On Saturday, Feb. 14, Angie and I led the Hamilton Naturalists' Club field Winter Trip for Hawks and Owls etc. around Haldimand County. We met 31 happy smiling people at Tim Horton's in Hagersville in just sub zero but sunny weather and proceeded on by 11:30, 11 cars in all.
At the end of the day, we had a raptor total of 63 but the highlight of the day for most was the Snowy Owl on a fence post on Reg. Rd. 55 north of Naticoke just south of concession 4. We had a species total of 31 and further highlights are listed below. Our first of only 3 Rough-legged Hawks (2 light and one dark morph) was at the corner of 2nd concession n. of Hagersville and MacKenzie rd. On Townline rd. just west of Decewceville rd., we stopped at Taquanyah Con. Area and Frank Horvath was first to spot White-winged Crossbills and a Pine Siskin (nice to have had a number of other capable birders with us!) . This was a new bird for many of the group. We did not go into the conservation area, as our scouting trip had yielded nothing of significance and the road was most productive. We carefully scouted the fisherville Raptor Reserve area for Short and Long-eared Owls (we did not get out of our cars) but found nobody roosting in the typical trees, so we moved on to Nanticoke after a rest room break. After finding our Snowy Owl, we checked Lakeshore rd. east of the power plant and found no Eagles roosting, but eventually spotteed a Bald Eagle way out on the ice pack with our scopes. While we had pie and coffee at the Selkirk restaraunt, Sandra and Frank Horvath scouted for Long-eared Owls at Selkirk P.P. saving us a longer walk to the Spruce forest....there were none, but at 5:30, we heard male and female Great-horned Owls calling, perhaps in response to the Eastern Screech Owl that only Chritine Phillips heard. By now, Jennie and Mike Foley held our hawk proper count at 51 and we headed to the Hagersville junk yard for Short-eared Owls. On the way, Sandra and Frank had one in Cheapside that we missed, but we were a little disappointed to only discover one very elusive, yet vocal Short-eared Owl at the junk yard. Last week, Dave Milsom et al had six there. It is excellent habitat the for this species for several concessions going south so I believe that the change in weather may have contributed to a dispersal, perhaps for the Rough-legged hawks also, and now only being one Snowy Owl to be found where there had been at least two several weeks ago. We ended our trip on MacKenzie rd. north of concession 2 at 6:45, where we had two more Eastern Screech Owls. This gave us 8 owls of four species for the day. I was particularly gratified to lead such a nice, enthusiastic group of naturalists half of whom stayed to the bitterly cold end after the mid-afternoon main course of Snowy Owl. Thanks to all who participated. We have pictures and may be persuaded to submit a brief to the Wood Duck. With any questions about more specific directions or location ideas, please feel free to email me privately at williamsmu...@execulink.com Spring is on the way: Good Birding! Ken and Angie Angie and Ken Williams 83 Edinburgh Ave. Hamilton, Ontario, L8H 2C6 905 547 8580 _______________________________________________ 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/
