On Thursday, December 22nd, 2005, this is the HNC Birding Report: BARROW'S GOLDENEYE TURKEY VULTURE GRAY CATBIRD PINE WARBLER EASTERN TOWHEE VESPER SPARROW SAVANNAH SPARROW RED CROSSBILL
Pied-billed Grebe Great Blue Heron Wood Duck Green-winged Teal Ring-necked Duck Greater Scaup White-winged Scoter Surf Scoter Black Scoter Long-tailed Duck Bufflehead Common Goldeneye Hooded Merganser Northern Goshawk Glaucous Gull Iceland Gull Lesser Black-backed Gull Red-headed Woodpecker Northern Shrike Brown Creeper Winter Wren American Tree Sparrow Fox Sparrow White-crowned Sparrow Lapland Longspur Snow Bunting Rusty Blackbird Our first Christmas Bird Count in the Hamilton Study Area has turned up some excellent birds this week for winter listers and for listers in general. Some of the highlights of the Halton-Peel Christmas Count include RED CROSSBILLS, three males on Edgeware Road in Oakville, a GRAY CATBIRD in the Lorne Park Area, TURKEY VULTURE flying over Chartwell and MacDonald in Oakville, PINE WARBLER near the garden allotments at Shell Park, EASTERN TOWHEE at Rattray Marsh, Lapland Longspur in Southeast Milton, a Northern Goshawk at Port Credit and SAVANNAH SPARROWS on 8th Line north of Britannia. A subsequent search for these sparrows turned up a great find of a VESPER SPARROW in the same area yesterday. Today the Vesper Sparrow was not seen however the Savannah Sparrows continue to feed along the roadside between house number 6361 & 6299 and a Rusty Blackbird was also present in this area today. There are many sparrows feeding along the edges of gravel roads in the Hamilton Study area and American Tree and White-crowned Sparrows seem to be fairly plentiful this year. Also seen today at Lower Base Line Road and 8th Line was a Northern Shrike. A BARROW'S GOLDENEYE was last seen off of Grays Road in Stoney Creek last weekend. All three scoters along with Long-tailed Duck, Common Goldeneye, Bufflehead are also abundant out on the west end of the lake. Surprisingly no one has turned up a King Eider yet. Other good places to see different ducks are Desjardins Canal in Dundas where a Pied-billed Grebe, two Great Blue Herons, Hooded Mergansers are all birds to tick off the winter list here. The Red Hill Valley outlet located on Eastport Drive turned up Green-winged Teal and Ring-necked Duck this week. Out on the bay, ther have been a couple of reports of Bald Eagles. There seems to be one adult around and at least one juvenile. An Iceland Gull was also reported last Friday from the view at the offices of CCIW. At LaSalle Park, a Glaucous Gull and two Lesser Black-backed Gulls were seen out on the rock islands. In the odds & sods department this week, TURKEY VULTURE flying over Canon & Mary Streets in Hamilton yesterday, Brown Creepers were seen in South Burlington (Lakeshore & Appleby Line) and up at Rock Chapel this week. A pair of Red-headed Woodpeckers were reported from White Swan Road near Alberton in the past two weeks, flocks of Snow Buntings are roaming around the Flamborough area and a Fox Sparrow continues to be seen at a feeder in south Burlington. The 23rd starts the count week for the Hamilton CBC. Please email your sightings so that we can include them in our count. Have a safe and happy holiday! Good birding, Cheryl Edgecombe 905-381-0329 HNC Hotline (message is temporarily out of order but you can still leave a message!!!)
