WEEKLY BIRD REPORT FROM PRINCE EDWARD COUNTY AND THE QUINTE AREA for Sunday, January 04, 2004
Happy New Year everybody, and we hope your 2004 bird list enjoyed a great boost during the last four days. Here in the Quinte area, nothing spectacular showed up through the week, although a few interesting sightings bear reporting. Mild weather and brisk winds have dispersed much of the waterfowl concentrations making estimate of numbers and a species account more difficult. Prince Edward Bay early in the week contained 11 species of waterfowl including over 6,000 LONG-TAILED DUCKS, 1,300 COMMON GOLDENEYE, along with CANADA GEESE, BLACK DUCKS and MALLARDS. Petticoat Point off Brewer's Road saw the appearance of 143 LONG-TAILED DUCKS, 12 BUFFLEHEAD and 6 COMMON GOLDENEYE, while just west of there, at the end of Duetta Road, another 91 LONG-TAILED DUCKS were tallied in Lake Ontario. At Point Petre, there were a further 55 LONG-TAILED DUCKS and 4 WHITE-WINGED SCOTERS. Smith's Bay early in the week was still frozen past Pickerel Point, but contained around 300 COMMON GOLDENEYE at the ice edge. South Bay was frozen only at the extreme south end and had a wide array of ducks. Once duck hunting season ended, numbers in the shallow waters seems to rebound. As an example, South Bay contained 700 COMMON GOLDENEYE, 800 scaups, 250 REDHEADS, 7 TUNDRA SWANS and a smattering of dabblers. The majority of LONG-TAILED DUCKS could be seen from Long Point Road foraging in dense flocks, moving quickly as they fed. WHITE-WINGED SCOTERS were far off Point Traverse, almost three-quarters of the way to Timber Island. Interestingly, while Prince Edward Bay was open through much of the week, the majority of BUFFLEHEADS were seen battling the waves along the lake shore from Prince Edward Point to Point Petre. Elsewhere, the mild weather has resulted in other waterfowl exploiting the conditions that prevailed over the last several days. There was a swarming of CANADA GEESE and MUTE SWANS at Pleasant Bay on New Year's Day and numerou s reports of CANADA GEESE flying in perfect formation every which way as they searched out the open waters in the Quinte area. The open water on Consecon Lake between the Millennium Trail (old railway crossing) and the Whitney Memorial Dam at Highway 33 contained no fewer than 14 MUTE SWANS on December 31st. Most bird feeders experienced a drop in patronage with the arrival of warm weather during the week. However, a few of the dependables continued their appearances at local feeders including a pair of EASTERN BLUEBIRDS on Powerline Road, west of Trenton. RED-BREASTED NUTHATCHES are coming to feeders in Picton and near Bongard Road, east of Lake-on-the-Mountain. COMMON REDPOLLS have been seen at feeders at Bongard Road and west of Trenton. At the latter location, a male and female COOPER'S HAWK made passes at the feeding area there, and a MERLIN was spotted on Monday at the mouth of the Moira River dreaming the impossible dream as it surveyed a nearby flock of CANADA GEESE. A synopsis of the Belleville Christmas Bird Count, reported in some detail last week, revealed that 53 species were observed on December 27th, compared to 51 last year. Overall numbers of individuals were down, and new species added to the count this year were MUTE SWAN, HOODED MERGANSER, RED-BREASTED MERGANSER, BALD EAGLE, ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK, MERLIN, PILEATED WOODPECKER, WINTER WREN, NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD, SNOW BUNTING, PURPLE FINCH, COMMON REDPOLL and PINE SISKIN. Although the Belleville bird count has been held sporadically since 1965, this is only the second year in which it has been conducted as an official count. Other interesting sightings during the week included two separate reports of a BELTED KINGFISHER on the Black River at Milford, a BROWN CREEPER on Sprague Road, WILD TURKEYS at the Marine Museum at South Bay, 60 CEDAR WAXWINGS at Dead Creek at Carrying Place, an AMERICAN KESTREL at the corner of County Roads 5 & 6 near Picton, and a SCREECH OWL which continues to sing nightly at Barker Street in Picton. The RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRD continues to visit a nectar feeder east of Kingston, and on Friday there were two first winter GLAUCOUS GULLS on the Adolphus Reach at Bath. And that's it for this week from Prince Edward County and the Quinte area. Our thanks to Jerry Miller, Ruth Webber, Shirley and Ken Joyce, Nick Gromoff, John Charlton, Henry and Joan Pasila, Frank Artes and Carol Barnes, John Blaney, Joe Victor, Bob Sachs and Micahel Schummer for their contributions to this week's report. This report will be updated by 8:00 p.m. on Sunday, January 11th. Bird sightings must be in by 6:00 p.m. to be included in the next report. Good winter birding. Terry Sprague Picton, Ontario [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.naturestuff.net "Terry Sprague" <[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.
