For 3 hours up to noon a small group of anxious observers were about to give up, when suddenly the north winds became strong--the raptors came through for 4 hours in great numbers. A wonderful group of birders were extremely busy identifying 11 different species of raptors. Highlights were 6 GOLDEN EAGLES (2 adult, 4 juvenile), 1 2nd yr. BALD EAGLE, 291 red-taileds, 17 RED-SHOULDEREDS, 3 N.GOSHAWKS, 3 ROUGH-LEGGEDS, 23 TURKEY VULTURES,1 MERLIN,-----. THE TOTAL SINCE AUG. 21 IS 6296. I thank many expert eyes for helping me with the count. IF ANYONE OUT THERE CAN TAKE OVER FROM ME AT 9AM ON SATURDAY I WOULD APPRECIATE IT.
Now then--other birds--- we ask people to carefully look at what we have been calling Cliff Swallows lately--Jean Iron wants you to see if they may be CAVE SWALLOWS; 5 fox sparrows, 2 Am.tree sparrows, 2 house finches, and over the wetlands--pintails, shovelers, gadwalls, green-winged teals, ---, great blue herons. At the lakefront--CACKLING GOOSE, BONAPARTE'S GULLS, COMMON & RED-BREASTED MERGANSERS. Michael Sloly reported to me that he had a ROSS"S GOOSE over the east side of the wetlands on Oct.21. If any of you see a fellow with a leather glove on one hand, please copy down his auto license plate number, and get it to me. CMRW is at the south end of Hall's Rd. in southwest Whitby. Doug Lockrey, coordinator CMRW, Whitby www.pickeringnaturalists.org
