Wednesday December 8th A Purple Sandpiper was seen by several observers this morning at the southwest corner of Cobourg harbour but it flushed onto the breakwater in early afternoon and has not been seen since. A large, lightly marked Snowy Owl sat on the breakwater and the east pier through the afternoon. Clive Goodwin glanced out of his fourth floor window overlooking the harbour about 2pm today to see a huge dark Gyrfalcon rocketing by at eye-level in hot pursuit of downtown Cobourg's plentiful pigeons. Clive says the bird looked identical to the dark morph Gyrfalcon seen by him and other observers at Presqu'ile last month. The centre of Cobourg is still empty of Rock Pigeons three hours after this sighting! If you are birding around Cobourg harbour, check the female goldeneyes - there is one with a very steep forehead but a black bill - could be a young female Barrow's, but it isn't always there and needs more study. There are still Boneys in the harbour and on the lake and the roosting gulls on the boat docks included one Glaucous and one Iceland today.
Directions: >From Hwy. 401, exit at Division Street, Exit 474, and proceed south on Division to the harbour. There is parking at the foot of Division Street if you want to view the gull roost in the inner harbour. Drive westward along the north edge of the harbour to the large parking lot on the west side to walk out on the west headland. Margaret Bain, Cobourg [EMAIL PROTECTED]
