What a week! The weather and the number of returning birds is almost
overwhelming. One observer tallied 27000 Canada Geese over Kingston on Tuesday
morning (they were equally numerous north of the city) and that tapered off to
only a few thousand on Wednesday and a couple of hundred on Thursday. Snow
Geese are certainly less abundant than in the Cornwall area but there were 4000
over Lansdowne on Sunday and a few mixed in with Canadas later in the week: 6
on the Florida Rd. on Monday, 5 at Elginburg and in Kingston on Tuesday and 2
at Conway, one of which was a blue phase bird, on Wednesday.
Other waterfowl of note included a small flock of N. Pintail on Wolfe Island on
Friday and 50 more at the Kaiser Crossroad in Prince Edward County on Sunday
along with a couple of Green-winged Teal. There were two more Green-winged Teal
at Belle Island on St. Patrick's Day and Hooded Mergansers have started to show
up in little patches of open water; 6 on the Creekford Road last Friday, 2 at
Elginburg on Monday and 25 in Collin's Bay on Wednesday. There are still 17 Am.
Coots at Dupont and the 250 Redheads can still be seen out the Bath Road.
New arrivals for the year include a Great Blue Heron at Moscow on the 12th, a
Killdeer at Prince Edward Point and a Turkey Vulture east of the city on the
14th, 4 Double-crested Cormorants at the Olympic Harbour and an Am. Woodcock at
Elginburg on the 16th.
The Peregrine is still being seen in downtown Kingston and 2 Merlins and a
Cooper's hawk were reported this week from within the city. A couple of Bald
Eagles were on Wolfe Island and the season's first Red-shouldered Hawk was on
the K&P Trail on Wednesday.
Winter birds have taken a back seat now that spring has arrived but there were
2 N. Shrikes this week; one at Elgin and another at Dupont. The two Pine
Siskins continue to visit the Elginburg feeder and last weekend were joined by
a female Evening Grosbeak, the only one seen in the area all winter.
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/
