Over the past few days freezing temperatures and bitter northwest winds have put migration on hold in this area. Flooded fields have iced over and many of the ducks that showed up earlier in the week (Pintails, GW Teal, Blacks) have gone elsewhere, perhaps backtracking to points south where there is more open water. Some hardy species were still present at the north end of Bathurst Street this morning, but not many. Keith Dunn, Kevin Shackleton, Mike Van den Tillaart and I observed over 100 Tundra Swans on the north side of Hochreiter Road at 8:00 a.m., but saw little else aside from Canada Geese. At the north end of Yonge Street (across from Silver Lakes golf course), Keith observed a Northern Flicker and, back at his feeders in Keswick, a single Common Redpoll lingered. At the western end of Ravenshoe Road in Keswick we observed a pair of Northern Harriers and numerous Horned Larks, but otherwise there was only blowing dirt and snow. Ron Fleming, Newmarket Directions: Hochreiter Road and the north end of Bathurst Street are accessed from Yonge Street north of Newmarket. As you approach Bradford after a long descent north of the first turnoff for Holland Landing, you come to a stoplight indicating Bathurst Street. Turn right, then a quick left and the road soon turns north again after crossing a railroad track. Drive straight north, past Queensville Sdrd. Across from the big sign for Albert's Marina sits Hochreiter Rd., a bumpy single lane that runs straight west (Bradford sits on the hill in distance). When temperatures rise this will become quite a muddy stretch, but for now it is frozen and easily driveable at low speeds. A km north of Hochreiter Road you can see the flooded fields on both sides of Bathurst. When these wet areas melt again they should be good for ducks; in April this is often a good place to see several species of dabblers and the first shorebirds of the year. Newmarket is halfway between Toronto and Barrie. From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sat Mar 18 14:53:08 2006 Return-Path: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Delivered-To: [email protected] Received: from mailout2.igs.net (mailout2.igs.net [216.58.97.88]) by king.hwcn.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6167F63493 for <[email protected]>; Sat, 18 Mar 2006 14:52:48 -0500 (EST) Received: from GillianMartin.glen-net.ca (i216-58-33-23.cybersurf.com [216.58.33.23]) by mailout2.igs.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id 00F0F47ECF0 for <[email protected]>; Sat, 18 Mar 2006 14:52:48 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> X-Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 5.2.1 Date: Sat, 18 Mar 2006 14:51:47 -0500 To: [email protected] From: Martin Bowman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed Subject: [Ontbirds]Snow Geese east of Cornwall X-BeenThere: [email protected] X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 18 Mar 2006 19:53:13 -0000
>Further to Brian Morin's posting, there were many hundreds (certainly over >a thousand) Snow Geese along the 401 east of Lancaster. The smaller of two >flocks was just west of Westley Road overpass (first overpass east of >Lancaster). At the next overpass to the east (Bainsville Road), there was >a very large flock on the fields just south and west of the overpass. >Unfortunately, I was on the 401 and couldn't stop. This was around 6 p.m. >Friday evening. >Anyone looking for these geese would be well advised to take the Service >Road which runs east just south of the Lancaster overpass (an exit of the >401). >Martin Bowman >Williamstown, ON Saturday at 1 p.m. Snow Geese were still to be seen on the southwest corners of the intersections of the 401 with Westley Road and Bainsville Road as above . . . Martin
