Greetings all, I was birding at Presqu'ile from noon till 4 p.m. and saw a mix of interesting and sad things.
Dead birds continue to appear here in disturbing numbers. Today I checked the beach and Gull Island (including Sebastopol Pt. which is temporarily an island) and found dead or dying: 2 Red-necked Grebe, 6 Sanderling, 1 Ruddy Turnstone, 1 Mallard, 2 GW Teal, 18 D-c Cormorant (in addition to the 85 found on 11 Sep), 3 Herr Gull (in addition to 7 on 11 Sep), 3 GBB Gull (5 more on 11 Sep), 1 Rb Gull. My impression is that there has been another spike of dead birds. One of the dead Herring Gulls is colour banded (Right leg: CWS band # 816-84977/yellow/lime green; left leg: green/red/black). Live birds provided more fun and included an adult Peregrine, 2 juv Sb Dowitcher, 6j Baird's, 1 ad Semi Sandpiper (getting late), 1 Am. Pipit, 150 Bonies, 20 Com. Tern, 1 Ww Scoter, my first Shovelers (3) of fall, and a handful of both scaup flying by. There was also a Great Egret feeding offshore from the natural beach. As a sidebar, I stopped this morning at the point where the Murray Canal empties into the Bay of Quinte (called 12 O'clock Pt) and saw a female Bufflehead in heavy moult, a female Lesser Scaup, plus 10 Great Egrets! Finally a word of caution regarding travel to Gull Island. The water is deeper this year than in recent times and the wading to Gull, and especially Sebastopol Pt. is a bit tricky. Crossing to Gull isn't too bad with the water going up to my waist (about 3'), but the crossing to Sebastopol is more problematic. Here the water is about 4.5' deep with the deepest point being just before you reach Sebastopol. If you deviate off the underwater "ridge" you will find yourself neck-deep. Given this, I would recommend that no one try to get to Sebastopol if there are strong winds, especially westerlies, as you could get washed off and into the deeper water in Popham Bay. The crossing to Gull should be OK in all but heavy surf. Cheers, Doug McRae Directions: To reach Presqu'ile, take the Brighton exit from Hwy 401 and go south through town, then follow the signs to Presqu'ile. 12 O'clock Pt can be reached by taking the Wooler Rd exit (Cty. Rd. 40) south from Hwy 401, continue S. past Hwy 2 and follow until you come to a "T" junction. Turn right (following sign to Picton) and look on your left as Dead Creek enters the Bay. Most egrets were feeding here. For a larger vantage, continue driving about 1 km until you come to the Murray Canal bridge. Turn left (east) just before the bridge and follow this road to the jetty at the end.
