Today at my Sunday morning hockey game, Dr. Rob Madronich described a bird that
he and his daughter observed in Lemonville yesterday. It was carrying a
rabbit, was much larger than the Red-tailed Hawk harassing it, was generally
dark (head included), but had a somewhat mottled appearance. It landed on one
of the wooden telephone poles along McCowan Street, which allowed them to make
these observations readily. After a moment of adjusting its grip on the
rabbit, the bird flew off to the west. After his daughter's equestrian lesson,
Rob returned home to consult his field guides and, along with his daughter who
has a keen interest in birds, concluded that the bird was a subadult Golden
Eagle... though, he admits, immature Bald was not totally out of the question.
Right after hockey I drove east from Richmond Hill and, turning north from
Bethesda Sdrd. onto McCowan, was amazed to almost immediately see a very large,
dark bird crossing the road about a km in front of me. I raced north, pulled
over, and managed to get a five-second look at the bird before it dropped from
sight over a forested ridge. It was definitely an eagle -large beaked, long
winged and powerful in flight - but I cannot say for sure whether it was a Bald
or Golden. I felt that it flew with a slight dihedral but that could be the
power of suggestion at work. For the next half hour I circled the big rural
block bounded by Bloomington Rd. on the north, Kennedy Rd. on the west,
Bethesda Rd. on the south, and McCowan on the east but only found a local
Red-tail, several crows, and a dozen Robins at the old Lemonville Cemetary.
Anyone who takes Bloomington Road east of Aurora/Richmond Hill should keep
their eyes peeled for this bird. Based on the fact that Goldens are more
likely to take rabbits as prey than Bald Eagles AND, from what I've read, are
more likely to perch on poles than Bald Eagles are, I lean toward Rob's
conclusion, but would be interested to hear if anyone else sees this bird.
For the record, I did not see or hear any White-winged Crossbills at the
North Tract ("Vivian Forest") this afternoon despite XC skiing there for 90
minutes and covering a lot of territory.
Ron Fleming, Newmarket
Lemonville is a small village situated right on McCowan Road, only a few kms
south of Bloomington Road. It is east of Hwy. 404 and west of Hwy. 48, about
30 minutes north of Toronto. The bird was seen both days flying west over
McCowan, not far north of the Pause Awhile equestrian centre which sits on the
east side of the road.
P.S. Al Johnson: this is not far north and east of your place. Keep your
binos near the window!
From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sun Feb 11 19:14:14 2007
Return-Path: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Delivered-To: ontbirds@hwcn.org
Received: from mx3-6.spamtrap.magma.ca (mx3-6.spamtrap.magma.ca
[209.217.78.173]) by king.hwcn.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id
5B8EE6349B
for <ontbirds@hwcn.org>; Sun, 11 Feb 2007 19:14:14 -0500 (EST)
Received: from mail4.magma.ca (mail4.internal.magma.ca [10.0.10.14])
l1C0E9Sf005848; Sun, 11 Feb 2007 19:14:09 -0500
Received: from pcpringle.magma.ca (ottawa-hs-69-20-224-238.d-ip.magma.ca
[69.20.224.238]) (authenticated bits=0)
by mail4.magma.ca (Magma's Mail Server) with ESMTP id l1C0E8hC016159;
Sun, 11 Feb 2007 19:14:09 -0500
Message-Id: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 7.1.0.9
Date: Sun, 11 Feb 2007 19:14:06 -0500
To: ontbirds@hwcn.org
From: Gordon Pringle <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
X-magma-MailScanner-Information: Magma Mailscanner Service
X-magma-MailScanner: Clean
X-Spam-Status:
Subject: [Ontbirds]Ottawa/Gatineau 10Feb07... Great Gray Owl, Northern Hawk
Owl,Partridge
X-BeenThere: ontbirds@hwcn.org
X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1
Precedence: list
X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 12 Feb 2007 00:14:15 -0000
- RBA
* Ontario
* Ottawa/Gatineau
* 10 February 2007
* ONOT0702.10
- Birds mentioned
GRAY PARTRIDGE
Wild Turkey
Great Blue Heron
Bald Eagle
Red-tailed Hawk
Golden Eagle
NORTHERN HAWK OWL
GREAT GRAY OWL
Short-eared Owl
AMERICAN THREE-TOED WOODPECKER
Northern Shrike
Horned Lark
Carolina Wren
Chipping Sparrow
Lapland Longspur
Snow Bunting
Purple Finch
Red Crossbill
WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL
Pine Siskin
- Transcript
hotline: Ottawa Field-Naturalists' Club
date: 10 February 2007
number: 613-860-9000
for the status line : press 2
for rare bird alerts: press 1
to report a sighting: press #
coverage: Ottawa/Gatineau (Can. Nat. Capital Reg.), E.Ont., W.Que.
compiler & transcriber: Chris Lewis [EMAIL PROTECTED]
internet: Gordon Pringle [EMAIL PROTECTED]
THE OTTAWA FIELD-NATURALISTS' CLUB BIRD STATUS LINE @ 5:30 pm, SATURDAY
FEBRUARY 10, 2007
This is Chris Lewis reporting.
A week of pleasant surprises during what are usually the winter doldrums in
the Ottawa-Gatineau area!
Highlights included at least 4 GRAY PARTRIDGE among the corn stubble in a
field along Garvin Rd. west of Shea Rd. near Richmond, discovered on the 8th
and still present on the 10th; 2 separate reports of GREAT GRAY OWLS - 1 on
Galetta Rd. near Fitzroy Harbour on the 2nd and another along March Valley
Rd. in Kanata on the 6th; a NORTHERN HAWK OWL still present along McDonald
Rd. west of Brennan's Hill on the 6th; a Short-eared Owl hunting in a farm
field at Woodkilton and Vances Rds near Dunrobin on the 9th; and yet another
one of those elusive AMERICAN THREE-TOED WOODPECKERS - this time in the
Deschenes area of Aylmer, Quebec on the 3rd.
A visit to Eardley-Masham Rd. in Gatineau Park on the 6th was very
productive. Two adult Bald Eagles and an adult Golden Eagle were seen flying
over the Eardley escarpment, and several finch species were seen along the
road including several groups of Red Crossbills, many White-winged
Crossbills, and small numbers of Purple Finches and Pine Siskins.
Winter lingerers included a very late Great Blue Heron on the 5th in the
Riviere Blanche along Rte 366 at the entrance to the village of Perkins in
Val-des-Monts, Quebec; the dark-morph Red-tailed Hawk still in the vicinity
of the Gatineau airport on January 31st, a Carolina Wren by the bridge along
the recreational pathway west of the end of Vanier St. in the village of
Deschenes, Quebec, on the 5th and 6th; and a Chipping Sparrow still coming to
a feeder in Carleton Place since December, most recently reported on
February 7th.
Other birds of local interest were 4 Wild Turkeys and a Northern Shrike near
the Pinto Valley Ranch in the Dunrobin area on the 6th, and a single Lapland
Longspur among a flock of Horned Larks and Snow Buntings in a field along
Garvin Rd. west of Shea Rd. on the 10th.
Thank you - Good Birding!
- End transcript
