There have been some interesting birds in the Newmarket-Keswick-Bradford area this first week of 2013.
On Friday Joel Reeves had an adult BALD EAGLE fly over the regional forest tract near Aurora Road & Warden Avenue that he was walking his dog in. Earlier in the week (Monday, to be exact), Michele Potter had another Bald Eagle just north of Keswick at Roche's Point. Paul Novosad's feeder in southwest Bradford continues to host a female RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER. On Friday he also had a NORTHERN FLICKER visiting his 5th Line property. That same day Kevin Shackleton added a NORTHERN SHRIKE to his office yard list - it was chasing a sparrow past his office window on Leslie Street just north of Mulock Rd in Newmarket. I had another Shrike in the Holland Marsh vegetable fields west of Newmarket on Thursday. My dog, Samwise, joined me for three hours of local birding today. He usually brings me good luck and today was no exception as we found seven SNOWY OWLS. Three of these were on the south side of Ravenshoe Road in SW Keswick while another was on the north side and a fifth was sitting on one of the large storage buildings along the short dirt road that runs south from the end of Ravenshoe, masquerading as Yonge Street. Also observed along Ravenshoe Road was an adult COOPER'S HAWK that stayed perched on a TV antenna for a long time and a flock of about 150 SNOW BUNTINGS that were only visible on the north side with the help of a scope. (Scopes are definitely recommended up here as the birds are often well out in the fields.) A sixth Snowy Owl was only visible by scoping the reeds and iced-over bay from one of the parkettes along Lake Road, a few kms north of Ravenshoe Road. I did not get lucky number 7 until later when I did a loop of the Holland Marsh vegetable fields south of Bradford. This bird - the only pure white adult male I observed - was sitting on the ground in yet another open field about a km south of Tornado Drive and east of Jane Street North. (Please note that the northern extensions of Toronto's well-known Bathurst, Keele, Dufferin and Jane Streets bear little resemblance to their urban namesakes. When you get north of Hwy. 9 they are country roads and - in the vegetable fields - each of them is interrupted by a small river that cuts diagonally across "the marsh", separating York Region from Simcoe County. To reach Jane St. N, for example, you have to drive west along Woodchopper's Lane, then north on Wist Rd. beside Hwy. 400, then east along Canal Road to rejoin Jane when it runs south from Tornado Drive.) Ron Fleming, Newmarket _______________________________________________ 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/
