tsprague@limestone.kosone.com
I wish I could report that there was lots of stuff around this past week, but I can't.
Prince Edward Point today seemed to be well populated with very large numbers of AMERICAN ROBINS. It is a little early for any kind of exodus of the species, so we can only assume that young of the year birds, raised in the area, accounted for the seemingly large numbers encountered there today.
By contrast, TREE SWALLOWS are vieing for space on utility wires everywhere. These days one forgets to move the family car from under these popular perches but once.
A NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD was seen on Middle Road, east of Prince Edward Point today, and a message on my answering machine from a visiting birder reported an OSPREY nest east of Highway 62, near the village of Rossmore. We suspect this is the same nest that was occupied earlier this year atop a hydro pole in a pasture field, within fishing distance of the Bay of Quinte.
At our premises on Big Island, site of this summer's HENSLOW'S SPARROW, 10 km north of Picton, we are being treated nightly to fully 100 PURPLE MARTINS circling over our home. Surely they didn't all come from our four martin houses, so we can only assume they are visitors from other neighbouring colonies.
And speaking of HENSLOW'S SPARROWS, our heartfelt thanks go out to the Ontario Field Ornithologists for their generous assistance in preserving the habitat of last month's visitor. In total, 52 birders came to see the secretive bird. And we certainly appreciate their efforts too in ensuring that the bird's chosen territory was disturbed as little as possible.
If you have been birding in Prince Edward County, we'd appreciate hearing from you.
This report will be updated Sunday, August 4th. Please e-mail tsprague@limestone.kosone.com
Terry Sprague
tsprague@limestone.kosone.com
It seems only yesterday the deciduous woods of Prince Edward County were seething with migrating spring warblers. Now the autumn season is upon us as TREE SWALLOWS begin gathering on the utility wires.
A very early SANDERLING was seen by Terry Sprague at West Point, within Sandbanks Provincial Park last Sunday. The average fall arrival date for this species for this area is Aug. 13th and the previous earliest ever date was July 23 (1975 & 1977). However, they have been turning up at Presqu'ile Provincial Park this past week, along with LEAST SANDPIPER, SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER, LESSER YELLOWLEGS and SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHER.
In other news, Geof. Burbidge of Ottawa had a wonderful look at the GREAT GRAY OWL that seems to be spending the summer in the Milford area. It was seen perched on a telephone pole beside County Road 10 about 1 km west of Milford at dusk on Saturday, July 13th . He was even able to get a couple of good photographs of it.
Dan Korchuk found NORTHERN WATERTHRUSH near the Belleville Marsh on Thursday, and at the Murray Canal between Carrying Place and Brighton, Myrna Wood and Bill Aitken found a single OSPREY this morning.
RED-BELLIED WOODPECKERS are nesting for the first time this summer in what as referred to as the Intervening Sector of Sandbanks Provincial Park, about 2 kms west of Outlet Beach. Terry Sprague located yet another individual in Campground B of the Park, some 3 km. to the east last Sunday.
If you have been birding in Prince Edward County, we'd appreciate hearing from you.
This report will be updated Sunday, July 28.
Terry Sprague
tsprague@limestone.kosone.com
I have a call for help from someone who was given an injured merganser. She is in the Lake Huron area. If anyone knows of any bird rescue or rehabilitation centre in that area, please send me mail so I can pass it on and, hopefully, help the bird and the person caring for it. Please help.
Andy Rubaszek
andy@zoo.utoronto.ca
No news to report on the HENSLOW'S SPARROWS that turned up in a hay field behind our house June 11th. They have either disappeared, or are quietly nesting and skulking about in the thatch of the hay field. We hope the latter; in any event, we prefer to err on the side of caution and have arranged with the owner to leave the field uncut this summer.
Elsewhere on the same farm, and less than a half kilometre north of the HENSLOW'S SPARROW site, a pair of CLAY-COLOURED SPARROWS was found Friday carrying food. I have been watching this site every summer since I first heard the species there three years ago.
