Hello birders, This morning I took a spin around the Long Sault area in Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry County. I was fortunate enough to find two Barrow's Goldeneyes in a flock of about 40 Common Goldeneye at Hoople Creek. The first bird I found was a young male, mostly in female-like plumage, except for the crescent-shaped white marking on the face. The second bird was a female bird which stood out quite nicely thanks to the head and bill shape. I first noticed her because the bill was entirely yellow-orange (there was also another female with an all yellow bill that appeared to be a common - see Ron Pittaway, Bruce Dilabio, and Peter Burke's article for separating female common and Barrow's Goldeneye: http://www.jeaniron.ca/2010/FemaleGoldeneyes.pdf . Both birds were viewed from the Hwy 2 bridge over Hoople Creek, between the towns of Ingleside and Long Sault.
The weekend was great for seeing large numbers of Greater Snow Geese, with about 2000 birds seen today near noon where Hwy 31 and County Road 7 intersect, between Williamsburg and Winchester Springs. There were also several thousand Canada Geese in the area near this location and several flocks appeared to be landing in a field to the NW of the intersection. Yesterday (Saturday) I was treated to even more Snow Geese; about 4000 birds flew over the small town of Elma (south of Chesterville) between about 8:00 and 8:30, mostly flying WSW (I watched them from the comfort of a hot tub!). After I dried off I headed to the Chesterville Sewage Lagoons to see if that was the source of the flocks. There was not any Snow Geese (or open water) in the lagoons, but between 8:45 and 9:30 a constant stream of 10-15 thousand Snow Geese passed overhead, all traveling WSW staying just south of the town of Chesterville. That puts all of these birds (close to 20k) traveling in an almost straight line from Moose Creek, where Robert Scranton and Hans van der Zweep reported them roosting a few nights ago. Good birding, Mike Burrell [email protected] Bancroft, ON _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to [email protected] For information about ONTBIRDS visit http://www.ofo.ca/
