This morning while looking for the last vestiges of breeding evidence in one of my squares, I found a very RARE for Niagara, American Avocet in the Kraft Foods Sewage Ponds in St. David's.
Beardslee and Mitchell in 'Birds of the Niagara Frontier Region' and R. W. Sheppard in 'Bird Life of Canada's Niagara Frontier,' list this species as 'accidental and very rare' with only one Niagara record, a bird found 41 years ago by Brownstein, Schaffner & Mrozek at Jaeger Rocks, Fort Erie, on August 8, 1964. This fenced and gated sewage pond is out of bounds to visitors but the Avocet can easily be seen from the gate area as it feeds in the east pond (right hand side). While it does at times disappear behind some low hanging willow tree branches, with patience, one should see the bird when it moves right out into the open. Directions: Take the QEW to the Glendale Road Exit (White Oaks Hotel and Spa is there well marked) and look for directions to Highway 55, Niagara-on-the Lake. Once on Highway 55, continue some 4k to the lights at Four Mile Creek Road, the main intersection of Virgil. Now turn right here and go about another 4k to Line 8 Road. Once again turn right and go past the houses on your left only a short distance to the sewage ponds that will be on your right. Good luck. Kayo Kayo Roy 13 Kinsman Court Fonthill, ON L0S 1E3 [EMAIL PROTECTED] From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Wed Jul 20 15:05:08 2005 Return-Path: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Delivered-To: [email protected] Received: from imo-d20.mx.aol.com (imo-d20.mx.aol.com [205.188.139.136]) by king.hwcn.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2EE27640ED for <[email protected]>; Wed, 20 Jul 2005 15:05:02 -0400 (EDT) Received: from [EMAIL PROTECTED] by imo-d20.mx.aol.com (mail_out_v38_r1.7.) id 1.1a3.3805edca (4446); Wed, 20 Jul 2005 15:10:59 -0400 (EDT) From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Wed, 20 Jul 2005 15:10:59 EDT To: [email protected], [EMAIL PROTECTED] MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: 9.0 SE for Windows sub 5012 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.1 cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [Ontbirds] American Avocet St. Davids, Ontario-15 miles east of Niagara River X-BeenThere: [email protected] X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 20 Jul 2005 19:05:08 -0000 July 20 - We observed the American Avocet today from 11:05 to 12:55 today It was in view about 70% of the time and when we could not see it was behind the Willow on the left. We also had counts of 16 Lesser Yellowlegs, 15 Killdeer, 10 Short-billed Dowitchers, 20 Least Sandpipers and 3 Semipalmated Plovers and a Brown-headed Cowbird being fed by a Yellow Warbler. Here are Kayo Roy's (who found the Avocet yesterday) comments and directions: This morning while looking for the last vestiges of breeding evidence in one of my squares, I found a very RARE for Niagara, American Avocet in the Kraft Foods Sewage Ponds in St. David's. Beardslee and Mitchell in 'Birds of the Niagara Frontier Region' and R. W. Sheppard in 'Bird Life of Canada's Niagara Frontier,' list this species as 'accidental and very rare' with only one Niagara record, a bird found 41 years ago by Brownstein, Schaffner & Mrozek at Jaeger Rocks, Fort Erie, on August 8, 1964. This fenced and gated sewage pond is out of bounds to visitors but the Avocet can easily be seen from the gate area as it feeds in the east pond (right hand side). While it does at times disappear behind some low hanging willow tree branches, with patience, one should see the bird when it moves right out into the open. Directions: Take the QEW to the Glendale Road Exit (White Oaks Hotel and Spa is there well marked) and look for directions to Highway 55, Niagara-on-the Lake. Once on Highway 55, continue some 4k to the lights at Four Mile Creek Road, the main intersection of Virgil. Now turn right here and go about another 4k to Line 8 Road. Once again turn right and go past the houses on your left only a short distance to the sewage ponds that will be on your right. Good luck. Kayo For those coming from the east (New York) cross the Niagara River at the Queenston-Lewiston Bridge and make a Right on to the Niagara Parkway. Go north on the Niagara Parkway for about a mile and make a left on Rout 81 (York Road). Go about 10 miles to the center of St. Davids and make a right (north) on Rout 100 (Four Mile Creek Road) for about 5 mile and turn left (west) on Line 8 Road. Go past the houses on your left only a short distance to the sewage ponds that will be on your right. Viewing is best done behind the gate of the chain link fence. It was in the pond to the right today. These ponds are also known as the Cannery Ponds. Happy Birding, Bill Watson
