What a week. The emails of bird sightings are arriving almost as fast as the birds. In no particular order, I had reports from several sites of Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Scarlet Tanager, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Baltimore Oriole, Eastern Kingbird, Bobolink, Wood Thrush, Veery, Least and Great-crested Flycatcher, Blue-headed and Warbling Vireo, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, and Whip-poor-will. Sparrows mentioned included Lincoln's, Vesper, Clay-colored and Grasshopper.
Warblers were abundant on Amherst and Wolfe Islands, on the Rideau Trail at the Little Cataraqui Creek as well as north of the city. Multiple sightings of Golden-winged, Nashville, Black and White, Palm, Chestnut-sided, Pine, Black-throated Blue, Black-throated Green, Cape May, Tennessee, Magnolia, and Yellow Warblers as well as N. Parula, Ovenbird, N. Waterthrush and Common Yellowthroat were reported. Less abundant were Am. Redstart, Bay-breasted and Canada Warblers seen yesterday and today on the Rideau Trail. Shorebird migration is picking up. There were 200 Least Sandpipers, a dozen Semipalmated Plover as well as Dunlin and a White-rumped sandpiper on Amherst Island this afternoon. Eight Yellow-throated Vireos on the Opinicon Rd. last Sunday were a good example of birds arriving on their breeding territory without them being noticed on their way north. Other sightings of note; a N. Mockingbird at the Goodyear plant near Napanee on the 7th, a Sora on Wolfe Island on the 9th, and a Marsh Wren at Collin's Creek on the 10th. There was a late Snowy Owl on Amherst last Saturday and a Black-backed Woodpecker on the Opinicon Rd. on Sunday. A flypast of 150 Brant on Wolfe on Wednesday pretty well completes the list of expected waterfowl for this spring. It has also been a good week for falcons; a Peregrine at Bedford Mills on Tuesday and the discovery of a nesting pair of Merlins in a spruce tree in downtown Kingston. Cheers, Peter Good Kingston Field Naturalists 613 378-6605
