Dear Gord, On Friday November 27th in the afternoon we spotted close to 100 doves in one of our huge maple trees in our backyard. My husband had to stop counting once he got to up to 80 because they were starting to fly. We have lived just north of King City near Kettleby area for almost 10 years and have never seen that many mourning doves together at one time. Has anyone ever seen such a large flock before? Many thanks.

The dump may be found by taking the exit from 401 near Desoronto, which is one exit west of Napanee and going north a few km when the large mound will appear off a sideroad to the east. Or at Napanee exit 401 north on highway 41, turn west (left) at first road (drive-in road) and after about 2-3 km it ends at a north-south road. Turn right (north) for several km until the dump appears on the right side. Dump is open Saturdays until 1.00 PM when gates are locked. Today among 1-2 thousand herring and Great Black-backed gulls were a first winter Thayers and an adult Lesser Black-backed. None of the many Bonapartes from nearly Napanee river were at the dump, and no Franklins were seen. Last winter this dump had many glaucous and iceland gulls as well.

Dear Gord,

I'm a British birder who has recently returned from a holiday with relatives just outside Toronto. On the 12th and 13th October, I found a Townsend's Solitaire near Caledon East. Looking in the status list of birds in Ontario on your excellent web page my impression of its scarcity in Eastern Canada is confirmed. Could you let me know where I should submit the description?

I've visited Canada three times and am now familiar with a fair range of the birds likely to be found in Southern Ontario.

I first saw this bird as it perched in a very upright fashion on top of a bush on a low open hillside near the edge of woodland. The bird was very approximately the size of an American Robin but different in build being less bulky and with a small rounded head and a long notched tail, the tail about equal in length to the rest of the body. The overall plumage was sooty grey (equivalent in colour to one of our female Black Redstarts). The throat was slightly paler and there were slightly darker chevron markings (dark edged feathers) under the tail. The wings were darker greyish with a distinct buffish wing bar (edge to the coverts) and a distinct buff wingstripe - both above and below the wing which was most obvious in flight. The tertials were slightly paler than the mantle. The tail was blackish with white outer tail feathers, the latter, again most obvious in flight. The bill was short and black, the legs / feet were darkish and there was a clear white eyering.

I got within about 6m of the bird on the 12th. On this date, it was difficult to observe the upperparts as the bird kept head-on as I moved around it. It was observed flycatching and feeding on berries. The conditions were generally overcast. Next day, under rather misty conditions, it was seen quite nearby, this time spending much of the time in the lower branches of a small tree when it was directly compared with American Robin, White- throated Sparrow and Dark-eyed Junco. The bird had a generally inquisitive appearance regularly turning and angling its head.

I searched for the bird on subsequent days but failed to relocate it.

I hope the record is of interest. Please let me know where I can send the details for official scrutiny!

Having discovered your web site I look forward to tuning in from time to time on the latest sightings in Ontario - though it does mean that I will just have to sit here green with envy in the UK!

Regards

HI GORD
Early in October a sighting of 3 small owls on Hay township Rd. #20 has caused some exitement around here because they were believed to be BURROWING OWLS . There is a single previous report for this area 3 yr. ago.

GOOD BIRDING.

2 White Rumped Sandpipers and 1 Black bellied Plover were at Bracebridge lagoons on Wednesday in a mixed flock of about 30 shorebirds.

Hi Gord
I am located in village of West Guilford on Green Lake in Haliburton. I re-installed my feeder station a couple of weeks ago and am a little disturbed at the small number of visitors so far this year.

Normally, we would have numerous families of jays (12-15) fighting for position, plus chickadees (8-12), nuthatches (4 red breasted and 1 or 2 white), Hairy and Downey Woodpeckers - usually a pair at a time at the suet, plus numerous sparrows (different types) ground feeding.

So far there has only been 3-4 bluejays, 6-8 chickadees, no nuthatches, 1-2 woodpeckers in total; and a few American Tree Sparrows. Our fare is the same, but the birds are few in number. I don't understand why.

The good news is that we usually see a Pileated Woodpecker 3-4 times over the winter and one visited us today.

Hello Gord, David and I went back to Cobourg today - Sept. 13 and we were happy to see the same Longspur feeding away on the weeds on the pier. Only the one male, just like last Thursday, but this time no pipits. I had a hard time getting an image from the video and it has lost a lot of colour, but thought that you would like to see it.

