On Wednesday 7 June 2006 at 10 am we saw the Clay-colored Sparrow reported by Brett Woodman on 5 June 2006. The bird was singing from a white ash sapling near the eastern portion of the trail that encircles the old field at Laurel Creek Nature Centre in northwest Waterloo. It was perched 4 metres above the ground and 20 metres from the trail, affording us a clear telescopic view. Although the bird sang repeatedly in the same general area throughout the morning it took us an hour of searching to find it.
Laurel Creek Nature Centre is located at the northwest corner of the City of Waterloo. From the north and east it can be reached from Conestoga Expressway by exiting west onto Northfield Drive. Continue on Northfield eventually following the curve around to the stop sign at Bearinger Road. Turn right onto Bearinger Rd. Take the next right onto Laurelwood Drive. From there, turn right onto Beaver Creek Road. The driveway is on the left. From the south, follow Fischer-Hallman Road North. After passing through the intersection with Columbia Street, turn left at the second road onto Laurelwood Drive. Take the next right onto Beaver Creek Road. From the nature centre parking lot follow the trail to the back woods. We took the eastern entrance and found the bird two-thirds of the way along this section of the trail. Robert and Jan Hall Guelph From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Thu Jun 8 20:14:29 2006 Return-Path: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Delivered-To: [email protected] Received: from tomts22-srv.bellnexxia.net (tomts22.bellnexxia.net [209.226.175.184]) by king.hwcn.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C33A0638E1 for <[email protected]>; Thu, 8 Jun 2006 20:14:29 -0400 (EDT) Received: from trentu.ca ([64.228.3.175]) by tomts22-srv.bellnexxia.net (InterMail vM.5.01.06.13 201-253-122-130-113-20050324) with ESMTP id <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; Thu, 8 Jun 2006 20:14:29 -0400 Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Thu, 08 Jun 2006 20:14:28 -0400 From: Fred Helleiner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030624 X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: [email protected] Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Antivirus: avast! (VPS 0544-0, 10/31/2005), Outbound message X-Antivirus-Status: Clean Subject: [Ontbirds]Presqu'ile Birding Report for Week Ending June 8, 2006. X-BeenThere: [email protected] X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 09 Jun 2006 00:14:30 -0000 Bird life at Presqu'ile Provincial Park has almost reached a standstill, as only a few stragglers remain of the spring migration. That is not to say that bird life is uninteresting in the Park, as the variety of birds that stay for the summer is unrivalled. Among those birds that stay around are a number of Common Loons that, for one reason or another, are not mated and will not be breeding this year. About 15 of these birds were seen on one day this week. On the other hand, the ten Brant that stopped briefly on June 6 are likely still en route to their Arctic breeding grounds, which are only now becoming free of ice and snow. A good variety of ducks seen this week includes some, like Wood Ducks, that do breed locally and others that appear to be unmated individuals: single males of Blue-winged Teal, Northern Shoveler, and Northern Pintail, all off Owen Point. On two consecutive days, June 6-7, a flock of 14 Long-tailed Ducks and a White-winged Scoter was off the more easterly of the two day use areas, and a second White-winged Scoter was farther out in the lake on June 7. Also on that date, a Common Merganser was on the beach and two Red-breasted Mergansers were at Owen Point. There were two sightings of a juvenile Bald Eagle on June 5, one on High Bluff Island and the other flying over the campground office. The last significant flight of shorebirds occurred on June 4 and 5, with 50 Black-bellied Plovers on the former date and 150 Sanderlings on the next day. Since then, there have been only a few individuals of those two species and various others. Of interest were a late Greater Yellowlegs on June 2, two Whimbrels on June 5, and a Red Knot on June 6. From now on, shorebird sightings other than of Killdeer and Spotted Sandpiper, if any, will probably be the last of the spring migrants. For the past four days, small numbers of Bonaparte's Gulls have been around, mostly at Owen Point. Black-billed Cuckoos have been found in three different parts of the Park in the past week. A vocal Olive-sided Flycatcher at the entrance to the "fingers" on June 7 is either a record late migrant or an unprecedented member of a breeding pair. That area will bear watching, not only for further sightings of that species but also because, for the second time in just over a week, a Northern Mockingbird was seen there on June 7. Another of that species was near the east end of Bayshore Road on June 4. A record late observation of a Wilson's Warbler was made at the lighthouse on June 7. Orchard Orioles continue to show up in various parts of the Park. To reach Presqu'ile Provincial Park, follow the signs from Brighton. Locations within the Park are shown on a map at the back of a tabloid that is available at the Park gate. Access to the offshore islands is restricted at this time of year to prevent disturbance to the colonial nesting birds there. Questions and comments about bird sightings at Presqu'ile may be directed to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- -- Fred Helleiner 186 Bayshore Road, R.R. #4, Brighton, Ontario, Canada, K0K 1H0 VOICE: (613) 475 5309 If visiting, access via Presqu'ile Provincial Park.
