The weekend Manitoulin trip was a great success for the 16 participants despite the dreadful weather conditions. The weather on Saturday was so bad that even the Sharp-tailed Grouse abandoned the lek before the second group had settled into the airport blind. Fortunately, Kara Lefevre and the Friends of Misery Bay were kind enough to take out the group again on Sunday when 22 grouse were viewed going through some of their dancing and mating rituals. Many thanks to Kara, John, Sylvia and Steve Hall for accommodating our group so well and providing such wonderful refreshments at Gore Bay Airport. Thanks also to the airport management for permitting us to access their premises again to see the grouse. Our OFO group should also be commended for their birding prowess: none of you who stayed until late Sunday could be termed "fair weather birders" ! We recorded a fine total of 88 species over the weekend. There were some excellent finds: 2 Loggerhead Shrikes, one wearing a red band on its left leg, were scoped at Billings Concession 10 East near Kagawong; an American Bittern on 14th Concession; a female Brewer's Blackbird (nr. Ice Lake) found along with many Rusty Blackbirds (groups of 50, 30, and smaller numbers in the teens at 3 separate feeders); a pair of Ring-necked Pheasants near Gore Bay Airport ; 4 Ross' Geese and 1 Snow Goose on Noble Sideroad near Lake Wolsey; Osprey (2) and Bald Eagles (4) on nests ; one Cackling Goose; another lek of 7 Sharp-tailed Grouse on Barrie Island; 5 Vesper Sparrows, 6 Fox Sparrows at a feeder in Mindemoya; Wilson's Snipe, 5 Greater Yellowlegs, Eastern Phoebe, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Yellow-rumped Warbler, 7 Hermit Thrush, Merlin, Short-eared Owl (Barrie Island), Pileated Woodpecker, Lapland Longspur, Snow Bunting, Horned Lark, Pine Siskin, Winter Wren, Brown Creeper, and hundreds of Sandhill Cranes. Thanks to Erwin Meisner and Gord Cameron for birding tips on Manitoulin. John Schmefelske, Dave Milsom (Co-leaders), ably assisted by Mike Jaber. [email protected] _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to [email protected] For information about ONTBIRDS visit http://www.ofo.ca/
