Mike Van den Tillaart and I had an adult male Snowy Owl (almost pure white) west of Newmarket this morning. It was sitting in the snow-covered vegetable fields of the Bradford Marsh, approx. 200 m straight north of #195 Strawberry Lane (a small red brick house situated about 1 km west of Keele Street). On the south side of Strawberry and a little further west we had a large flock of Snow Buntings (approx. 200). We also had a male American Kestrel perched over a flock of American Tree Sparrows along Devald St. west of Day St. Keeping company with the nervous flock was one juvenile White-crowned Sparrow. The streets named above are all in the "interior" of the Bradford Marsh, which is bounded by Canal Street on the north, Hwy. 400 on the west, Dufferin Street on the east, and Hwy. 9 on the south. Strawberrry Lane is about 4 kms north of Hwy. 9; it runs west from Keele. Earlier in the morning, at the Cawthra Mulock reserve in northwest Newmarket, we observed a Great Blue Heron and a Sharp-shinned Hawk. Ron Fleming, Newmarket _______________________________________________ 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
