Things are very much frozen up in the Kingston area. There were several waterfowl off the south shore of Amherst Island last weekend, including 6 Mute Swans, however yesterday there were only great piles of ice stacked up along the shore, some of them quite spectacular, and the lake was frozen as far as you could see except off the extreme southwest corner. Other noteworthy waterfowl included a Green-winged Teal, 2 Northern Pintails, and a Pair of Hooded Mergansers at the Dupont lagoon and a couple of Am. Coots at the Wolfe Island ferry dock in downtown Kingston. For some reason there were a few hundred Canada Geese on the front "lawn" of the Lafarge cement plant near Bath yesterday; no open water nearby and certainly nothing for them to eat.
The raptor picture is generally unchanged although the number of Snowy Owls on Wolfe is now only 2 or 3 rather than the 6 or 7 seen in mid January. Also the number of hawks on Amherst is picking up; 2 Rough-legged and 5 Red-tails yesterday. Two more Barred Owls were seen this week; one in the west end of the city and another at the Cataraqui Conservation Area. Ten Bald Eagles at once at Ivy Lea on Tuesday was quite a sight. It seems that every trip to Wolfe produces Ring-necked Pheasants, Horned Larks, Snow Buntings, Am. Kestrels and N. Shrikes. Last weekend also had a Merlin and a Short-eared Owl. Amherst had a Long-eared Owl as well as a Hoary Redpoll and a N. Flicker on Saturday. There was a second Hoary at Bedford Mills on the 17th and this feeder continues to be the only place locally that gets Evening Grosbeaks regularly, although only about once a week. We are all looking for signs of spring and in hopes that the first Red-winged Blackbird is already on his way, I will offer these tidbits: 2 Eastern Bluebirds at the Cataraqui Conservation Area a week ago last Wednesday, 30 Am. Robins and an equal number of Cedar Waxwings at Elginburg on the 20th and 13 Horned Larks on the Palace Road between Napanee and Camden East. Cheers, Peter Good Kingston Field Naturalists 613 378-6605 _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to ONTBIRDS mailing list ONTBIRDS@hwcn.org For instructions to join or leave ONTBIRDS visit http://www.ofo.ca/information/ontbirdssetup.php ONTBIRDS Guidelines may be viewed at http://www.ofo.ca/information/ontbirdsguide.php
