Prompted by a message from Keith Dunn to check out the north end of Bathurst Street this morning, I stood in the rain and scoped the flooded fields there (good prep for tomorrow's Tiny Marsh excursion). The east side of Bathurst Street North and the western terminus of Hochreiter Road (which are within a few kms of each other) were both quite active with birds despite the inhospitable conditions for humans. Behind the solitary house-and-garage which sits near the western end of Hochreiter Rd. there were still a minimum of 100 NORTHERN PINTAIL feeding in the flooded fields. As I was scoping them, a female NORTHERN HARRIER started hunting over the next field north (which is obscured by an east-west dike) and startled even more of this species, putting up at least another 60 birds. Also in the field on Hochreiter were five pair of GREEN-WINGED TEAL, three pair of AMERICAN WIGEON, a pair of GADWALL, several BLACK DUCKS, and a pair of NORTHERN SHOVELERS. There were numerous Canada Geese and Mallards as well. Driving back to Bathurst Street with my passenger-side window down, I heard a PILEATED WOODPECKER calling from the woods on the south side of the road. Keith had a pair of these big woodpeckers here earlier in the week and when he got out of the car to watch them working over a tree, an EASTERN TOWHEE hopped into view. Toward the northern end of Bathurst some good habitat for migrant shorebirds and ducks has developed due to flooding in the fields on the east side of the road. This area is bisected by a short lane that runs east into the Holland River Marina, allowing for some good "drive-thru" birding that helped to limit a viewer's degree of saturation today. In these fields there were ten CASPIAN TERNS, two pair of NORTHERN SHOVELER, a pair of BLUE-WINGED TEAL, two GREAT BLUE HERONS, ten GREATER YELLOWLEGS, and two LESSER YELLOWLEGS. Moving and travelling with the yellowlegs was a long-billed shorebird that I initially assumed would be a Common Snipe, since Keith had seen one on Hochreiter Rd. earlier this week and since the timing is right for them. I did not have great looks at the bird due to distance, rain on my scope, and fogging of my glasses, but this bird did not seem to be a snipe. It lacked the snipe's scapular striping and crown stripe and it didn' t look "chunky" enough. Unfortunately, I had to leave to pick up my wife, so I had to agonize over the ID all day. Luckily, I was able to return between 2:30 and 3:00. I rediscovered the bird and this time got much better looks. When it flew, the bird had a big white wedge up its back, adding to my growing suspicion that it was, in fact, an early SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHER. The bird was still in basic plumage. (Can I be sure it was not a Long-billed Dowitcher? No, but I think that would be an even more unlikely find. I did not hear the bird call, so call-comparisons were rendered moot... or is that mute?) When I was getting ready to once again rush off to pick up my wife (this time at Upper Canada Mall), Roy Smith and Winnie Poon had just arrived, so I alerted them to the fact that this bird was around. I'm hoping they had a chance to see it. They, like Keith Dunn earlier in the week, had observed some DUNLIN in the area before crossing paths with me. I should quickly mention that the McKenzie Marsh in north-central Aurora had six CASPIAN TERNS, one PIED-BILLED GREBE, two HOODED and two COMMON MERGANSERS this morning, as well as at least 200 swallows, most of them TREE SWALLOWS, but with several BARN and ROUGH-WINGED SWALLOWS joining in the surprisingly active mix. Ron Fleming, Newmarket DIRECTIONS: Newmarket is directly north of Toronto, halfway between that metropolis and Barrie, situated in between the North-south lines of Hwys. 404 and 400. The section of Bathurst Street described above is actually on the western edge of Holland Landing and the eastern edge of Bradford. It is accessible by turning north from Yonge Street on the stretch of road that runs north out of Newmarket toward Bradford. There is a stoplight that indicates Bathurst Street north. As soon as you turn at the light, Bathurst takes a quick jog left (west) then crosses the railway tracks and straightens out northward. By driving past Queensville Sdrd. and past the Albert's Marina Road (which is right across from the aforementioned Hochreiter Road), you will soon see the flooded fields on the east side of the road and possibly some flooded areas on the west side. There is a big orange-and-white garage building on the west side of the road that is a good "landmark". A scope definitely helps for identifying the sometimes distant birds. Hochreiter Road can be a bit dicey to drive on during bad weather conditions; it is a single lane and you can only turn around when you get to the house near the far end of it, which is over a km down the road. Still, it's usually worth the bumps and splashes.
