This afternoon, while looking for the Elegant Tern, Nathan Miller found a LARK SPARROW along the river in Fort Erie, Ontario. The bird was also seen a little later by other observers.
The locations where the bird was seen are along the Niagara Parkway between Bowen Road and Central Avenue. This is about ¾ mile north of the International Railroad bridge. There is a small park on the west side of the road here and the bird was seen there, right next to the road, as well as across the road next to the river in some bushes. In addition it was seen with House Sparrows at 769 Niagara Parkway, which is the house on the south side of Central, at Niagara Parkway. I heard a second-hand report that the Elegant Tern was seen at Squaw Island on the end of the pier before 9:00 this morning but this sighting was from someone on the Canadian side, so it was at a distance. The bird was said to not move from the spot for the 30 minutes that it was watched. There are a few Common Terns that also sit on the pier. One thing is for certain, the ELEGANT TERN was seen this afternoon along the Niagara River in Fort Erie, unquestionably on the Canadian side of the boundary. Great views of the bird were had from the end of Gilmore Road in Fort Erie, where gulls like to sit. Gilmore Road is about ¾ mile south of the International Railroad bridge. I was one of the lucky ones today. It was reported from this location at 1:30 and seen flying into the rocks here again at 3:30. There were lots of gulls on the Niagara River today. There are Franklins, Kittiwake, and Little in the Buffalo/Fort Erie area. A Kittiwake was reported from the power plants a couple of days ago. Today at the power plants, there were 4 LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULLS, 1 GLAUCOUS GULL, 4 ICELAND GULLS, and 1 or 2 THAYERS GULLS. Above the falls, there were lots of LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULLS, 2 OR 3 GLAUCOUS GULLS, and 1 ICELAND GULL. Lastly, Jim Pawlicki reported two adult male HARLEQUIN DUCKS off of the big parking lot at Fort Niagara State Park this morning. Some searchers later in the day were not successful in refinding them but viewing conditions apparently were very difficult then. Good birding! Willie ------------------ Willie D'Anna Betsy Potter Wilson, NY dannapotterATroadrunner.com http://www.betsypottersart.com <http://www.betsypottersart.com/> 2013 Big Year: http://www.betsypottersart.com/willie-s-photos/2013-big-year/ Big Year List: http://www.happtech.com/BigYearDanna/CurrentList/ShowCurrentListTable.aspx Odenates: http://www.betsypottersart.com/willie-s-photos/dragonflies -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
