The highlight of the week was a PIPING PLOVER on relatively inaccessible Salmon Island. Landbird migration has slowed, but shorebirds continued to push through, though in fairly small numbers. Pretty well all of the usual breeding species had settled back on territory and breeding was well underway for most species.
Amherst Island Waterfowl included GADWALL, NORTHERN SHOVELER, COMMON and RED-BREASTED MERGANSERS. Other birds of note were 1 AMERICAN BITTERN, 3 BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT-HERONS, GREEN HERON, BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER, GREATER YELLOWLEGS, SEMIPALMATED PLOVER, SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER, LEAST SANDPIPER, 2 WHITE-RUMPED SANDPIPERS, 130 DUNLIN, 6 WILSON'S PHALAROPES, 2 COMMON TERNS (not so common around Kingston these days), YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO and 5 species of SWALLOWS. Charleston Lake Highlights from the Charleston Lake area included a brood of 7 new HOODED MERGANSER chicks, RED-SHOULDERED HAWK, 1 BREWSTER'S WARBLER (golden-winged x blue-winged warbler hybrid) and 1 CERULEAN WARBLER. Newburgh Area Interesting birds from the Newburgh Plain included a COOPER'S HAWK, 1 UPLAND SANDPIPER, 1 COMMON GALLINULE, 1 LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE and 2 CLAY-COLOURED SPARROWS. Opinicon Road A TRUMPETER SWAN remained on Lake Opinicon. The usual Opinicon Road specialties, both CUCKOOS, YELLOW-THROATED VIREO, BLUE-GREY GNATCATCHER, GOLDEN-WINGED WARBLER and CERULEAN WARBLER, could be easily located along the Skycroft Trails and the Lindsay Lake Trail among other locations. Other highlights were RED-SHOULDERED HAWK, BROAD-WINGED HAWK, BARRED OWL, EASTERN WHIP-POOR-WILL, COMMON NIGHTHAWK, RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER, PHILADELPHIA VIREO and CANADA WARBLER. Please note that it is imperative birders do not enter the tree swallow box areas along Opinicon Road - sensitive research is being conducted. Roadside observation is not a problem. Thanks for your cooperation. Offshore Island The small islands off shore of Kingston (accessible only by boat) hosted numerous shorebirds including an unbanded PIPING PLOVER, SEMIPALMATED PLOVER, DUNLIN, SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER and LEAST SANDPIPER on Salmon Island. At least one pair of GREAT EGRETS appeared to be nesting among the multitude of DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANTS on Middle Borthers Island. Other Sightings A handful of PINE SISKINS continue to visit a feeding station in Elginburg. The environs along Carman Creek (near Enterprise) produced a LEAST BITTERN and a BLUE-WINGED WARBLER. Thank you to those who contributed observations this week. All bird sightings reported to me are included in the Kingston Field Naturalists’s long term records database which has over 60 years of observations on file and is an invaluable conservation resource. Mark -- Mark Andrew Conboy Operations & Research Assistant and Outreach Coordinator Queen’s University Biological Station 280 Queen's University Road Elgin, Ontario, Canada K0G 1E0 phone: 613-359-5629 fax: 613-359-6558 email: 7m...@queensu.ca or mcon...@lakeheadu.ca QUBS website: http://www.queensu.ca/qubs/index.html QUBS blog: http://opinicon.wordpress.com/ QUBS flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/qubsoutreach/ _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to birdalert@ontbirds.ca For information about ONTBIRDS visit http://www.ofo.ca/
