Hey there,
Thought I would send out a preliminary result note. Only 20 of the more than 30 parties have reported in as of this morning. Not all attend our after CBC gathering. And certainly many of the feeders are yet to report. But a few were mentioned that were interesting enough to do this report. We have about 70 species so far. Of special note, a Greater White-fronted Goose was found with a few hundred Canadas near the north Thames River bridge over Adelaide Street. The geese either lounge in a soccer field to the south, one to the north or in the corn field just north of there. There is a Chipping Sparrow at an experienced birder's feeder. A couple of Mockingbirds are accessible, one being near the intersection of Homewood Ln and Longwoods Rd (highway 2), just west of Lambeth (southwest part of London). And one is along the Medway River valley between Windemere and Fanshawe Rd.seen on the east side of the river. Several Tufted Titmice were found. One was along the Thames River west of the Komoka Bridge, but the other was more accessible as it was found in the Sifton Bog off Oxford Street west. A Ruddy Duck was also found in the river near that first location above, but again hard to access. Perhaps it will move up and down and be seen from that Komoka Bridge. At or near our Westminster Dump, located at Manning and Wellington Rd, there are many loafing gulls. Best spot is between Manning and Scotland Dr along White Oaks Drive. In that group there were 2 Glaucous Gulls, one Iceland Gull, one lesser Black-backed Gull and many Greater Black-backed Gulls (as well as herring and ring-billed) Take your telescope. It appears we have about 12 Bald Eagles, rather high for a city count, but we have at least three nests and each had young which are hanging about. We have two Peregrines, both seen at the City Centre Building in London on or near the nest. At least two Merlins were reported, one near Gibbons Park and the other along the south branch of the Thames near Wellington Rd, perhaps from the nesting pair in south London. Numbers of a few species seems high, but we don't have complete totals yet. Chickadee, Wild Turkey, Canada Goose and Mallard among them. Numbers of wintering finches such as siskin is way down and we had no reports yet of crossbills or redpolls, etc. A few Lapland Longspurs and Snow Buntings were found but I don't have any Horned Lark yet. Just a few Northern Shrikes were reported. Few Cedar Waxwings were reported. I think I will leave it at that for now. If any other unusual birds are reported, I will put the word out. And I will try to give a more accurate account later in the week if someone wants to email me privately. Also, if you need detailed directions I will try to assist, if you email me privately. Pete Read _______________________________________________ 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/
