WEEKLY BIRD REPORT FOR PRINCE EDWARD COUNTY AND THE QUINTE AREA FOR THE WEEK
ENDING Thursday, October 20, 2005
Prince Edward Point was seething with birds, mostly raptors, last
weekend as birders from both Kingston and Merrickville basked in
extraordinary flights of hawks on both days. TURKEY VULTURES alone accounted
for 425 and 650 respectively on both days, and numbers of RED-TAILED HAWKS
were equally impressive with 650 to 900 birds estimated in kettles that
passed over on Sunday. RED-SHOULDERED HAWKS averaged about 60 on each day,
and SHARP-SHINNED HAWKS rose from 145 on Saturday to 350 on Sunday. Up to 8
ROUGH-LEGGED HAWKS were tallied, along with a high of 120 COOPER'S HAWKS, 3
NORTHERN GOSHAWKS, 6 GOLDEN EAGLES, 4 MERLINS (2 of which were hunting over
the area on Sunday), as well as a PEREGRINE FALCON. SHORT-EARED OWLS were
observed flying out over the lake the previous evening.
Other notable highs of other species during the weekend passage of
migrants included 2000 GREATER SCAUP, 500 GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLETS, 20 HERMIT
THRUSHES, 1800 AMERICAN ROBINS, 2000 YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS, 2000 DARK-EYED
JUNCOS, 500 RED-WINGED BLACKBIRDS, 250 RUSTY BLACKBIRDS, and 300 COMMON
GRACKLES along with 2 COMMON RAVENS. Certainly lots of opportunity to enjoy
some super birding on both days. Many of the migrants were hitching rides on
the strong northwest winds which prevailed on both days.
Some fall out from this invasion of migrants was noted elsewhere in the
county on Tuesday when lesser numbers of RED-TAILED HAWKS and TURKEY
VULTURES were noted at both Waupoos and Beaver Meadow Wildlife Management
Area at East Lake. At Beaver Meadow, there were large numbers of
WHITE-THROATED SPARROWS and DARK-EYED JUNCOS, along with a PINE WARBLER and
two HERMIT THRUSHES. The Millennium Trail, just west of Picton, on Monday,
contained enormous numbers of YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS and WHITE-THROATED
SPARROWS, WHITE-CROWNED SPARROWS, SONG SPARROWS, DARK-EYED JUNCOS, along
with occasional SWAMP SPARROWS and at least a half dozen FOX SPARROWS, some
of which were in full song.
Birders all over experienced success wherever they went. Birders at
Prince Edward Point on Monday found an OSPREY at the harbour, a dark phase
ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK, a FIELD SPARROW north of Point Traverse, SWAINSON'S
THRUSH, 3 SURF SCOTERS and a few REDHEADS. A total of 5 EASTERN BLUEBIRDS
were found on Royal Road and elsewhere, A high of 8 SWAMP SPARROWS turned up
at Sunrise Court at Massassauga, there was a 1st year GOLDEN EAGLE at Cherry
Valley, and a GREAT HORNED OWL at Point Petre. NORTHERN FLICKERS are still
present at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Picton.
A tardy female COMMON YELLOWTHROAT showed up at Point Petre yesterday,
and there was another PINE WARBLER seen today along the eastern extension of
Belleville's Bayshore Trail near the old Bakelite site. There was a good mix
of birds there today including RUSTY BLACKBIRDS, AMERICAN ROBINS, AMERICAN
GOLDENEYE, the first reported BUFFLEHEAD of the season, and a female LESSER
SCAUP. Waterfowl at Trenton is building, just west of the new library, with
140 AMERICAN COOTS, 50 AMERICAN WIGEON, 10 NORTHERN SHOVELERS, 5 GADWALL,
and hundreds of scaup currently present for the binocular brigade. There was
an AMERICAN BITTERN there earlier in the week. MUTE SWANS are still hanging
around before deciding to move to their wintering grounds in the Weller's
Bay/Presqu'ile area. Wednesday there were 19 in Muscote Bay, and 2 were
present yesterday in the Bay of Quinte off George's Road. Muscote Bay also
had a small number of AMERICAN WIGEONS and MALLARDS this week.
While EUROPEAN STARLING numbers appear to have decreased as many move
out of the area, the numbers of blackbirds remains high. On Monday morning
at 7:00 a.m., there were fully 4,000 red-winged blackbirds swarming over the
Big Island Marsh like horizontal clouds of smoke. Some have found their way
to bird feeders, and at 23 Sprague Road, there are currently 20, along with
a single RUSTY BLACKBIRD. Bird feeders are humming right now with the
customary high numbers of DARK-EYED JUNCOS, AMERICAN GOLDFINCHES, DOWNY
WOODPECKERS, RED-BELLIED WOODPECKERS and BLUE JAYS reported weekly from a
productive feeder on Glenora Road where up to 10 CHIPPING SPARROWS, a
NORTHERN FLICKER and a WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW have also been seen. A BROWN
THRASHER is still present at a home near Shannonville. RED-BREASTED
NUTHATCHES are at two separate feeders in Picton and AMERICAN TREE SPARROWS
are beginning to turn up at many feeders, leaving no doubt in our mind that
winter is in the offing.
An interesting, but unfortunate occurrence, at a residence near Black
River Cheese on County Road 13 involved a BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEE that became
stuck to a coil of fly paper hanging in a building while attempting to
extract flies that had become caught. The bird was cleaned up and survived
the ordeal.
And that's it for a very busy week in Prince Edward County and the
Quinte area. Our thanks to Ron Weir, Gerald Phillips, Henri Gerand, Derek
Wolfe, Joseph Arengi, Albert Boisvert, Silvia Botnick, Shirley Preston,
Cheryl Anderson, Judith Gray, Henry Pasila, Peter Marshall, Eileen Robbins,
Bob Maurer, John & Margaret Moore, Susan MacKay, Marilyn & Bruce Foster,
Judy Bell and Lloyd Paul for their contributions to this week's report. This
report will be updated on Thursday, October 27th. Bird sightings may be
forwarded to [EMAIL PROTECTED] at any time before the Thursday 6:00 p.m.
deadline. This report also appears for a period of seven days on the
NatureStuff website under BIRDING where this week's featured photo is a
RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET, taken by Dave Bell of Maitland Avenue in Belleville.
Terry Sprague
Prince Edward County
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
www.naturestuff.net
