Over the past few weeks a push of winter birds arrived in York region north of
Toronto. Last weekend Snowy Owls showed up at their two most common wintering
grounds in this area: the Holland Marsh vegetable fields west of Newmarket and
the farm fields along Ravenshoe Road in southwest Keswick. An adult male
was found on Saturday at the former location while three juvenile/female types
(heavily barred) were observed by Bruce Brydon and Keith Dunn in Keswick on
Sunday morning. One of the latter birds was found on the north side of
Ravenshoe Road near Best Asian Farms; the other two were observed along the 2
km section of Yonge Street that runs south from Ravenshoe.
Bruce Brydon had the first Northern Shrike of the season at this same location
on Nov. 15 while Mike Van den Tillaart and I observed our first Rough-legged
Hawk of the winter back on Nov. 8 (also along Ravenshoe Road). Further north
along the curving southern shore of Lake Simcoe, Lorena Campbell had an adult
Bald Eagle at Willow Beach Nov. 20th. The Snow Goose that lingered in
the Willow Beach area for over a month was last seen Nov. 16 by Michele
Potter. Snow Buntings are increasing in number with flocks being observed in
Keswick, west Newmarket, and Kettleby. Yesterday Keith Dunn observed 11 Tundra
Swans at the south end of Lake Drive, near the Inn on the Lake in Keswick. In
the same general area Linda Wells and Irving Himel had numerous waterfowl last
Saturday including approx. 250 Common Goldeneye.
A flock of 17 American Robins was still lingering along Bethesda Road in
eastern Oak Ridges Sunday morning and, in the open sections of nearby Lake
Wilcox, there were two merganser species Sunday: Common (33) and Hooded (3
pairs).
York Region is situated north of Toronto and south of Lake Simcoe. For
specific directions to any of the places mentioned above, please reply to
sender.
Ron Fleming, Newmarket
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