All the best,

Cobourg harbour Sept. 10.
My son David and I were really happy to observe a Lapland longspur eating weed seeds on the pier at Cobourg. It was a first winter male and was happy travelling with 8 American pipits. I managed to get about five minutes of video of this bird. This was the fist time that David or I had ever seen a longspur.

Hi, Gord

Today Me my Dad and my brother went to the Mitchell Sewage Lagoon. We saw a number of species and knew species. We saw Killdeer,Lesser Golden Plover,Semipamated Plover,Lesser Yellowlegs,Bairds Sandpiper,Solitary Sandpiper,Northern Shoveller and Common Snipe.Good luck and good birding.

Hi, Gord

A few days ago we saw a Lesser Scaup at first we thought it was a Ring necked Duck in it's winter plumage but then we took a closer look at it and it was a Lesser Scaup .Then a few days before that my brother saw a Great Egret.Best of luck.

Hi Gord

On Saturday night I went to the Mitchell sewage lagoon We saw Killdeer,Solitary Sandpiper,Lesser Yellowlegs,Least Sandpiper,Semipalmated Sandpiper,and a White Rumped Sandpiper that was a knew specie for me and my Dad. We're going to go again very soon.

Good Birding,

Hi Gord:
Recent rains have made the sod farms between Alliston and Beeton quite attractive to shorebirds. Yesterday there were hundreds of Golden Plovers and numerous Blackbellied Plovers. Sandpipers included Baird's, Pectoral, Least and Semipalmated. Short-billed Dowitcher and Lesser Yellowlegs were also present. There were also two Buff-breasted Sandpipers. The best spot is on the north side of the 11th Concession half a kilometer East of the Tottenham road. That's where the Buff-breasted Sandpipers were. Unfortunately the standing water in this area is drying up fast.

Hi Gord

Today Sunday Aug 23 at the Holland Landing Sewage Lagoons there were Blue Winged and Green Winged Teal, 10 Wood Ducks, semi-palmated Plover, Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs Least Sandpipers and 100 or more Bonaparte Gulls.

Hi, Gord... Camping trip *2 ...to Bon Echo Provincial Park, Great location for warblers and much to our delight, we sighted a Black Backed Woodpecker on the Shield Trail near Bon Echo Lake. Actually our children noted the pine bark falling on their heads and when we looked up to see what was flinging bark at us, we spied a beautiful Black Back. The Park Birder said that one had not been sighted for two years so he appreciated our sighting report.I would recommend this park to any birder who enjoys trails and warblers as both were abundant.

The single WILLET was still at the PORT STANLEY SEWAGE LAGOONS today. I was able to get several pictures as well. If you go the look for it, it is in winter plumage and was in the first lagoon, as it was on Saturday. Other than that there was LEAST SANDPIPER, SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER, LESSER AND GREATER YELLOWLEGS, RED-NECKED PHALAROPE ,BONAPARTE'S GULL, GREEN-WINGED and BLUE-WINGED TEAL and a BROAD-WINGED HAWK.

Today at the PORT STANLEY SEWAGE LAGOONS, in with many other shorebirds, there was a WILLET. Earlier in the week there as a report of 9 willets at the lagoons but today I only found one. There could be more. Other shorebirds included GREATER and LESSER YELLOWLEGS, SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHER, LEAST SANDPIPER, SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER, SOLITARY SANDPIPER and SPOTTED SANDPIPER. There might be more species that I missed because there were so many birds. Other than shorebirds, a GREAT EGRET surprised me as well as a immature BONAPARTE'S GULL.

At the Almer Sewage Lagoons(east of St. Thomas, south of London) today, I found 6 species of shorebirds. They included GREATER and LESSER YELLOWLEGS, LEAST SANDPIPER, SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER, KILLDEER and RUDDY TURNSTONE. Other birds at the lagoons included 2 SNOW GEESE in a flock of CANADA GEESE, BONAPARTE'S, RING-BILLED and HERRING GULLS. 3 species of duck were present, MALLARD, WOOD DUCK and RED-BREASTED MERGANSER and a winter plumaged CHIPPING SPARROW was also present.

