Brant have been moving through the Kingston area in good numbers this week; a total of 2180 were noted between the 22nd and the 24th. Long-tailed Ducks were heard migrating overnight at the Queen's University Biological Station (QUBS) on the 22nd. Shorebird numbers and variety have improved. A Greater Yellowlegs was in the Wilton Creek at Morven a week ago. Sixty Whimbrel and 150 Dunlin were on Salmon Island last Sunday. The KFN property at the east end of Amherst Island had 25 Short-billed Dowitchers on Sunday and a mixed group of about 10 Semipalmated Plover, 20 Semipalmated Sandpiper and 30 Least Sandpiper on Tuesday. By Wednesday the mix had changed entirely; only one dowitcher and a pair of White-rumped Sandpipers. The Marbled Godwit, first found on May 16th made encore appearances on the 24th and the 27th.
Common Nighthawks appeared in threes this week; on the Opinicon Road on Saturday and near Napanee on Sunday. The only real hawks of note were a N. Goshawk at QUBS on Friday and a pair of Red-shouldered on the Opinicon Road on Tuesday. Other good birds this week: a Grasshopper Sparrow at Morven, a Prairie Warbler and a Yellow-breasted Chat at QUBS, all seen last Friday, a Red-bellied Woodpecker, also at QUBS, on Saturday, and on the Opinicon Road another Brewster's (the 4th this month) on Saturday and a Gray-cheeked Thrush on the Opinicon Road on Tuesday. There was an interesting juxtaposition of white birds on the KFN property on Amherst on Tuesday; a Snowy Owl was perched on a rock overlooking the mudflats while in the same field of view a Great Egret waded in the shallows. Bird of the week however, was a male Lark Bunting (only the third Kingston area record) seen on Amherst on Wednesday. Cheers, Peter Good Kingston Field Naturalists 613 378-6605 _______________________________________________ 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/
