Hi all, Here's a sadly late report of some birds I managed to see this past Friday (March 7th) up near Collingwood while working.
The main attraction is a flock of ~10 wild turkeys observed at Craigleith Provincial Park (just west of Collingwood). This group of birds was ambling back towards the forest after feeding in the backyard of a small local farm at about 11:00am (possibly a routine feeding time?). The yard can be viewed from Arrowhead road, which runs south from Highway 26 on the east side of the park (this is, note, the part of Craigleith park that is SOUTH of hwy 26, not the day use part along the lakeshore). Arrowhead road runs straight for about 400m southward from the highway until it jogs a bit and rises over a ridge. The farm yard is about 150m before this ridge, and next to a (snowed-under) untended 'entrance' to the park just north of a small gully (look for small park boundary signs). Do not enter the forest, as the snow is over 3 feet deep in places! Other passersby reported more turkeys further south along Arrowhead road above the ridge. Turkeys are pretty common up there (nearly hit one on 30-31 sideroad and Osprey-Clearview line), but this area is VERY close to Blue Mountain and other such skiing spots, so I figured any ski-happy birders might be able to double up on their fun when visiting the area. And, fourty-five minutes after viewing the turkeys, a large adult Bald Eagle circled over the exact same area. The area is easily accessible using Hwy 26 (from Barrie) or old hwy 24 (or now 124) from Guelph. In addition, many large flocks (~50-100 birds) of Snow Buntings and Horned Larks were seen while barrelling down Grey County road 9 (NOT highway 9 or 109 in the same area) running from Dundalk to Hopeville (an area sort of between Mount Forest and Shelburne north of hwy 89). Smaller bunting and lark patches were encountered on highway 6 between Arthur and Fergus. I didn't look for Longspurs, but they may have been there. Hope this adds some destinations for any birders heading for ski-land in the near future! John Gerrath [EMAIL PROTECTED] So I decided to be on the side of those who loved life just for being alive, on the side of those who would rather not see things die. I've walked across mountains, forests, swamps, crawled on bare rock for days, looking for the wild places. If I found them, I found them dying. I don't know what I can do, but I feel I must do something, even if it is only to sit at bedside and witness their deaths, and take the news of those deaths away to others who might help. "John A. Gerrath" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
