A CRESTED CARACARA was seen by Bob Bowles and others in Orillia on Sun., Dec 29th. He was able to study it for about 15 minutes before it headed north.

Call The Simcoe County Bird Hotline, sponsored by Barrie's Brereton Field Naturalists' Club, at (705) 431-8798 for the details.

Also seen in Simcoe County:
A Rufous Sided Towhee and a Winter Wren in Wasaga Beach.

The Orillia Field Naturalists' Christmas Bird Census was held Dec 21,1996.
A total of 45 species and 5502 individuals were observed. Highlights include:

3 AM COOTS
Hundreds of HOODED MERGANSERS
1 OLDSQUAW
LESSER SCAUP
GREEN WINGED TEAL
RUDDY DUCK
PIED BILLED GREBE
GOSHAWK

More details can be obtained by calling the Simcoe County Bird Hotline at (705) 431-8798

In and around Kempenfelt Bay In Barrie this weekend (and not seen on our count last weekend):

GADWALL
REDHEAD
2 CANVASBACKS
OLDSQUAW
AM COOT
PIED BILLED GREBE

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!

Our club's annual Christmas bird census was held Sunday, Dec 15th, centred

in downtown Barrie, Ont.



The weather was about +3 degrees, blustery and mostly cloudy with some 

sunny breaks.



Kempenfelt Bay and Little Lake as well as the rivers and creeks were wide 

open, and there was virtually no snow on the ground, very unusual for our

counts.



Highlights include:



6 COMMON LOONS

3 RED-NECKED GREBES

7 BLACK SCOTERS

5 RING NECKED DUCKS

8 RED BREASTED MERGANSERS

2 BALD EAGLES

1 COOPERS HAWK

10 WILD TURKEYS

3 GLAUCOUS GULLS

1 ICELAND GULL

2 SNOWY OWLS

2 SCREECH OWLS

2 FLICKERS

2 ROBINS

8 N. SHRIKES

2 SWAMP SPARROWS

18 REDPOLLS (the first seen this year)

In all, 59 species and 7677 individuals were seen.

The general impression were that songbirds were in very low numbers, very scattered and very hard to find. There were not a lot of birds at feeders. There were large numbers of goldeneyes, Common Mergansers and Mallards on the bay. Gull numbers were low; ring bills outnumberd herrings which is unusual for Barrie in the winter.

Further details and an account of other birds seen in the past week is available on the Simcoe County Bird Hotline at (705) 431-8798.

The YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT that was visiting a local feeder was having trouble standing up on Sunday Nov 24. On Nov 26 it was captured in a mistnet and sent, courtesy of Air Canada, to the Wild Animal Clinic at the U. of Guelph. It is doing well, recovering from frostbitten feet.

An Orange-crowned Warbler was still visiting Sue Bryan's suet feeder on Dec 8.

An owl invasion is taking shape. We have had quite a few Northern Hawk Owls and Snowies, a few Great Grays, and even a couple of Boreals, mostly in first days of December. Several Gyrfalcons are in town.

A flock of 5 House Finches on Dec 7 was very unusual for Thunder Bay; this species is finally colonizing the Lakehead.

Here are the highlights of the Simcoe County Bird Hotline for Dec 7 and 8:

At various spots around Kempenfelt Bay (Lake Simcoe):

SNOW GOOSE (Blue Phase)

97 GT BLACK BACKED GULLS

1st Yr GLAUCUS GULL

2 AM WIDGEON

1 GADWALL

RING NECKED DUCKS



Midland:

Imm. BALD EAGLE



Spratt's Point, Nottawasaga Bay:

HORNED GREBE

WH W. SCOTER

OLDSQUAW



Tiny Marsh

E MEADOWLARK



Minesing


N. SHRIKE 

Snowy Owls showed up in southern Bruce County on the weekend of November 23rd.

Three were along the County Road between Paisley and North Bruce south of Port Elgin on the afternoon of November 24th. Was another in the Southampton area.

