[Ontbirds] Charlton Island, James Bay bird sightings
Submitted with permission from Ontbirds coordinator. Just returned from a 2 week trip to southern James Bay. Eight days were spent on the northeast point of Charlton Island, Nunavut, about 25 km west of the Ontario border and about 75 km northeast of Moosonee. Following is a list of birds seen on Charlton Island from September 10-18 including the highest daily total recorded. Email me privately if you’d like an Excel spreadsheet of daily totals. Best bird was an adult Thayer’s Gull, believed to be a first record for the James Bay islands. Rob Tymstra and Paul Carter Sarnia, ON bird...@ebtech.net Common Loon 2 American White Pelican (skull found on beach) Double-crested Cormorant 9 Great Blue Heron 2 Snow Goose (blue) 1 Canada Goose 150 Brant 600 Tundra Swan 1 American Black Duck 30 Mallard 12 Green-winged Teal 9 Greater Scaup 40 Common Eider 3 White-winged Scoter 1 Black Scoter 100 Common Goldeneye 10 Common Merganser 5 Red-breasted Merganser 150 Bald Eagle 1 Northern Harrier 2 Sharp-shinned Hawk 4 Northern Goshawk 1 Red-tailed Hawk 1 Rough-legged Hawk 2 Osprey 1 Merlin 2 Gyrfalcon 1 Peregrine Falcon 1 Spruce Grouse 1 Sandhill Crane 2 Black-bellied Plover 60 American Golden Plover 4 Semipalmated Plover 30 Greater Yellowlegs 20 Lesser Yellowlegs 2 Ruddy Turnstone 45 Sanderling 200 Semipalmated Sandpiper 200 White-rumped Sandpiper 4 Pectoral Sandpiper 1 Dunlin 400 Common Snipe 2 Bonaparte's Gull 5 Ring-billed Gull 1 Herring Gull 50 Thayer's Gull 1 Great Black-backed Gull 3 Arctic Tern 20 Black Guillemot 2 Hairy Woodpecker 1 Northern Flicker 1 Gray Jay 10 Common Raven 2 Horned Lark 220 Boreal Chickadee 6 Red-breasted Nuthatch 1 Brown Creeper 1 Winter Wren 1 Golden-crowned Kinglet 3 Ruby-crowned Kinglet 2 American Robin 5 American Pipit 100 Orange-crowned Warbler 1 Yellow Warbler 1 Yellow-rumped Warbler 6 Palm Warbler 4 Savannah Sparrow 10 Song Sparrow 4 Swamp Sparrow 3 White-throated Sparrow 5 Dark-eyed Junco 12 Lapland Longspur 20 Rusty Blackbird 9 ___ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to birdalert@ontbirds.ca For information about ONTBIRDS visit http://www.ofo.ca/
[Ontbirds] American White Pelicans: Pelee Island
This morning, four American White Pelicans were spotted sitting on the sandbar beyond the tip of Fish Point Nature Reserve (southwest corner of the island). They later flew off to the west. A Peregrine Falcon and a Yellow-throated Vireo were seen there as well. An Osprey was observed hunting at Lighthouse Point (northeast corner of island). Rob Tymstra Pelee Island yrtyms...@gmail.com ___ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to birdalert@ontbirds.ca 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
[Ontbirds] Pelee Island highlights: White Pelicans, Least Bittern
Highlights from Pelee Island today include 5 White Pelicans flying over the Pelee Island Winery, a Least Bittern and 4 Eastern Bluebirds at Fish Point (sw corner of island), and a Red-shouldered Hawk near the north shore of the island. A Tufted Titmouse was reported from the East Beach Campground. Rob Tymstra Pelee Island, Ontario yrtyms...@gmail.com ___ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to birdalert@ontbirds.ca 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
[Ontbirds] Pelee Island: Neotropic Cormorant and Western Tanager
There was a mild reverse movement from about 7- 9 a.m. at Fish Point this morning consisting mainly of several hundred Baltimore Orioles, a few Orchard Orioles, Yellow Warblers, and a few Indigo Buntings. An immature Lesser Black-backed Gull showed up at the tip briefly and a Neotropic Cormorant flew by at about 7:30 a.m. The annual Botham Cup 24 hour bird race finished at noon today with ten teams competing to observe the most species. Only 128 species were tallied in total reflecting the general lack of arrivals so far. There was an unconfirmed report of a Western Tanager from the north shore (no details). Rob Tymstra Pelee Island, ON yrtyms...@gmail.com ___ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to birdalert@ontbirds.ca 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
[Ontbirds] White Pelican nesting in Lake Erie confirmed!
