On the way back to Newmarket from Hamilton this afternoon I checked MacGillvray Road near Kleinburg and was rewarded with good looks at a mixed flock of approximately 100 Horned Larks and 50 Snow Buntings. The birds were feeding on the ground where hay from the barns has been spread in the fields on the west side of the road. Continuing north to Newmarket, I did a U-shaped check of Keele-to-King-to-Dufferin on the north side of Hwy. 9 in hopes of seeing the Great Gray Owls that have been lingering in this area for several weeks. I did not any GGOs but did rediscover the juvenile Snowy Owl I happened upon nearly a month ago in the vegetable fields south of Bradford. At 3:30 in the afternoon it was easy to see as it sat on the ground directly behind house # 570 on King Street (an east-west line that connects Keele and Dufferin about 4 kms. north of Hwy. 9). The bird was about 100 metres straight north of the house, more than halfway out to the brown marsh grasses. The house is about halfway across King Street. DIRECTIONS: MacGillvray Road runs north from Rutherford Road, which in turn runs parallel to Hwy. 7. It is between Hwy. 27 and 50. MacGillvray makes a 90 degree bend to the west about 3 kms north of Rutherford, then meets Huntington Road. The fields described above are about halfway up MacGillvray (approx. 1.5 kms north of Rutherford). A scope makes for better viewing than binoculars, but there were times when the birds came fairly close. Take note that they can easily be lost from view in the furrows, but they soon reappear. Highway 9 runs east toward Newmarket from Hwy. 400. Turn north when you get to Keele and keep your eyes peeled for large gray owls on both sides of the road. You will soon cross a little bridge over the frozen canal that circles the "Holland Marsh" vegetable fields. From this point on you enter a very flat, tundra-like area, less likely habitat for Great Grays and more likely habitat for Snowies. Keele eventually takes a right-angle turn to the east and becomes King Street. The Snowy Owl was in the fields on the north side of the road. King meets Dufferin and the canal at the same point. Turn right (south) at the bridge and you re-enter GGO habitat. There have been at least 3 GGOs on both Keele and Dufferin through January, but they have been much harder to find and seem more inclined to hunt late in the day or early in the morning. If you strike out on GGOs here, turn back north and follow Dufferin as it goes north, then east, then north again at Bathurst. You can take it to the traffic lights, then cross and follow Bathurst's northern extension all the way to its terminus. This stretch has been very good for GGOs too, including the little road that goes into Albert's Marina on the east side of Bathurst. If THAT fails, you can return to the traffic lights at Bradford Street and drive west toward Bradford. Stay in the left lane and take a left as soon as you cross the little bridge. This turn puts you on Canal Road. Take the section going to the right and scan the trees all the way along the north bank of the canal (while still watching on-coming traffic with the other eye). There have been sightings of GGO near the bridge at Jonkman's Corners and the bridge west fo that at 5th Line. Ron Fleming, Newmarket From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fri Jan 28 17:48:18 2005 Return-Path: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Delivered-To: [email protected] Received: from smtp104.rog.mail.re2.yahoo.com (smtp104.rog.mail.re2.yahoo.com [206.190.36.82]) by king.hwcn.org (Postfix) with SMTP id E50C663FCE for <[email protected]>; Fri, 28 Jan 2005 17:48:17 -0500 (EST) Received: from unknown (HELO ?192.168.0.2?) ([EMAIL PROTECTED] with plain) by smtp104.rog.mail.re2.yahoo.com with SMTP; 28 Jan 2005 22:49:13 -0000 Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v619) Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-Id: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed To: Ontario Bird-list <[email protected]> From: Gene Denzel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2005 17:49:12 -0500 X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.619) Subject: [Ontbirds]snowy and snow buntings off Ravenshoe in Simcoe region X-BeenThere: [email protected] X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2005 22:48:18 -0000
Given the bright clear weather, we (my wife and I) took the chance of heading up to Ravenshoe Road in Keswick, heading W from Leslie towards a dead end roughly at a stub of Yonge St. (isolated from HWY 11). This area is often good for buntings, and it's fairly common to find one or more snowy owls at this time of year. Our hopes were rewarded, with a flock of snow-buntiings (20-30) feeding near the road as we drove in. We had covered to the end of Ravenshoe, and headed down Yonge to where it turns into a farm road, which can be followed S to a dike at the end of the marsh, with no luck on a snowy, but looking SW (around 3:30pm) meant right into the sun, so we hoped to get better looks coming back N. Sure enough, on top of one of the telephone poles marching off to the W just above the end of the road, there was a nicely perched bird. This specimen was fairly heavily barred, and looked healthy and alert. After feasting on this for a while, and having another flock of buntings swirl around, we headed back to rescan the N side of Ravenshoe with the sun at our back. While stopped along the road for this purpose, we spotted through the scope what might have been a shrike at the top of a distant leafless tree. Then another flock of buntings came swooping in to land right by the road, and proceeded to work their way along the verge towards us. At the end, some of them were only 20 feet away, with good light. It was the best chance ever for us to study the markings of the females and not-yet breeding plumaged males. The colours were marvelous! When we finally gave up on staring at these guys and headed out, yet another group of 30 or more was sighted, again near the road. All and all, if the weather holds it should be worth a visit for these two species, and perhaps some larks as well. Professor Gene Denzel Information Technology Program Department of Mathematics and Statistics York University 416-736-5250
