With Carol Horner's help, Kevin Shackleton and I caught a glimpse of the BB Whistling Duck (his head only) minutes before it and the family of mallards it was with disappeared into the reeds. Although the birds were little more than 10 metres from where we stood at the fenceline they stayed completely out of sight (and silent) for over an hour after that. Carol mentions 9:10 a.m. in her post, though I think it was actually 10:10. We arrived at 10:15, had that quick glimpse of the bird, then waited around until 11:30 before the mallards and their anomalous friend finally emerged from the reeds and swam back across the pond (from west to east), offering excellent views. Any other visitors to the pond who don't see the BB whistling duck at first might want to wait a bit before leaving. If we had not crossed paths with Carol and Craig it would have been easy to assume the duck was long gone. Ron Fleming, Newmarket Directions as previously posted:
>From the west end of Picton at the traffic lights take Lake Street from the LCBO and follow south (Lake Street becomes County Road 10) about 9 km to Cherry Valley. At the stop sign in Cherry Valley, turn left and follow C.R. 10 to Milford. The ponds are 10 km from the turn in Cherry Valley. Upon reaching Milford, turn left at the stop sign (a T or 3-way intersection), then right again at the post office in Milford, and continue on C.R.10 for about 2-3 km. The ponds are on a farm to your left on the bend of the highway just beyond and across from the intersection of Royal Road. --- On Wed, 7/21/10, Carol Horner <icte...@rogers.com> wrote: From: Carol Horner <icte...@rogers.com> Subject: [Ontbirds] Black-bellied Whistling Duck-Milford-Yes To: "Ontbirds" <ontbirds@hwcn.org> Date: Wednesday, July 21, 2010, 6:33 PM Hello Ontbirders This morning around 9:10 Craig Ham and I arrived at the pond to find the Black-bellied Whistling Duck in plain view in the pond closest to the road, in the company of some Mallards. We observed and photographed it for about 5 minutes before all the ducks disappeared into the grasses at the near edge of the pond. We hung around for another 15 minutes or so, and had only one small glimpse of it during that time. Timing is everything! Directions as previously posted: > From the west end of Picton at the traffic lights take Lake Street south > (Lake Street becomes County 10) about 9 km to Cherry Valley, continue left on > County 10 through Milford about 3 km. The ponds are on your left just past a > bend and across from the intersection of Royal Road. Good Birding Carol Horner Toronto_______________________________________________ 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/ _______________________________________________ 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/