On Saturday June 13th I lead an OFO (Ontario Field Ornithologists) field trip in extreme south Western Ontario. The group met at the entrance to the St. Clair National Wildlife Refuse on the SE corner of Lake St. Clair at 7:00 a.m. Early arrivers had 3 King Rails calling along the Townline immediately east of the refuge.

Walking in along the dyke several Forster's Terns flew by very close as well as a few Black Terns. One Common Tern came over. Two Black-crowned Night Herons flew over and one Green Heron was spotted. Along the dyke hundreds of Marsh Wrens were calling and numerous Common Yellowthroats. Wood Ducks were everywhere with numerous Mallards flying around. A Least Bittern was heard calling from the marsh. Several male Yellow-headed Blackbirds were spotted flying up and over the cattails. However these birds were several hundred yards out in the marsh and not in close as often is the case. While watching for the blackbirds to make an appearance some spotted a Least Bittern fly by the viewing stand. When leaving the refuge a Common Moorhead was spotted sitting on a nest. We checked out the marsh along the Townline but could not hear the King Rails but 3 Common Moorhens were swimming out in the open while a Cliff Swallow circled over the road.

We headed across county to the Wheatly harbour where a Ruddy Turnstone was spotted on the beach but it was scarred off by A large Canadian Coast Guard hovercraft that came along the lake just off shore. We continued on to Point Pelee for lunch.

At the picnic ground site where we had lunch there were numerous Baltimore Orioles, a Yellow-billed Cuckoo was heard overhead and seen by several members. Also seen were Eastern Wood Pewee, Downy Woodpecker and a Carolina Wren.

At the DeLauier Trail we took the "birders' trail" south off the main trail. Here a Yellow-breast Chat was heard, a Willow Flycatcher sat up on top of a red cedar and called away. A Black-billed Cuckoo flew by and was latter found sitting in a tree with its mate. Back on the main trail we had good looks at a male singing Indigo Bunting. Also an immature male Orchard Oriole sat up on top of a small tree for several minutes.

Leaving the park we travelled through the onion fields and encountered a breeding plumage Great Egret in one of the drainage ditches less than 50 feet away. North of the park near Wheatly a breeding plumaged Horned Grebe was seen close to shore.

On our way to Rondeau Provincial Park we stopped at the Bleinheim sewage lagoons. The highlights here were 2 male Greater Scaup and a male Lesser Scaup along with 5 Ruddy Ducks and a male Bufflehead. A detour to the Erieau Harbour produced Bonaparte's Gull and Red-breasted Merganser. At Rondeau we stopped at the snack bar for a bit of supper and while there the rain stroms we had been dodging all day finally caught up with us. We drove down to the Nature Centre in the rain and the wind and sat in the parking lot until the storm subsided. Along the Tulip Tree trail a full adult American Redstart sat out in the open singing. At the last bridge along the trail after await of several minutes a Prothonotary Warbler started to sing right beside the group fairly high up in a tree. It started to work the tree trunk acting like at nuthatch. As we were watching this bird it was joined by a second. Overhead on the otherside of the bridge a Red-bellied Woodpecker was going in and out of its nesting hole. After leaving the nature trail we drove over to the beach and here was a Common Lon in breeding plumage 100 feet off shore. With it being 7:40 pm we broke up and head off on our separate ways.

Birds found:

