The very cold weather has held off, so concentrations of waterfowl are still excellent. There were100's of diving ducks west of Bath on Wednesday including 5 White-winged Scoters. Elevator Bay also has a great selection; all three mergansers, both scaup, Redhead, American and Eurasian Wigeon as well as Am. Coot. The high count of Tundra Swans there was 73 last Sunday. Also, last Sunday, a Ross's Goose was found near Pyke's on Wolfe Island (the southwest Corner) amidst several Snow Geese amidst a lot of Canadas. There was another concentration of swans on Wolfe in Barrett Bay just east of Marysville; close to a hundred Tundras and at least 2 Mute. Hay Bay south of Napanee, had another 150 Tundra Swans and there were 2 more Mute Swans at Adolphustown.
The gull picture is improving. The Violet Dump has good numbers but no white-winged gulls when checked earlier in the week. There were 100's of Herring Gulls resting in a field northwest of the Napanee dump (Richmond Landfill) both Wednesday and Thursday. This group included 46 Great Black-backed Gulls and a single Glaucous. Last weekend there was both a Little and an Iceland in Elevator Bay. Raptors are scarce on Wolfe Island and I have received no reports from Amherst Island this week. There was, however, a Bald Eagle at Hay Bay on Monday; last Sunday there were 3 Bald Eagles and a Barred Owl in the Opinicon area and a Merlin was near Camden East on Wednesday. It has been a good week for woodpeckers; 3 Red-bellied; one just east of the city, another just to the north out Montreal Street and the third is visiting a feeder up the Canoe Lake Road. There were 2 N. Flickers and 5 Brown Creepers along the Opinicon Road. Probably the second best bird of the week was an immature Red-headed Woodpecker visiting a feeder just to the east of CFB Kingston. Miscellaneous sightings include Wild Turkeys at Sillsville and on the Opinicon Road, 50 Snow Buntings at Inverary on Sunday and 5 Brown-headed Cowbirds out Montreal Street on Monday. 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
