Eight members of the Richmond Hill Naturalists joined me for an enjoyable excursion in search of spring migrants this morning. We started by hiking along the Oak Ridges Trail north of King City, heading east into the Seneca College property. Highights there were Tundra Swan (4 whooping in flight as they flew northward), two tagged Trumpeters, a Pileated Woodpecker, several Song Sparrows, a few passing Killdeer, two Horned Larks, a Brown Creeper, and one Northern Shrike. Driving north from there we observed three Wild Turkey toms on the west side of Keele Street just south of Hwy. 9, then two Red-bellied Woodpeckers along Dufferin St. about 3 kms. north of Hwy. 9. In the open water of the canal that surrounds the vegetable fields south of Bradford we had 8 Hooded Merganser drakes and two hens. Our last stop was at Hochreiter Road near Holland Landing where we added Northern Pintail (200+), Ring-necked Duck (approx. 100), American Wigeon (6), Green-winged Teal (2), and Black Duck (12) for a species total of 40. Many thanks to Gene, Charlene, Theo, Ellie, Margaret, Barb, Tony and Joan for coming out on this early spring field trip. Ron Fleming, Newmarket (north of Toronto and south of Barrie) P.S. Steven Walsh had the first Belted Kingfisher of the year (for York) yesterday near Hwy. 48 and the Queensville Sdrd. _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to ONTBIRDS mailing list [email protected] For information about ONTBIRDS visit http://www.ofo.ca/