Common Loon

Pied-billed Grebe

Horned Grebe

Least Bittern

Double-crested Cormorant

Great Blue Heron

Great Egret

Green Heron

Black-crowned Night Heron

Turkey Vulture

Canada Goose

Wood Duck

Mallard

Blue-winged Teal

Greater Scaup

Lesser Scaup

Bufflehead

Red-breasted Merganser

Ruddy Duck

American Kestrel

Ring-necked Pheasant

King Rail

Virginia Rail

Common Moorhen

American Coot

Killdeer

Spotted Sandpiper

Ruddy Turnstone

Semipalmated Sandpiper

Bonaparte's Gull

Ring-billed Gull

Herring Gull

Caspian Tern

Common Tern

Forster's Tern

Black Tern

Rock Dove

Mourning Dove

Black-billed Cuckoo

Yellow-billed Cuckoo

Chimney Swift

Belted Kingfisher

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Downy Woodpecker

Northern Flicker

Eastern Wood Pewee

Willow Flycatcher

Great Crested Flycatcher

Eastern Kingbird

Warbling Vireo

Red-eyed Vireo

Blue Jay

American Crow

Horned Lark

Purple Martin

Tree Swallow

Northern Rough-winged Swallow

Bank Swallow

Barn Swallow

Cliff Swallow

Carolina Wren

House Wren

Marsh Wren

Veery

American Robin

Gray Catbird

Brown Thrasher

Cedar Waxwing

European Starling

Yellow Warbler

American Redstart

Prothonotary Warbler

Common Yellowthroat

Chipping Sparrow

Savannah Sparrow

Song Sparrow

Swamp Sparrow

Northern Cardinal

Indigo Bunting

Red-winged Blackbird

Eastern Meadowlark

Yellow-headed Blackbird

Common Grackle

Brown-headed Cowbird

Orchard Oriole

Baltimore Oriole

House Finch

American Goldfinch

House Sparrow

Recently, while camping along the St.Lawrence near Morrisburg I noticed two sets of geese with goslings - 1 set had two adults and 21 goslings and the other had 2 adults and 23 goslings. We viewed both sets at the same time on two different days. As Canada Geese generally lay less than 10 eggs how can these numbers be explained??

Hopefully, someone can provide an explaination.

Regards

If anyone has anything to add, please do so.

Gord Gallant
gallantg@interlog.com

Tonight, the Toronto Rare Bird Hotline noted that Clive Goodwin spotted a piping plover at Victoria Beach in Cobourg on Wednesday. The bird was apparently not seen again.

Hello Gord,

We spotted Dunlin,Ruddy Turnstone and a lone Black-Bellied Plover along the shore west of Cobourg harbour.

Hi again,

This week has proved very productive in Georgetown. Today near Silver Creek I saw a scarlet tanager and an american redstart, as well as a yellow warbler, Baltimore orioles, rose-breasted grossbeaks, and the regulars. They may be late coming into Pelee, but they're pretty much on schedule here -- although it's true I haven't seen the variety of warblers yet that I have in the previous two years.

That's all for now.

These observations were made from 6-8 pm 11 May 98:

Winter Wren; Common Yellowthroat; Yellow Warbler; Gray Catbird; Palm Warbler; Yellow-Rumped Warbler, and an American Woodcock.

Hi Gord

I have had Evening Grosbeaks at my feeder in the backyard. They arrived on Monday and are still coming every day to feast on black oil sunflower seeds.

Happy Birding

Hi everyone. Still learning and enjoying watching activity at our feeder in the backyard of our home in Brockville. Since my first post of sightings. We have been visited by a American Gold Finch on May 6 th. Hope to see him again . Also regular visitors include;

Mourning Doves (They are nesting in tree next to feeder!)
Common Grackles
White Throat Swallow
European Starling (not too many thank God)

At our trailer at Graham Lake. We have seen;
Loons ( a family that returns every year )
Great Blue Heron
Humming Birds (have not pinned down variety yet)

Also on Lower Beverly Lake near Lyndhurst an Osprey it is also a returning bird nests on same tall pole every year. Thats about it for a while, Hope to submit more reports in the future.

Regards,

Hi,

I was delighted to hear a Baltimore Oriole and a Phoebe this morning, and I saw a female Rose-Breasted Grosbeak. This was during my walk near Silver Creek in Georgetown.

As a novice bird watcher. I was excited on the evening of April 29. A Northern Flicker was feeding at our bird feeder, located in the yard of our residence at 26 Bennett St. Brockville, Ontario. This is the first time that I was able to identify a bird that I have not seen before. Identification was made with the Readers Digest book "Wildlife in North America.

I am now hooked into this fascinating activity.

Hi,

Our latest sightings from on and near Silver Creek in Georgetown are a pair of blue-winged teals and a couple of meadowlarks. We've also had a field sparrow visiting our backyard feeder.

That's all for now.

Hi: Mistral Farm is in a pretty bare and very windy spot but the home garden has lots of trees and I have lots of feeders out. Three lovely big fox sparrows were here for about 10 days - they left on Friday and this afternoon a brown thrasher stopped in for a visit. I cannot believe the number of juncos here this year. About half of them have moved on now and there are still twice as many as I usually get. A pair of marsh hawks is setting up house down by the watercourse at the bottom of my orchard. Song sparrows are low this year, in marked contrast to last year.

