Most of the lingering birds locally are found along the waterfront or on the nearby islands. There were several exceptions to that rule this week. A Great Blue Heron hung around a small creek near Camden East until last Friday. There were 2 Common Loons on Wolfe Lake and another pair at the Narrow's Lock along with 3 Wilson's Snipe last Saturday. Less common feeder birds include Red-breasted Nuthatch at Camden East and Bedford Mills, White-throated Sparrow at Jones Falls and Camden East, and Brown Creeper at Elginburg and Bedford Mills. Other good birds for this late in the season were a Yellow-rumped Warbler at Elginburg, Belted Kingfisher at Elevator Bay, 2 N. Flickers, one each at Bedford Mills and Prince Edward Point, Fox Sparrow, Ruby-crowned and Golden-crowned Kinglets, Am. Pipit, Dunlin and White-rumped Sandpiper at Prince Edward Point and a Vesper Sparrow on Amherst Island.
It has been a good week for raptors. Both Simcoe and Amherst Islands had several Red-tailed and Rough-legged Hawks and Am. Kestrels. There was a Cooper's Hawk at the Joyceville Penitentiary that had the resident pigeons pretty excited and a Peregrine Falcon seems to have settled on the Queen's campus. There were 5 Bald Eagles (2 young and 3 adult) at Lake Opinicon and 5 N. Shrikes reported from four different sites. Just as the KFN gets set to do an organized winter-long survey of Short-eared Owls on Wolfe and Amherst they arrive in abundance, at least on Amherst. So far there is only one Snowy Owl on the east end of Amherst Island. 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/
