At 8:00 p.m. on Thursday, August 11th, 2005, this is the HNC Birding Report:
Red-necked Grebe Great Blue Heron Great Egret Green Heron Black-crowned Night-Heron Northern Pintail Blue-winged Teal Green-winged Teal Hooded Merganser Bald Eagle Wild Turkey American Coot Black-bellied Plover Semipalmated Plover Killdeer Lesser Yellowlegs Solitary Sandpiper Spotted Sandpiper Ruddy Turnstone Semipalmated Sandpiper Least Sandpiper Baird's Sandpiper Pectoral Sandpiper Short-billed Dowitcher Wilson's Phalarope Bonaparte's Gull Belted Kingfisher Purple Martin Tufted Titmouse Brown Creeper Blue-gray Gnatcatcher Gray Catbird Black-and-White Warbler Canada Warbler Bay-breasted Warbler Yellow Warbler Scarlet Tanager Rose-breasted Grosbeak Baltimore Oriole The list is growing and growing as we approach the middle of August. Great shore birding again in the Hamilton Study Area. Numbers are not excessive but we are going for quality and not quantity here. Here are a list of shorebird locations and content: Pier 24 Pond located off of Eastport Drive (Windermere Basin) - Baird's Sandpiper, Wilson's Phalarope, Semipalmated Sandpiper, Least Sandpiper, Lesser Yellowlegs all seen today. Grimsby Sewage Lagoons - Black-bellied Plover, Semipalmated Plover, Killdeer, Lesser Yellowlegs, Ruddy Turnstone, Semipalmated Sandpiper, Least Sandpiper and Short-billed Dowitcher all seen this week. Smithville Sewage Lagoons - Hooded Merganser, Solitary Sandpiper, Spotted Sandpiper, Lesser Yellowlegs, Pectoral Sandpiper Least Sandpiper and Semipalmated Sandpiper Confederation Park - Semipalmated Sandpiper, Least Sandpiper, Lesser Yellowlegs, Short-billed Dowitcher - seen yesterday Cootes Paradise - end of the willows seen from Northshore or Southshore Trails - Black-bellied Plover, Semipalmated Plover, Lesser Yellowlegs, Solitary Sandpiper, Semipalmated and Least Sandpipers, Short-billed Dowitcher seen today. Rattray Marsh - at the end of Bexhill Drive, Mississauga Baird's, Short-billed dowitcher,Pectoral,Least,Solitary, Semipalmated Plover, Blue-winged teal, a female Pintail, 30+ Red-necked Grebes off the outlet and Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher. Other great spots in the area include Valley Inn where Great Blue Herons, Great Egrets and Black-crowned Night Herons were present this week. On the Bayshore trail a juvenile Bald Eagle was seen as well as a flyover of Black-bellied Plovers. On the harbour a group of 21 Bonapartes Gulls were seen in the week. Soon the east winds will be blowing and we'll be at the beach looking for those jaegers! Along the lakefront, at Shoreacres/Paletta Park, Belted Kingfisher, Purple Martin, Gray Catbird, Yellow Warbler and Baltimore Orioles were seen in the past two days. At LaSalle Marina this past week American Coot and Hooded Mergansers. At Courtcliffe Park in Carlisle Green Heron, Scarlet Tanager and Rose-breasted Grosbeak were among the highlights here. Banding has begun at Ruthven with some interesting finds in the nets. Last Saturday Brown Creeper, Wood Thrush, Black & White Warbler, 7 Yellow Warblers, Bay Breasted Warbler and Canada Warbler were just a few of the goodies banded. In the odds & sods department a family of Wild Turkey were seen on Kirkwall Road just south of Safari Road on Sunday, a Sandhill Crane was reported from Vanderlieks Ponds out in the Smithville area and in Canborough a pair of Tufted Titmice continue to visit a feeder there. That's all for this week, have a great weekend. Cheryl Edgecombe 905-381-0329 HNC Hotline