Cheers,

David and I were out today and on a drive from Cobourg to Orono - some of the better sightings of the day were: 60 Double-crested Cormorants, 2 pair of American widgeon, 10 Red-breasted Mergansers, 2 Kestrel, 2 Merlin, 1 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, 2 Eastern Bluebirds and 1 Field Sparrow in our back garden. We had one Fox sparrow in our back yard two weeks ago that stayed around for three-four days.

Hi,

We saw our first fox sparrow yesterday, and today there's a pair feeding in the backyard. Also, on the weekend we saw flickers for the first time this year.

That's it for now.

Hi Gord:
You can add 3 Northern Shovelers and 9 Common Mergansers to the list of birds now present at the 12th Line and 15th sideroad of Tecumseth Twsp. This area is South-East of Alliston (I would tend to include this in the Barrie area). The Tundra swans are still there along with all the other waterfowl I reported last Friday.

Dear Gord:

I checked out the Beeton flats today and saw large numbers of water fowl in the flooded corn fields along the 15th side road between the 11th and 12th lines of Tecumseth. Most noteworthy were 26 Tundra Swans. The list is as follows:

Tundra Swan 26
Canada Geese 42
Mallard 260
Black Duck 7
Northern Pintail 32
American Wigeon 4
Green-winged Teal 18
Ring-necked Duck 4
Hooded Merganser 9
Killdeer 6
Red-tailed Hawk 1
Merlin 1
Kestrel 3
Horned Lark 20

Plus hundreds of Ring-billed and Herring Gulls.

Hi Gord

On my way to work yesterday morning around 6:45 I saw a large flock of 30 waxwings on the Green Lane. They were in a Hawthorn tree on the south side at the bridge which leads into Rogers Reservoir.

Bye

Hi Gord:

I was very happy to have a Sharp Shinned Hawk in my backyard this morning. Just before I had roughly 40 Redpolls at my feeders and in the trees, all of a sudden they were gone. My daughter and I had a great look at a mature male Sharp Shinned Hawk. (actually it was her who spotted it first!!) Hope it returns.

Bye for now

In the past few days backyard birding in Georgetown has been excellent. Monday we had a flock of about 50 PINE GROSBEAKS on the trees around us, they appeared to be feeding on berries. They returned on tuesday, but haven't them seen since.

A large mixed flock ( possibly 80 birds) has been visiting our feeders every day this week. We have Redpoll (about 20), with them are a couple of Hoary Redpoll, plus the usual House Finches, Juncos,Goldfinches etc.

We have heard that this year is an invasive year for northern finches. Does anybody know why?

David and I saw a northern shrike and we were able to get quite close to it and managed to get it photographed using the video camera. We spotted it on Wesleyville road, south of 401 close to lakeshore road. Wesleyville is just west of Port Hope.

January 25 / 1998

Location: COBOURG HARBOUR

Hello Gord, Amazing, I can hardly believe it, talk about a rare sighting. My Dad and I have never seen a SNOWY OWL . We were close and it was an IMMATURE SNOWY OWL without a doubt. The harbour was ice and snow-covered and the pier was closed off -- a sign said " Use at Own Risk ." Regardless, we ventured out as we saw something in the distance. The SNOWY OWL appeared heavily barred, much darker than to be expected. We spotted the owl at 11:30 am and it seemed to be feeding on a fish. It stayed in the same spot on the ice, in the middle of the harbour, for three quarters of an hour. The owl turned its head around a number of times and was aware that we were there, but it did not seem to bother. It just continued eating.

A covey of 10 Gray Partridge were found to-day about 1/2 miles west of the junction of highways # 24 and 53 on the north side of #53 which is west of Brantford.

This general area has been a good place to find Gray Paartridge for the past 10/15 years especially when there is snow cover.

Cobourg Harbour

Hi Gord, My Dad and I spotted ( 1 male Snow Bunting ) along the west sandy shore. There was raft of Redheads totalling 350 + and a raft of Black Ducks totalling 14. My Dad thought that he had spotted a Snow goose in the harbour yesterday. Upon closer inspection today, we have decided that it is a hybrid goose ( perhaps Canada X Snow Goose). Returning back to Orono we spotted an immature Northern Harrier along the lakeshore Rd. west of Wesleyville. On Con. Rd. 1 at Nichols Rd. we were fortunate to get a good look at a Northern Shrike. Heading north to Kendal Rd. we spotted a flock of 100 Common Redpolls along the roadside.