Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Wolfe Island with JC Birding

 March 12, 2024





Birding Report by Jane Burgess

Guy had an early start to this outing. He showed up at Barb C. door at 6:15 and then phoned her at 6:30 wondering if she was going birding.  Her story was she heard what she thought was the alarm clock but realized it was the phone. I texted her later, laughing, asking about the call at 6:30, her response was "so it wasn't a dream".  Guy showed up Thursday, March 7 not Tuesday March 12.  Talk about a keener!!!!!!

Bill texted me March 11 evening to indicate the ferry left Kingston at 9:00 and if we were meeting at 7 a.m. we would have to hustle.  I then texted everyone to say it was imperative that we leave at 7 a.m. and I believe we did.  We were two cars - Eleanor, Barb, Guy and Jane in one car and Bill and Barbara in another.  Eleanor took the lead and we made it to the ferry by 8:40, yes we travelled a bit over the speed limit but never over 10K. 

Once on Wolfe Island, we thought the first place  to find was a washroom.  Barb said there was in town, sure when we got there Barb found a padlock on the bathroom doors. She went into the building and asked and was told only public bathrooms were at the ferry landing, other bathrooms do not open until the summer.  But we were six people, nope they were not opening them for us, so we went back to the ferry landing.

We had a simply wonderful day with 42 species seen over the course of the day.  The only 'good bird' on the way up to Kingston was Trumpeter Swan, on the ferry Long Tail Ducks, just maybe 8, BUT we saw at least 100+ over the day.  Love those ducks, wish we could see them on a regular basis in Ottawa.  Mute Swans numbered 20 around the island, but  many more  on our drive home along the St Lawrence.  Common Mergansers numbered 25 and just 4 Red-breasted Mergansers.  

When we were in Maryville, we noticed among the ducks a strange looking Mallard, must have been a Mallard / domestic duck or some other duck, but not a pure Mallard.  (see photos).

Once we arrived on the 'country roads' (not paved) we saw a good number of Rough Legged Hawks (8) and Northern Harriers (9).  It could have been a higher number, but we did not want to double count.   Oh but the treat of the day were the Eastern Meadowlarks, by far the best bird of the day.  We saw 6 of them and they were sooo yellow and singing their song spring of the year.  Such a wonderful sign of spring.  While we were looking at the first 2 meadowlarks the Bowlands were looking at our first Killdeer (6 seen).

We drove down the Simcoe Island ferry road, to check out the water.  The ferry came over, I think they thought we wanted to go onto the island, we moved the cars to let them know, we were just parked.  We decided to have lunch there and while we did, a Red-bellied Woodpecker flew in.

We drove around the west side of the island, after no doubt going on some of the roads already, we decided to do the east side.  We stopped and checked out some birds on the water -- goodness gracious we saw at least a 1000 Redheads with maybe 20 Greater Scaup in the mix.  A dog joined us, then some children then a man.  He asked if we were looking at the Redheads and the Blue Bills ( I thought he said Blue Bells and I wondered why he was calling birds flower names. The others in the car said no Bluebills enunciating the word so clearly, got it).  I have never  heard  of Blue Bills and I told him as such, he said Greater Scaup.  Just a bit down the road we had a Bald Eagle perched in a tree.  Bill and Barbara went on ahead of us to see if there was anything at the border crossing.  Eleanor's car was a bit slower, because we were checking out the birds, never got to the border crossing as Bill said there was nothing to see.

We saw at least 4 Red-tail Hawks on the east side of the island, strangely none of the west side.

Around 4ish, Bill was wanting to get to the 4:30 ferry, he was the lead car and he was driving faster than birding speed.  We kind of poked along, yes faster than usual, but if we saw birds we stopped.   Bill texted us to say they were in line, then on the ferry. 



































Species Noted
  1. Wild Turkey
  2. Canada Geese
  3. Turkey Vulture (3)
  4. American Crow
  5. European Starling
  6. Red-winged Blackbird
  7. Ring-billed Gull
  8. Rock Pigeon
  9. Trumpeter Swan (2)
  10. Long-tailed Ducks (100)
  11. House Sparrow
  12. Blue Jay
  13. Common Goldeneye
  14. Mallard
  15. American Robin
  16. Mute Swan (20)
  17. Common Grackle
  18. Mourning Dove
  19. Common Merganser (25)
  20. Dark-eyed Junco
  21. Northern Cardinal
  22. American Goldfinch
  23. Bufflehead
  24. Herring Gull
  25. Downy Woodpecker
  26. Red-breasted Merganser (4)
  27. Eastern Meadowlark (6)
  28. Northern Harrier (9)
  29. Rough-legged Hawk (8)
  30. Killdeer (6)
  31. Song Sparrow
  32. Black-capped Chickadee
  33. Common Raven
  34. Red-bellied Woodpecker
  35. Horned Lark (4)
  36. Bald Eagle (2)
  37. Redhead (1000)
  38. Greater Scaup (20)
  39. White-breasted Nuthatch
  40. Red-tail Hawk (4)
  41. Kestrel (1)


Monday, March 11, 2024

Tundra Swans on Milton Road

 March 11, 2024


Barbara had an eye appointment on Tenth Line Road, so afterwards, we went south to Milton Road where we saw the swans and a single pair of Northern Pintails.












Friday, March 8, 2024

Fletcher Sapsucker

 March 8, 2024


The long-staying Yellow-belied Sapsucker was reported again with good photos, so we headed over to Fletcher Wildlife Gardens with Molly in tow.  It was very muddy in places, as we searched the trails without success.  We finally observed another couple taking photos in an area we had already checked.  It was the sapsucker. Yea!







Before leaving, we went to the feeder behind the building.





It was a glorious spring-like day at the tail end of winter.


 

Thursday, March 7, 2024

Eastern & Western Fields + Northern Hawk Owl

 March 7, 2024


We were looking after Molly for the Chelsea Bowmans, so we took her with us when we went to investigate reports of Tundra Swans at Cobb Creek and the eastern fields.  There was almost no flooding at Cobb Creek, but we did see some distant Tundra Swans.




Another birder told us he had seen Sandhill Cranes at Smith Road, so we went there, but did not see them.  On Milton Road, we saw some more Tundras, also distant.



Our other target for the day was the Northern Hawk Owl on Springhill Road past Metcalfe.  We arrived to find a few other birders viewing the owl far back in poor light.  After waiting for a time, the hawk owl flew briefly across the road, then back to where we had seen it on March 3, this time in somewhat better light.  We got closer and saw the it had a mouse which it had previously cached.  This made for good photos, but it was obvious that the owl had been baited.










Leaving there, we decided to go home via North Gower to check those fields and a possible Red-belled Woodpecker.  But we came up empty there.  However, we got several RBAs that Tundra Swans and Sow Geese were being seen at Shea and Brownlee.  Since it was on the way home, we decided to have a look.  Sure enough, there were in a wet area west of Shea.






We had done a lot of driving, but it was a satisfying outing with Molly.