My wife called me at work to say the Great Blue Herons are flying over the house again (Richmond Hill Leslie and Major Mac). We drove up to the York Center, Leslie North of Elgin Mills after dinner, the low sun provided fantastic lighting on the nesting Herons high in the leaf-less trees. There were well over 12 that we could see at any one time. The new parking lot at the school provides excellent views of the nests, far enough away you won't disturb the birds.
We continued to Thornton Bales Conservation at sunset. If you haven't been its a very steep trail system. We just walked to the stairs not far from the parking. Here we were calling back and forth with a Barred Owl who was in the valley. What really intrigued us was a mammal crying out not to far into the valley. It sounded like a "feline", closest I have been able to find is a wav file of a Lynx. I will contact the Joker's Hill UofT admin to get their opinion, sounded unlike any Coyote wav I can find. I would be interested in knowing if anyone had been in the area and heard the same cries. York Center - Leslie about 1km north of Elgin Mills on the right. Thornton Bales Conservation - Access is off of Mulock Sideroad, three (3) km west of Highway 11 (Yonge Street). Regards, Glenn Steplock www.flickr.com/steplock _______________________________________________ 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/
