At 8:00 p.m. on Thursday, January 13th, 2005 this is the HNC Birding Report:
TUFTED DUCK x GREATER SCAUP hybrid GRAY PARTRIDGE RED HEADED WOODPECKER Common Loon Pied-billed Grebe Red-necked Grebe Tundra Swan King Eider Redhead Harlequin Duck Surf Scoter Black Scoter White-winged Scoter Northern Goshawk Merlin Peregrine Falcon Ruffed Grouse Wild Turkey American Coot Glaucous Gull Iceland Gull Great Horned Owl Eastern Screech Owl Short-eared Owl Belted Kingfisher Pileated Woodpecker Northern Shrike White-crowned Sparrow Things are quieting down again but who knows with this wacky weather what may be blown in. This week was the Lake Ontario duck count. Many birders going cross eyed through their scopes to count every duck on the lake (NOT). I don't think that I have ever seen that many ducks line the shore between the ship canal and Bronte Harbour which is the area I was involved in. Two birds were of note though. The leader of our group found a TUFTED DUCK x GREATER SCAUP hybrid. Interesting bird, tickable on the hybrid list and a good study. The other bird of note was a 1st winter male and a female Harlequin Duck seen off of West Street just before Bronte Harbour. Other ducks seen in addition to the usual riffraff of ducks were all three scoters and a couple of American Coots. There also seemed to be a fair number of Redheads on the count as well. Other lake news included eight King Eiders being seen off of Gray's Road and Green Road in Stoney Creek. Another noteworthy bird this week was the appearance of 5 GRAY PARTRIDGE at the Brantford Airport. Sightings were hit and miss, all miss for me. With the snow melted they will be hard to see however they were seen near the bus company in a field across from McGregor Street on Colbourne. Exciting feeder news of the week came from Dundas where a RED-HEADED WOODPECKER came in to a feeder for a one day wonder. LaSalle Park is still a good place to go for variety with many species of ducks in addition to Red-necked Grebe, Tundra Swan and Common Loon. Out on the rock islands and what used to be ice Glaucous and Iceland Gulls are still being seen. Nearby Valley Inn this week produced Pileated Woodpecker and White-crowned Sparrow. Courtcliffe Park in Carlisle is a great place to go for a change. This week, Eastern Screech Owl, Ruffed Grouse and Wild Turkey were all seen in the park. Another report from further north and west was of a Northern Goshawk in the Campbellville area. To wrap things up with odds and sods a Merlin was seen on Monday by me in the Headon Forest Area of Burlington, Northern Shrike on Groundhog Hill in the Dundas Valley and a pair of Great Horned Owls seen and heard in North Oakville in addition to a Red-bellied Woodpecker. A Short-eared Owl was seen at the Petro Canada Plant off of Burloak last Sunday. In the Desjardins Canal area were Belted Kingfisher and Pied-billed Grebe. That's all for this week. Get out and see what the weather has brought in and then email the hotline!! Good Birding, Cheryl Edgecombe 905-381-0329 HNC Hotline
