An interesting migration overlap on Friday featured a GRAY CATBIRD along the John F. Smith Trail in southwest Newmarket in the morning and a light-phase ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK hunting near Green Lane (west of Yonge Street) in the afternoon. The former bird will almost surely be heading south into the U.S. any day now whereas the latter may choose to make York region the southern limit of its migration. On Saturday the Holland Landing lagoons still held a dozen juvenile PECTORAL SANDPIPERS with bright "braces" down the back, one adult DUNLIN, 70+ Green-winged Teal, 40 Mallards, 3 Northern Shovelers, 3 Ring-necked Ducks, 2 Black Ducks and one Lesser Scaup. There were also numerous Ring-billed and Bonaparte's Gulls. The most interesting bird at the lagoons was a "textbook" BLACK DUCK x MALLARD HYBRID (adult male) in alternate plumage (see Sibley's illustration on pg. 83 of his excellent field guide). It was in the third lagoon late Saturday afternoon, looking like a Green-winged Teal on steroids. This morning (Sunday) there were 22 HOODED MERGANSERS at the MacKenzie Marsh in north Aurora, two of them adult males in full display, strutting their stuff for an audience of impressionable females and juveniles. A lingering Great Blue Heron observed the proceedings with indifference. A late afternoon hike through the Cawthra-Mulock nature reserve this afternoon yielded very few birds, though there were about 120 "Richardson's" Geese in the pond and, in the wooded ravine that traces an east-west line through the middle of the property, there were a few notable resident birds: RUFFED GROUSE (1), GREAT HORNED OWL (1) and BROWN CREEPER (1). Ron Fleming, Newmarket
The Holland Landing lagoons are at the eastern terminus of Cedar Avenue, a short street which runs east from Yonge Street in the town of Holland Landing (look for the white wagon wheels in the driveway at the corner of Yonge & Cedar). Holland Landing is just north of Newmarket. The CW Nature Reserve is just north of Green Lane in northwest Newmarket, on the west side of Bathurst Street. It is not specifically public, but rather a reserve intended for those who contribute to Ontario Nature, the organization to whom this land was granted by the property owners. Newmarket and Holland Landing are about halfway between Toronto and Barrie.
