A pleasant surprise north of Newmarket this morning was the arrival of the first Tundra Swans of spring. There were 41 birds in all (37 followed by 4 stragglers). When I saw them at 11:20 a.m. they were flying across the north end of Bathurst Street, a location which has traditionally been the best local spot for tundras and other migrant waterfowl in spring. These birds are a bit early, but we'll take them(!) They flew east, then south along the frozen Holland River, descending as they went. Eventually they touched down in the fields on the west side of Bathurst, putting up a blizzard of about 200 Snow Buntings in the process. I checked for the two Snowy Owls that accomodated several viewers yesterday afternoon in the Holland Marsh, but neither bird presented itself despite lots of scoping on my part. As consolation there were two American Kestrels, a male Northern Harrier coursing low over the fields south of Tornado Drive (where the owls had been yesterday), and two small groups (6 birds; 4 birds) of Red-winged Blackbirds flying north. Horned Larks were chasing each other and singing their distinctive tinkling songs at numerous locations in the vegetable fields. Ron Fleming, Newmarket Newmarket is straight north of Toronto, between Hwys. 400 and 404, just south of Lake Simcoe. Bathurst Street north gets interrupted a few kms north of Green Lane in Newmarket, then resumes again at Yonge Street just northwest of Newmarket and southeast of Bradford. The northern stretch runs past Queensville Sdrd. and ends at a ragtag little marina between large, open fields that host numerous waterfowl when they flood in the spring thaw. From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Mon Mar 12 14:58:51 2007 Return-Path: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Delivered-To: [email protected] Received: from bay0-omc2-s25.bay0.hotmail.com (bay0-omc2-s25.bay0.hotmail.com [65.54.246.161]) by king.hwcn.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 11F9763990 for <[email protected]>; Mon, 12 Mar 2007 13:58:51 -0500 (EST) Received: from hotmail.com ([64.4.49.111]) by bay0-omc2-s25.bay0.hotmail.com with Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.2668); Mon, 12 Mar 2007 11:58:51 -0700 Received: from mail pickup service by hotmail.com with Microsoft SMTPSVC; Mon, 12 Mar 2007 11:58:50 -0700 Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Received: from 64.4.49.123 by by138fd.bay138.hotmail.msn.com with HTTP; Mon, 12 Mar 2007 18:58:48 GMT X-Originating-IP: [70.54.116.231] X-Originating-Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] X-Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] From: "markus lise" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [email protected] Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2007 18:58:48 +0000 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed X-OriginalArrivalTime: 12 Mar 2007 18:58:50.0936 (UTC) FILETIME=[7903E380:01C764D8] Subject: [Ontbirds]RED WINGED BLACK BIRD # 1 X-BeenThere: [email protected] X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2007 18:58:51 -0000
Hello Fellow Birders, I sighted the first RED WINGED BLACK BIRD in our yard today. He looked all polished up and appeared very healthy & hungry. Directions: Take exit Mill St. S. from 401 till you reach 590 Mill St. Markus Lise Newcastle, on _________________________________________________________________ Your Space. Your Friends. Your Stories. Share your world with Windows Live Spaces. http://spaces.live.com/?mkt=en-ca
