Over the past two weeks there have been numerous interesting sightings in York Region. During his early-evening dog-walks near Rutherford Road in Maple, Lev Frid has observed Long-eared Owls hunting on several occasions. He also made one of very few Rough-legged Hawk observations in York Region this month - a light-morph bird hunting near Jane and Rutherford Streets ten days ago. While XC-skiing at the north end of Bayview Avenue in Newmarket last Sunday, Robin Lawson observed a Short-eared Owl doing its distinctively buoyant flight over some cornfields in the late afternoon. My dog, Sam, and I flushed a Great Horned Owl while hiking through the Cawthra Mulock reserve today then, driving the backroads west of Newmarket, we observed four different Snowy Owls in the Holland Marsh vegetable fields. We were in the company of two birders from Willowdale for the first two owls (general vicinity of Strawberry Lane north of Hwy. 9), then found two others (one very dark 1st-year female and one very white adult male) within minutes of bidding them adieu. Keith Dunn had two more Snowy Owls in the fields south of Ravenshoe Road (SW Keswick) this morning. Later, near the intersection of Boyer's Road and Warden Avenue, he had a flock of 300+ Snow Buntings. Mike Van den Tillaart and I had a similar-sized flock of this species along Miller Sdrd. on Jan. 17th. Pine Siskins have been showing up in ever-increasing numbers across the region. Don Wiens had a flock of close to 100 siskins visiting his yard in Richmond Hill this past Thursday. Joan Love of Kleinburg has been going through bags of niger seed feeding a similar flock. Common Redpolls are also turning up here and there, albeit in much lower numbers. Mike and I observed six at a feeder along Dufferin Street west of Newmarket Saturday morning. We also had a male American Kestrel perched on a wire along Wist Rd. beside Hwy. 400 the same day. Last weekend Roy Smith and Winnie Poon observed a Red-bellied Woodpecker visiting a feeder across from the Nashville Cemetary near Kleinburg. As Lev Frid has noted in his posts, another one is visiting feeders at the Kortright Cons. Area north of Woodbridge. Pileated Woodpeckers, though not rare, are always a thrill to see. I was pleasantly surprised to see one winging its way across busy Yonge Street in north Richmond Hill early this morning (Brookside Avenue area). White-winged Crossbills continue to show up all over the place. This has been a banner year for birders hoping to catch up to these seed-gobbling nomads. They are widespread across the province. Ron Fleming, Newmarket York Region is north of Toronto and south of Lake Simcoe. _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to ONTBIRDS mailing list ONTBIRDS@hwcn.org For information about ONTBIRDS visit http://www.ofo.ca/
