Mr. Zoch et, al. My name is Dean Ware and I am one of the "boys" who climbed the south bank and also the one who found this duck in which you seek. I know you do not know the waterfowl like I do at Hillman marsh so I will give you a update on what is going on at the west cell/shorebird habitat.
Friday and Saturday the Mottled duck did not appear in the evening at the shorebird cell- the bird just simply flew by to the east and for the most part all the ducks flew to the east because they fed heavily at a nearby corn field and headed in that direction to roost in the west cell(Hillman Trail). So I Dean Ware took in upon myself to put down some corn so the Mottled duck would stop at the shorebird habitat for even people like you to view and it has worked. The Mottled duck and others now stop to feed briefly before ALL the ducks do what they do every night and that is to fly to the east to roost. Did Steve and I scare the ducks? The answer is NO. The ducks were simply leaving after their fill as per usual. I ask for a full apology to Steve and myself. Dean Ware Wheatley ON [EMAIL PROTECTED] At 8:30 p.m. last night over 20 anxious birders stood on the norh dike, scanning the skies and the shorebird cell searching for the Mottled Duck with no luck. We then watched, distressed that everytime a group of people peeked over the south dyke a large portion of the ducks in that area were flushed and we tried to identify the birds as they disappeared quickly to the East. After several "peeks" virtually all the ducks had been flushed out of the area. Noone was able to find a Mottled Duck amongst a half dozen remaining birds. Over the next fifteen minutes perhaps 5 to 10 ducks arrived and settled but none of the hundreds of ducks that were flushed had returned and it was now to dark to identify them. Good for the boys that saw it. Bad for the many others that got to see the boys but not the Mottled Duck. There must be a lot more flexibility in the OFO guidelines of which I was not aware. John Zoch, Harrow _________________________________________________________________ Turn every day into $1000. Learn more at SignInAndWIN.ca http://g.msn.ca/ca55/213_______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to ONTBIRDS mailing list [email protected] For instructions to join or leave ONTBIRDS visit http://www.ofo.ca/information/ontbirdssetup.php ONTBIRDS Guidelines may be viewed at http://www.ofo.ca/information/ontbirdsguide.php
