There are still good numbers of warblers north of the city; eleven species at Bedford Mills this week along with a Swainson's Thrush on Monday and a Black-billed Cuckoo and an Indigo Bunting yesterday. At the Queen's Biological Station, there were nine species of warbler with 6 Red-shouldered Hawks, 4 Yellow-throated Vireos, a Red-bellied Woodpecker and a White-throated Sparrow thrown into the mix. Closer to the city, there was a Canada Warbler on the K&P Trail last Saturday and a Philadelphia Vireo at Elginburg on Monday.
Nightjars are still present; 23 Common Nighthawks at Rockport last Friday, and at Bedford Mills another nighthawk on Monday and a Whip-poor-will calling until Wednesday. There were 7 Common and 2 Caspian Terns at Rockport on Friday and another 4 Caspians on Amherst on Saturday. Twenty Common Loons off Amherst on Sunday were noteworthy. Two immature Black-crowned Night-Herons were on Amherst on Sunday and there was also a good concentration of waterfowl including 20 Blue-winged Teal. The lone Common Goldeneye remains at the Amherstview sewage lagoons. There was just a sprinkling of raptors this week; 2 Osprey at Rockport on Friday, another on Amherst on Sunday along with 5 N. Harriers, 1 Sharp-shinned Hawk and 2 Am. Kestrels and a Merlin and a Barred Owl at Bedford Mills. Numbers of shorebirds wax and wane at the Wilton Creek. Along with the usual yellowlegs, Killdeer and Least was a Western Sandpiper on Sunday. That same day there was a Stilt Sandpiper at the lagoons and 13 species on Amherst including 3 Spotted, 1 Baird's, 1 Solitary, a Red Knot, a Sanderling and a Short-billed Dowitcher. There were 6 Pectoral at the lagoons on Monday and 4 Solitary Sandpipers at QUBS on Tuesday. Unexpected birds this week included a Pine Siskin visiting a niger seed feeder at Bedford Mills on Monday and Tuesday and a Prairie Warbler (rare enough in spring and really uncommon in the fall) in a backyard on the Leo Lake Road last Friday 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/