More RED-HEADED WOODPECKER reports this past week. One was seen in the town of Trenton, and another has been coming to a bird feeder at Lake-on-the-Mountain, east of Picton.
In the Big Island Marsh last Thursday, two OSPREYS were seen perched atop a quadropod osprey nesting platform. This is good news, as several quadropods platforms were erected by MNR in several Bay of Quinte wetlands a few years ago, but none to date have been accepted by the species.
Now that we are into mid-July, bird activity in the Quinte area is slowing down, although young WARBLING VIREOS and BALTIMORE ORIOLES can be heard everywhere begging for food. Moira River Conservation Authority summer employees Dan Korchuk and Melanie Blamire surveyed the Belleville Marsh perimeters last Thursday and reported poor success, reportedly coming up with only three dead RING-BILLED GULLS, and a nude man apparently preparing to sunbathe!
This report will be updated Sunday, July 21. Please e-mail tsprague@limestone.kosone.com
Terry Sprague
tsprague@limestone.kosone.com
Each day this week I have seen a crow (in the company of three others) that has white oblong patches on the top of each wing (not sure about the bottom). These patches cover about 2/3 of the length and the breadth of each wing. In thirty years of birding I have never seen anything like this. He seems to be more skittish than the other three birds and is hard to get close to. Yesterday my wife and I saw him twice.
Bill Bunting
bunting@osha.igs.net
My wife and I have been watching a family of four Falcons near our house but we are not sure if they are Peregrines or Merlins. We live in the Jane-St Claire area of west Toronto and we wanted to know if you could help us.
Eva, John and Anne Robinson
aejrobin@netcom.ca
Disappointing news for those birders who journeyed any distance this week to see the Henslow's Sparrow that has been calling from a hay field behind our house, near Picton. Although the bird has put on a performance faithfully every evening since being discovered June 11th, it hasn't been heard or seen since July 2nd. The second bird had disappeared a while back, and whether this means the second bird was a female, and the birds are, in fact, quietly nesting somewhere out there is unknown. Until we know for sure, the hay field will remain unharvested.
Lots of ORCHARD ORIOLES being reported in Prince Edward County this month. The species is nesting at Sandbanks Provincial Park, and individuals have also been seen this week near Belleville Marsh as well as a fully mature male at Prince Edward Point.
Prince Edward Point last Sunday had plenty of birds including BLUE-GREY GNATCATCHER (4 pair are reported to be nesting at Sandbanks), BLACK-THROATED GREEN WARBLER, AMERICAN REDSTART (4), ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK, and CASPIAN TERN. Close to 70 pairs of CLIFF SWALLOWS are currently occupying nests tucked up under the eaves of the old lighthouse.
At Sandbanks Provincial Park last Sunday, there were WHITE-THROATED SPARROW, FIELD SPARROW, BLUE-GREY GNATCATCHER, and SAVANNAH SPARROW, all observed in the sparse growth in the dunes at West Lake.
GRASSHOPPER SPARROWS were found Sunday in two locations - Point Petre and Middle Road, just west of Prince Edward Point. A singing VESPER SPARROW was also located near Point Petre.
Constable Brent Bennett of Picton who would never think of hopping into his OPP cruiser without his binoculars saw a RED-HEADED WOODPECKER on Conley Road, near Wellington. RED-HEADED WOODPECKERS are nesting this year at Sandbanks, according to Joanne Dewey assistant park naturalist.
TREE SWALLOWS are lining up on the hydro wires already, and very soon the first of the fall migrating shorebirds will start appearing on Quinte area beaches and mud flats. It seems like just last week when BLACKPOLL WARBLERS were passing through!
And that is all the birding news from Prince Edward County for this week.
This report will be updated Sunday, July 14. Please e-mail tsprague@limestone.kosone.com
Terry Sprague
limestone.kosone.com!tsprague