Today at 11:30 a.m. I observed a fairly heavily barred Snowy Owl on the east side of Yonge Street in southwest Keswick. This bird may be the same one reported by Bruce Brydon Nov. 15th - it was in the same area and has the same female/immature plumage he described. If you choose to look for this bird, bear in mind that this stretch of Yonge Street is nothing like the urban/suburban thoroughfare the name conjures up. It is a dirt road that runs south from Ravenshoe Road's western end just east of the Holland River and south of Cook's Bay. (Ravenshoe Road crosses most of the major roads that run north from Toronto, including Leslie, Warden, Markham, etc.) On mild days Yonge can be pretty muddy; on snowy days it is often unplowed and prone to drifts. Having said that, it is usually driveable. After passing the first group of buildings on the left, continue south to the only other buildings in the landscape. These are metal storage barns - two of them right next to each other (maybe to stave off loneliness). Lest there be any confusion, the green number on the post is 22094 . When I was there today the owl was sitting on a gnarly log (one of many that gets unearthed from the soil here each year) south of the irrigation ditch that runs east from the road. A yellow front-end loader was just behind it, about 250m out. A scope is highly recommended. Absent from this area today were the two Northern Shrikes (one adult, one immature), the male American Kestrel, and the male Northern Harrier that have provided compensation to Keith Dunn and I in our various attempts to relocate this owl over the past few weeks. Other Snowies will likely show up here in the months to come but the first of the year always adds a little extra spring to a birders' step. Earlier in the day I hiked the Cawthra Mulock reserve in NW Newmarket. It was pretty quiet until a cacophony of cawing around 9:00 a.m. led me to a Great Horned Owl. It soon departed, pulling a trail of screaming crows into the forest with it. Last Saturday at the reserve I was fortunate enough to observe a female Merlin dining on some unfortunate rodent near "Dianne's Grove". On Wednesday of this week Mike Van den Tilaart observed a Common Raven flying over Pony Drive in NE Newmarket, not far from the 404 plaza on Davis Drive. A Cooper's Hawk has recently been stopping by to check his feeder birds in the same part of town. East of Aurora Al Johnston has had a pair of Wood Ducks visiting his pond along Bethesda Road and a Sharp-shinned Hawk has been keeping an eye on his feeders. In response to two queries, the Barred Owl reported "along Queensville Road" by a local birder last week has not been rediscovered. Ron Fleming, Newmarket York Region is straight north from Toronto, about halfway to Barrie. _______________________________________________ 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/