A Northern Hawk Owl was found Saturday morning east of Owen Sound - just east of the Hwy 26 and 20th Street East intersection in tops of spruces around farmhouse on northside of Hwy 26 Reported by Dave Fidler

On Wednesday November 13th Dave Fidler and Dave Tannahill of Owen Sound made the following noteworthy sightings along the southern Lake Huron shoreline of Bruce County

- 1 - Orange-crowned Warbler at Pt Clark (cottage area) - south of Kinccardine

- several Red-throated Loons off Pt Clark - one at close range in the small harbour

- 75 Bonaparte's Gulls at Kincardine Sewage Lagoon

- 1 immature Bald Eagle at Baie du Dore north of the Bruce Nuclear Power Development - first of many that will arrive this month

- lots of Snow Buntings, Horned Larks, and Lapland Longspurs feeding at road edges between Port Elgin - Paisley - Chesley

On Saturday November 9th Clarke Birchard of Chesley reported 75 to 100 Sandhill Cranes in the farmland around Chesley

A YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT is still surviving in an urban Thunder Bay backyard as of Nov 10 despite overnight lows below -10C. It was first seen Nov 1 after a cold front came through.

An immature GYRFALCON has been seen several times on the Thunder Bay waterfront, since Oct 31

A WESTERN KINGBIRD was found in Thunder Bay, on Mission Island, Nov 2

An EASTERN TOWHEE has been visiting a north ward (Port Arthur) feeder

My family and I took the slow, scenic route from Pefferlaw to Keswick today and saw a number of migrating birds.Most interesting were: COMMON LOON, COMMON MERGANSER, COMMON GOLDENEYE,BUFFLEHEAD, BONAPARTE GULL, and TUNDRA SWAN (YELLOW TAG).

On the way home on the back roads, we saw an amazing GREY PHASE NORTHERN HARRIER and GREAT BLUE HERON.

We have the usual winter birds feeding at our feeder once again and were visited this morning by a SHARP SHINNED HAWK. That made the finches scatter!

To round off the morning the children had a chance to see a beautiful. young male white-tail deer stroll along our ditch.

I love the weekend! Kathy and family

It looks like this winter may give us another Great Gray Owl invasion of south-central Ontario, Canada. Several owls have already been sighted in the Algonquin Park region, including Great Gray, Boreal, and Short-eared.

Martin Wernaart banded two Sandhill Cranes at Mountsberg on Friday Nov.8 The birds are now feeding along the reservoir and can be easily seen. Saturday Nov. 9 12 pm

Saw my first Snowy Owl of the season yesterday (Sunday, Nov 4) on the Bruce Penninsula. It was an immature bird seen at about 12:30 pm at Hopkins Point just south of Tobermory on the Huron side. The bird was perched on a small cedar in near gale force winds, and as we approaced it lifted off and sailed downwind. Considering the weather we experienced this weekend - snowsqualls, cold temps, high winds - it seemed an appropriate sighting. On Saturday we were chided by some non-birding friends for stopping the car to investigate a large white object across a field which turned out to be a snagged shopping bag flapping in the wind. Sunday, also in our company, they saw their first-ever snowy!!

A Hawk Owl was sighted in New Liskeard on Sunday Oct 20th. Just wanted birders in Southern Ontario to eat your heart out for awhile. Happy birding Bruce Murphy RR#1 Cobalt

On the weekend of October 19th a Turaco Nature Inc. weekend outing to the upper Bruce Peninsula saw the following notworthy birds on Saturday

- 2 Great Gray Owls - one on Dyer's Bay Road about 1 km east of hwy 21, and one on road to Cape Chin North (south side of Otter Lake). The later bird was present all summer

- 40+ Red-necked Grebes on Georgian Bay between Dyer's Bay and Cabot Head lighthouse

- Rough-legged Hawk, Northern Shrike, Eastern Phoebe, several Yellow-rumped Warblers, and Nashville Warbler in area of Cabot Head lighthouse

- White-winged and Surf Scoters and Oldsquaw off the Cabot Head Lighthouse

- did not observe any however the residents report single and small numbers of Snow Geese with the flocks of Canada Geese

One of the biggest fallout of seabirds ever to the Great Lakes area resulted from Hurricane Fran. Tom Hince, Chief Naturalist at Point Pelee National Park near Windsor, Ontario, recently described this event on the Canadian version of The Discovery Channel. Displaced birds by the 1000's were blown off course. Theory has it that the birds are trapped or seek refuge in the eye of the hurricane. When the hurricane hits land, the winds dissipate and birds head back south. Hurricane Fran continued to head north along the Atlantic shoreline to New Brunswick.

