Today at around 12:30 there was a skittish, even frenetic, Black-backed Woodpecker on the middle loop trail of the Jack Pine Trail. This is the trail with two boardwalks. I initially saw the bird very close by the trail but it almost immediately flushed a considerable distance. Initial attempts to relocate it were unsuccessful but quite a ways down the trail I heard some very quiet, intermittent tapping and walked towards the sound. The bird flew in and alighted very close to me, but took off again almost immediately. It stopped on trees a few times but only for a couple of seconds before flying off again. I then lost track of it. It appeared to be a female. It made a (relatively soft) call several times as it flew.
Directions: Take 417 west and 416 south to exit at Hunt Club. Go west then take Moodie south for a km or two. Jack Pine Trail parking lot is on the east side. Other sightings of interest today were a late Pectoral Sandpiper and 2 late Greater Yellowlegs at Andrew Haydon Park, a female Barrow's Goldeneye mixed in with some Commons on the Ottawa River at the end of Grandview Road, and 4 tantalizing distant flying shorebirds at the ponds off Moodie Drive south of Cambrian. They appeared to be Calidris-type. Dunlins, more Pectorals, or something more exciting? They were too far away for me to say. From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sun Nov 5 01:21:00 2006 Return-Path: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Delivered-To: [email protected] Received: from bay0-omc2-s29.bay0.hotmail.com (bay0-omc2-s29.bay0.hotmail.com [65.54.246.165]) by king.hwcn.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 050CA6390E for <[email protected]>; Sun, 5 Nov 2006 01:21:00 -0500 (EST) Received: from hotmail.com ([207.46.9.91]) by bay0-omc2-s29.bay0.hotmail.com with Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.1830); Sat, 4 Nov 2006 22:21:00 -0800 Received: from mail pickup service by hotmail.com with Microsoft SMTPSVC; Sat, 4 Nov 2006 22:21:00 -0800 Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Received: from 207.46.9.123 by by119fd.bay119.hotmail.msn.com with HTTP; Sun, 05 Nov 2006 06:20:35 GMT X-Originating-IP: [216.46.145.130] X-Originating-Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] X-Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] From: "Maris Apse" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [email protected] Date: Sun, 05 Nov 2006 01:20:35 -0500 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed X-OriginalArrivalTime: 05 Nov 2006 06:21:00.0193 (UTC) FILETIME=[8FE0E110:01C700A2] Subject: [Ontbirds]OFO Grand Bend Field Trip Nov 4 X-BeenThere: [email protected] X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 05 Nov 2006 06:21:00 -0000 Hi all, A 'baker's dozen' OFO members in 7 vehicles gathered at the Sobey's parking lot by 08:30 this brisk November day to meet Emily and I for a day of driving and walking around the 'Bend'. Car-pooling reduced our convoy to 6 as we began at the G.B. Lagoons on Mollard Line, finding 13 species of waterfowl (including a flyover Snow Goose ( juvenile blue morph) plus 1 Common and 3 Red-throated Loon flying over, 300+ Bonaparte's Gull in the third lagoon and ~8 Dunlin flying about, several mixed flocks of Horned Lark, Snow Bunting and Am.Pipit, plus some Rusty Blackbird). We then proceeded to Pinery P.P. - some saw our only Winter Wren en route at the edge of a cornfield - we took a mostly quiet walk on the Riverside Trail seeing just 1 Red-bellied Woodpecker, 1 Am.Tree Sparrow and Peter Fearon wrapping up the mist nets of the Ausable Bird Observatory for the season - he will be returning Apr.7 2007. From #3 Beach Parking Area we saw an apparently injured Snow Goose (white morph adult) on the beach and our first of ~ 6 Sharp-shinned Hawks. #7 BPA produced our first few Tufted Titmouse, 1 Yellow-rumped Warbler, both Nuthatches, Downy Woodpecker, B.C. Chickadees and G.C. Kinglets. At the Maintenance/Meeting area we found 2 adult Red-headed and 1 Hairy Woodpecker and a few more titmice. We found the V.C. closed (signage to the contrary) and the feeders mostly empty (a few Dark-eyed Junco and Am. Goldfinch, 1 House Finch and titmice) we ate lunch and used the 'facilities' near the closed store. We then walked downstream of the dam to find many Am.Robin and Blue Jay with a few Cedar Waxwing, more titmice and an incongruous Double-crested Cormorant. Driving out of the park some of us saw a Pied-billed Grebe. After driving the Port Franks 'L Lake' loop (Red-winged Blackbird), we made a short stop at Ipperwash beach seeing only ~ 12 distant Scoter sp. and 2 D.C. Cormorant, so continued to the parking area just further south, where we found many Am. Robin and Cedar Waxwing while several Red-tailed Hawk soared overhead. We drove the rather bumpy Kettle Point beach and stopped at the point, where we saw 2 Great Black-backed Gull, ~30 Dunlin, 2 Mute Swan, 3 Red-breasted Merganser and 2 Horned Grebe. One carload left for London from here and the rest drove to the Forest lagoons on Brush Line seeing ~ 1,000 Ring-billed Gull and ~ 500 E. Starling 'following the plow', 1 Am.Kestrel and a male N.Harrier and a huge flock of (~1,500 ( ?) Snow Bunting/ Horned Lark en route. We saw ~10 Hooded Merganser at the lagoons along with the same waterfowl seen earlier. We scoped the big flock of field birds on the way out and found 2/3 Lapland Longspur. Our total for the day was 68 species - 17 waterfowl +2 loons, +2 grebes, 6 raptors, 4 gulls, 4 woodpeckers, but only 3 sparrows - I thank the participants for their cheerful dispositions, stamina and assistance in this 'inaugural' late fall Grand Bend OFO FT. Cheers! Maris Maris Apse 10094 Red Pine Road, Box 22, RR #2 Grand Bend ON N0M 1T0 (519) 238 - 8415 _________________________________________________________________ All-in-one security and maintenance for your PC. Get a free 90-day trial! http://clk.atdmt.com/MSN/go/msnnkwlo0050000002msn/direct/01/?href=http://www.windowsonecare.com/?sc_cid=msn_hotmail
