Hi there, The Woodhouse Christmas Bird Count was held on Sunday Dec. 19th in cold windy conditions but 28 observers bravely soldiered on. Here are some of the interesting sightings:
Unusual sightings on the count include 2 species new for the count: Sandhill Crane (2) and a Rose-breasted Grosbeak seen at a participant's feeder only on the morning of the count. Documentation yet to be received. Other interesting species include a Merlin, 2 Red-shouldered Hawks, 2 Bald Eagles, 1 Northern Goshawk (CW), Snow Geese (1 white and 1 blue phase), 3 Northern Shoveler, 1 Hermit Thrush, 1 American Pipit, 1 Oregon type Dark-eyed Junco and Eastern Meadowlark (CW). Canada Geese numbers were the highest in 10 years at 6493, as were White-crowned Sparrow (15 birds). American Kestrel numbers were unusually low (6 birds) as were Ruffed Grouse (1 bird). Thanks again to all the participants for birding in the cold weather! Don Graham [EMAIL PROTECTED] From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fri Dec 31 00:15:19 2004 Return-Path: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Delivered-To: [email protected] Received: from tomts22-srv.bellnexxia.net (tomts22.bellnexxia.net [209.226.175.184]) by king.hwcn.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id F31309FBA3 for <[email protected]>; Fri, 31 Dec 2004 00:15:05 -0500 (EST) Received: from sympatico.ca ([64.231.34.201]) by tomts22-srv.bellnexxia.net (InterMail vM.5.01.06.10 201-253-122-130-110-20040306) with ESMTP id <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> for <[email protected]>; Fri, 31 Dec 2004 00:16:07 -0500 Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2004 00:17:40 -0500 From: Bruce Parker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030624 Netscape/7.1 (ax) X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: [email protected] Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: [Ontbirds]5 Great Gray Owls at Thickson's Woods Nature Reserve X-BeenThere: [email protected] X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2004 05:15:20 -0000 ONTBIRDERS The 5 Great Gray Owls reported by Dennis Barry were all present and viewable at one time with a very short scan of binoculars at the bottom of Thickson's Road on Thursday December 30 in the late afternoon. Two of the owls were engaged in some brief aerial and ground play and another landed in one of the small trees within 5 metres of where we were standing - wow what a sight! The Barred owl at Hall's Road pounced on a large vole in the ditch by the north pathway and proceeded to down it in several large gulps on a nearby log. Bruce & Allyson Parker Directions: To reach Thickson's Woods Nature Reserve, exit from 401 to Thickson Road South in Whitby. Proceed south past Wentworth Street to the Waterfront Trail. Hall's Rd. is 1 block east of LakeRidge Rd., running south from Bayly/Victoria.