With increasing numbers of White Pelicans showing up in Western Lake Erie over the last couple of years, it wasn't too surprising to finally find evidence of nesting. On July 19, I found several nests on Big Chicken Island (about 7 nautical miles west of Pelee Island). The island is really a large reef just south of Hen Island and is in Ontario waters. Many of the nests were empty but four nests had one egg each and one nest had two eggs. We found about 30 pelicans on the island at the time but interestingly, this past weekend, Paul Pratt reported 70 pelicans there. A few days later, David Moore, while doing a census on Middle Sister Island (roughly 20 nautical miles west of Pelee Island), counted 24 abandoned pelican nests with cold eggs. Pelicans could be nesting on other islands in the archipelago as well. Although the presence of eggs so late in the summer is somewhat unusual, it is not unprecedented in new colonies. We are monitoring the Big Chicken colony and ask that boaters keep their distance for the next month as the birds are easily disturbed. Please send me any observations you have had of pelicans in Lake Erie in the last few years. In an effort to document this most interesting incursion, we'd like to collect past and future records. White Pelicans have been expanding their range into Ontario's north in the last decade with nesting attempts in Lake Superior, Lake Nipigon, and James Bay. For the last three years, numbers of pelicans have been increasing in Lake Erie's western basin and now it appears that they are breeding! Rob Tymstra yrtyms...@gmail.com Pelee Island, Ontario ___ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to birdalert@ontbirds.ca 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
[Ontbirds] More info on White Pelicans in western Lake Erie
It appears from the following data sent to me by Ohio birder, Thomas Bartlett, that White Pelicans are now more than just vagrants in Lake Erie's western basin. Thomas writes: 'I could see several pelicans on the rocks off the west side of Middle Island from Kelleys Island last May (using a scope). On Tuesday, a lady from Middle Bass Island who regularly goes out to The Chicks and sometimes East Sister, reported to me that there were 50+ on and around the Chicks and 24+ off East Sister. I believe it is only a matter of time (or it may have happened all ready) for them to be nesting in or along Lake Erie. The Chicks and Middle Island are prime areas. Pelee Island Bird Observatory has been recording birds most of the summer. At East Harbor State Park near Port Clinton (in Ohio), over 150 pelicans have been roosting the last three summers. They are there early in the AM, leave for the day, and come back in the evening." The 'Chicks' are about 5 nautical miles west of Pelee Island. I am hoping to get a boat out there soon to see what's going on there. Rob Tymstra Pelee Island yrtyms...@gmail.com ___ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to birdalert@ontbirds.ca 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
[Ontbirds] Harris’s Sparrow - Pelee Island
A male Harris’s Sparrow just appeared at the edge of my driveway, feeding on grass seed that I’d spread earlier today. Southeast corner of Pelee Island, 1011 East-West Road. Rob Tymstra Pelee Island ___ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists (OFO) - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to birdalert@ontbirds.ca 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
[Ontbirds] Hudsonian Godwit on Pelee Island
At 9am, I saw and photographed a fall-plumaged Hudsonian Godwit on the tip of Fish Point on Pelee Island. Fish Point is the southwestern point on the island, about 3 km south of the west Ferry Dock. Rob Tymstra Pelee Island, Ontario ___ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists (OFO) - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to birdalert@ontbirds.ca 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
