It seems the spring migration is just about done for another year. All the migrant passerines seem to have moved on and the last of the shorebirds was a small flock of about 10 Semipalmated Sandpipers on the east end of Amherst Island on Wednesday. As late as last weekend there were still Dunlin, Black-bellied Plover and Short-billed Dowitcher. Now the only "new" shorebird one is likely to see are those miniature baby killdeer on stilts, scurrying about.
Other sightings of note; a pair of Purple Finches just north of Elginburg for the last couple of weeks, a Scarlet Tanager yesterday at the same location, a Black-crowned Night-Heron in Collin's Creek on Unity Road (these birds are very infrequent north of the 401) and a late report of a Red-headed Woodpecker on the Colebrook Road west of Harrowsmith in late May. This is a species that is very hard to find in the Kingston area anymore. I will give this report a break until the shorebirds return in midsummer. The garden beckons. Have a great summer. Peter Good Kingston Field Naturalists 613 378-6605
