On Sunday we hiked the Mizzy Lake Trail (took 7 hours) and found 40 white winged crossbills, 4 a. goldfinches, 16 b.c. chickadees, 9 r.b. nuthatches, 1 each downy and hairy woodpecker, 1 ruffed grouse, 1 g.c. kinglet, several ravens, one of which was being chased by 7 w.w. crossbills near wolf howl pond, which is at about km. 5 of the hike. It was about 4 km. into the trail where we saw 5 boreal chickadees as a group. They came within 1 meter of us before moving on! Then 3 banded gray jays told us it was lunch time. I have the color and silver band patterns recorded for whoever is interested. Unfortunately, we did not find the Boreal Owl that was reported the same day (near our lunch spot) on the visitor centre board.
Monday was very quiet, with just three dozen w.w. crossbills along the highway 60 corridor, also 6 unidentified finches, 1 pine siskin. 3 more ruffed grouse, and 4 evening grosbeaks were at the visitor centre, but we had missed a showing of 40 of the e. grosbeaks earlier that day. Also missed the N. hawk owl reported at the cache lake bog...looked 3 times. Today, we found 2 more boreal chickadees at the Spruce Bog trail, 3 purple finches, 1 brown creeper, and lots of grouse tracks. Two more banded Canada Jays with new band patterns. Please respond privately if you need the band patterns for your research. The red crosbills and spruce grouse still elude us but what a nice holiday escape! (Do the 4 moose count?) Overall impression: the White Winged Crossbills are flying in matched pairs or evenly sexually distributed small groups right into the relative interior of the park, and are being very vocal and territorial /hated my small owl impressions. Surprised to see no redpolls; lots of Canada (gray) jays (more reported at Mew Lake along with skads of blue jays). Directions to Algonquin Park: take highway 11 to highway 60 at Huntsville. Go east on 60. Strongly recommend getting trail guides at the first visitor centre where you may get your park pass as you enter from the west. Happy New Birding and Hiking Year Ken Ken and Angie Williams 83 Edinburgh Avenue Hamilton, Ontario, L8H 2C6 905 547 8580 "A & K Williams" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
