(Capitalized bird names below are for quick reference rather than high drama.)
Saturday afternoon I finally managed to track down a wintering flock of EASTERN BLUEBIRDS that I've heard a few reports about since Christmas. I observed four birds just west of Newmarket along Dufferin Street (north of Hwy. 9) - one an adult male, the other three immatures and/or female. (Thanks, Paul Novosad, for the tip.) While standing there looking at the bluebirds a small flock of SNOW BUNTINGS (6-7) flew overhead, giving their bubbly flight calls. (Interestingly, when I got home later, Craig Corcoran emailed me to say that he had three male Eastern Bluebirds at his property west of King City Sunday afternoon.) While XC skiing east of Newmarket this morning I had a small flock of PINE SISKINS (5) just south of Davis Drive and east of McCowan in the regional forest there. On the west side of McCowan I had one BROWN CREEPER. Late this afternoon I decided to check out the Holland Marsh vegetable fields south of Bradford and had some good luck. Along the western extension of Edward Street (just west of Jane St.) I saw a photographer taking pictures from his parked car. Assuming that the subject would be the adult male SNOWY OWL that has been fairly regular at this location for the last two months, I quietly pulled up alongside his vehicle and was pleasantly surprised to see that the Snowy being photographed was a rather brawny, darkly flecked bird - it looked like a first year female to me, though I am only judging via field guide photos and illustrations. Since this bird was obviously not the "incumbent", I went looking for the almost-pure-white male. It didn't take long to find him; he was about a km straight south of the new arrival, sitting on top of a hydro pole along Woodchopper's Lane west of Jane Street. With the longer daylight (and permission from my wife, of course!) I decided to check the rest of "the marsh" and drove up to the northern arc of Canal Rd. via Wist Rd. (it runs parallel to Hwy. 400, running right beside it on the east side). I then took Day St. south to Devald Rd. and turned west along the extension of that road (it, like Edward St., peters out in the middle of a field). On the road in front of my car was a flock of 16 HORNED LARKS who eventually flew off to the south. Just east of the first house on the south side of the road I rediscovered a wintering flock of WHITE-CROWNED SPARROWS - five birds (two adults, three immatures). Directly south of these passerines I noticed a whitish lump in the field and turned my attention to it. The lump was a darkly-flecked Snowy Owl. I couldn't be sure if it was yet another Snowy or the one the photographer and I had been looking at along nearby Edward St. twenty minutes before (Edward is directly south of Devald, separated by open field). What was definitely a third SNOWY OWL showed up well east of this location about 15 minutes later. It was on the 5th pole south of Tornado Drive along Keele Lane (yet another short road extension that dead-ends in the quirky patchwork of the marsh). One last check for Snowies took me to Bathurst Street north, which runs between Bradford and Holland Landing. There was virtually nothing at the north end of the road though I did find one NORTHERN SHRIKE on the west side, about a km north of Hochreiter Road. Running out of daylight I chose not to run up to Ravenshoe Road in SW Keswick, although the western end of this road has been productive for Snowies all winter. Dorothy Brace was there last Sunday and had a female Snowy Owl along unplowed Yonge Street, which runs for about 2.5 kms south from Ravenshoe. As Dorothy's message said: "She looked like a Robert Bateman painting with flakes of snow falling all around her". Good Birding! Ron Fleming, Newmarket York Region is directly north of Toronto, just east of Hwy. 400, about halfway up to Barrie. _______________________________________________ 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/
