Cranes and Snow Geese with Tony Beck

Tues, Nov 24, 8:00 am, Trim Road Park & Ride.

Today Heather joined Tony and me on our search for Sandhill Cranes. Unfortunately, it was quite foggy in the early morning. We headed straight for Smith Road by Milton. There were 21 Sandhill Cranes in the ploughed field. A couple of Blue Jays flew across the road, and Heather spotted a Red-tailed Hawk perched way in the distance, shrouded in fog. She aslo noticed a group of Wild Turkeys in the distance by the edge of the forest. We moved further up the road and found about 31 more Sandhill Cranes, some of which were dancing.

We decided to grab a coffee in Navan and see if the fog would lift - it didn’t, in fact got worse. But to our good fortune, a family group had moved much closer to the road, and we were able to get decent photos. There was also a tree full of American Tree Sparrows.
We took the 417 to St Rose, where we found two Snowy Owls, and had a flock of Snow Geese fly over. On Conc. 20, we had a light morph Rough-legged Hawk and a flock of about 50 Snow Buntings.

We took the 417 to St Rose, where we found two Snowy Owls, and had a flock of Snow Geese fly over. On Conc. 20, we had a light morph Rough-legged Hawk and a flock of about 50 Snow Buntings.

We went back to the 417 to try and find the large flock of Snow Geese we had seen earlier. We exited at the Maxville Road and looked on both sides of the highway. On the south side, we fouind a Northern Shrike on Athol Road. We saw four Red-tailed Hawks, two flyi ng around and two perched. We made our way back to Hwy 138 on the back roads, and found a sizeble flock of Snow Geese, perhaps 2000.