April 23, 2003 Common Loons over Harrietsville, Elgin County
Until today, this year's loon flight has been paltry, at best. The peak of the migration has passed and we have only counted 60 loons since early April, our poorest showing to date in 12 years. We feared the huge die-off of loons over the last 4 years on Lake Huron and Lake Erie must have severely reduced numbers (and probably has). Today, however, there was a big flight of 111 loons from 7:28 a.m. to 9:01 a.m. with most birds passing by between 8:00 and 8:30 a.m. Although most were in small groups of 1 to 5, several larger flights went by including groups of 9, 16, 13 and 10. This was our 2nd highest count for one day in 12 years of monitoring. Last year's big day was April 20 when 364 loons "darkened" the sky.
Other noticeable migrants today were 1 flock of 16 Double-crested Cormorants and two flocks of Lapland Longspurs totaling 85 birds.
Harrietsville is located in north central Elgin County, about 20 km due north of Port Bruce on Lake Erie. The loon migration is on a broad front and has been detected to the east of us over Ingersoll by Ross Snider and Komoka to the west of us by Pete Read. The loons that we see are moving from southeast to northwest so are likely coming from the Long Point area and will end up on Lake Huron just north of Kettle Point.
Dave Martin & Linda Wladarski Harrietsville, ON [EMAIL PROTECTED] Dave Martin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Visit http://www.ofo.ca/ontbirdsguide.htm for information on leaving and joining the list. As well as general information and content guidelines.
