It has been a most interesting summer in the Kingston area. We have had some
unusual nesting successes including Merlins in the city and on Wolfe Island,
both Common and Red-breasted Mergansers on Amherst as well as Lesser Scaup at
the lagoons. The Peregrines in downtown Kingston fledged two young. There were
three successful nests of Short-eared Owls on Amherst Island producing a total
of eleven young and another nest was found on Wolfe but it was destroyed by
farm machinery. Loggerhead Shrike numbers are down. There were only five
breeding pairs in the Napanee Plain with four singletons; they did manage to
fledge twenty young. The shrike habitat, which we have improved over the last
few years, is doubly important for other grassland species. These sites
contained over 40 pairs of Grasshopper and 30 pairs of Clay-colored Sparrow.
The first returning shorebirds were noted on July 10: 30 Lesser Yellowlegs, 10
Least Sandpipers and a Short-billed Dowitcher at the lagoons. A Solitary
Sandpiper was at Elginburg on July 11th and 20 Greater Yellowlegs were in the
Wilton Creek at Morven on the 14th. A pair of Stilt Sandpipers were recorded on
the 18th. A field trip of the KFN to Amherst on August 8th had 11 species of
shorebird including 2 Semipalmated Plover, 1 Pectoral Sandpiper, 2 Short-billed
Dowitchers and a Red-necked Phalarope. The first Black-bellied Plover of the
fall was on Amherst on Wednesday.
Other signs of fall migration have been few; a Cape May Warbler July 26-31 and
an Olive-sided Flycatcher August 7th, both near Elginburg, an Am. Pipit on
Amherst August 8th, a Tennessee Warbler at Bedford Mills on the 10th and 16
Common Nighthawks at Fermoy on the 11th.
Active local birders often speculate about the next new bird to be added to
the Kingston area checklist (now exceeding 370 species) but no one in their
wildest fantasies thought that a Yellow-nosed Albatross would be flying along
the Kingston waterfront. The bird has begun its journey back to the southern
hemisphere after some rehabilitation at the Sandy Pines Wildlife Centre in
Napanee.
Cheers,
Peter Good
Kingston Field Naturalists
613 378-6605
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