I read your report with interest. I believe that Wolf Island is the site of some 85 major wind turbines, now in operation. I am wondering how their presence affects the woodcocks' "sky dance". And I also wonder how the winter Short-eared Owl population is faring.
Bob McGuire On Aug 18, 2011, at 12:30 PM, Janet McGraw wrote: > Last week while vacationing on Wolfe Island in the Thousand > Islands(Wolfe is a large island but very quiet and mainly rural/ > agricultural) I was driving after sunset on one of the dirt/gravel > roads that compose most of the island when I saw a woodcock sitting > toward the side of the road. It did not move for a couple of minutes > and I was able to get a photograph of it in the headlights before it > flew off into the night sky. Wolfe Island offers perfect woodcock > habitat, with many unused fields and scrub. I continued driving and > about a quarter mile away from where I saw the woodcock, suddenly in > the headlights on the dirt/gravel road ahead several small birds > flushed up and flew away from the road. This happened at least three > times as I drove slowly down the road, but I could never get a good > sighting of these birds, other than they were small (robin-sized or > smaller) and flew up suddenly ahead. There were probaly a dozen > altogether. There were no other vehicles on this road. I was > wondering if anyone could tell me what birds these might be. I'm not > sure if they were young woodcocks (as I know they are active at dawn > and dusk), or something else. My husband surmised that they were > swallows (of which we saw hundreds on the telephone wires on the > island, gathering for migration), but I didn't think they would be > on the roadway at night. Any help regarding identification of these > birds would be appreciated. > -- > Cayugabirds-L List Info: > Welcome and Basics > Rules and Information > Subscribe, Configuration and Leave > Archives: > The Mail Archive > Surfbirds > BirdingOnThe.Net > Please submit your observations to eBird! > -- -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