At the north-east end of Lake Erie, at least 20 black capped petrels were found. Fifteen of these were later found dead - as were 2 of the three previous black-capped petrels recorded in Ontario. These birds were most likely exhausted from fighting rain and winds and had not eaten in 3 or 4 days. These highly pelagic birds rarely come within the sight of land and are normally found near Haiti and the West Indies. In fact, about the only place in North America where one might get a good look at black-capped petrels is about 80 km off of the Carolinas in July and August.

A few Wilson's storm petrels and sooty terns were also discovered. However, these other species were able to head south immediately. A sooty tern was discovered not far from Presqu'ile Provincial Park near the shoreline of Lake Ontario near Grafton, Ontario.

A few coastal species made appearances. Numerous laughing gulls were discovered and two American Oystercatchers were found.

Although the black-capped petrels be accustomed to hurricane-like weather conditions, they have been heavily impacted on by man. While perhaps 100 more were transported and died because of this storm, this figure becomes quite significant when considering that the global population remains between 5000 - 10,000.

Tom Hince can be reached at: tom_hince@pch.gc.ca

Several members of the Guelph Field Naturalists visited Hawk Cliff on Saturday October 5th for a day of viewing the raptor migration. While the skies were clear, a strong on-shore breeze (from the south-east) appeared to disperse most of the birds inland. Although nine species were observed, numbers were very low. Raptors which were spotted at the end of the road (i.e. at the cliff itself) from 11:00 AM to 1:30 PM included one immature bald eagle, one osprey, a northern harrier, one red tailed hawk, two peregrine falcons, several sharp shinned hawks and kestrels, coopers hawks, and numerous turkey vultures.

A visit to the Aylmer wildlife management area on our return trip yielded nothing but Canada geese. Water levels in the compound were high, providing unsuitable habitat for shorebirds. In addition, it appeared as though emergent vegetation had been cut, rendering the ponds rather useless for most waterfowl.

The Brereton Field Naturalists' Club of Barrie had a very successful fall birding blitz of Simcoe County on October 5th. About 10 groups of birders were assigned different townships to record species, not total numbers, from sun-up until about 3 p.m. With one group not yet reporting we tallied 97 species, more than expected for this date and especially good considering most of our best waterfowl areas were almost devoid of birds due to the hunting season.

Highlights included RED-THROATED LOON, EARED and HORNED GREBES, RED-EYED, SOLITARY, AND PHILADELPHIA VIREOS, seven species of WOOD WARBLERS including ORANGE-CROWNED,a large flock of TREE SWALLOWS, hundreds of WATER PIPPITS, RAVEN, and MERLIN.Complete list available on request.

Our club is about to set up a bird hotline for the Simcoe County area. I'll e-mail the number for posting when its up and running.

A good friend, Bob Curry, who is in the process of becoming a member of BIRDCHAT, has asked that I post this message on his behalf. Hopefully anyone with the data he requests would contact him direct.

I'm writing an article for Birder's Journal on Hurricane Fran and the birds it brought to Lakes Erie and Ontario. Although the emphasis will be on Ontario records, for context I plan to include all storm borne birds in adjacent Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York. I have the sightings which have been posted to RBA's over the past three weeks. Please include all records of dead birds; we methodically walked beaches finding more than 15 Black-capped Petrels and a Sooty Tern, and I now have information on 23 dead Petrels. If anybody knows of other valid sightings which have not been posted I'm anxious to hear about them. I'd be pleased to share interpretations and inferences re the storm and its birds.

Bob Curry
Ancaster, Ontario
bcurry@worldchat.com