Took a deep breath and ventured out of York with Mike Van den Tillaart and the uncle-nephew tandem of Keith and Chris Dunn today. Since there've been no Rough-legged Hawks in York region all winter, we figured we'd best try for some before they started moving north. Rough-legs have been seen on a regular basis west of Barrie so, armed with directions from local birders in that area, we did a circle of the Minesing swamp. We were not disapointed. Between 9:00 a.m. and noon we counted 21 Rough-legs (both morphs) and observed two Snowy Owls. Most of our Roughies were on Strongville Road south of Hwy. 26 while our Snowies were within a few hundred metres of each other on the west side of Sunnidale Sdrd. 15-16, not far south of Concession 7 (north of the snowmobile crossing). We also had four coyotes on Strongville Road and, at the chicane in Ronald Rd. west of Minesing we had a Cooper's Hawk and one Horned Lark. On the way back to Newmarket we observed ten Wild Turkeys on the north side of Innisfil Beach Road just west of 5th Line. Should mention that we also had a Northern Shrike on 25th Sdrd. (Mapleview Drive west of Barrie) on our way up to Angus around 8:30 a.m. Thanks, Larry Durkee and Jen Howard for your directions. The Minesing swamp is roughly bounded by Hwy. 26 on the north, Hwy. 90 on the south, George Johnson Road on the east, and Hwy. 10/ Sunnidale Road on the west. Ron Fleming, Newmarket _______________________________________________ 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
