue-headed Vireo, a Raven, about 30 Horned Grebe far out in Popham Bay, and four flycatchers including Yellow-bellied. Thank you all for coming out on the field trip and hope to see many of you at the OFO conference coming up soon. Doug McRae Doug McRae P.O. Box 3010 Brighton, Ontario K0K 1H0 613-475-5014 H 613-243-4161 C _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists (OFO) - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to [email protected] For information about ONTBIRDS including how to unsubscribe visit http://www.ofo.ca/site/page/view/information.ontbirdssetup Posting guidelines can be found at http://www.ofo.ca/site/page/view/information.ontbirdsguide Visit the OFO Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/OntarioFieldOrnithologists
