[Ontbirds] SLATY-BACKED GULL - St. Clair River - Jan 23, 2013
Yesterday gull watching on the St. Clair River was fantastic with 8 species observed without any small gulls. First my apologies for the late posting on this bird. I wanted to research hybrid options before posting as I did not see the classic ‘string of pearls’ or bright pink legs of this bird, but had excellent direct comparisons with adjacent herring and great black-backed gulls for several minutes in bright overcast conditions. I firmly believe now that it was an adult winter SLATY-BACKED GULL. I put a description on ebird if you want to see more details. If you are looking for the bird it is a full adult, with a mantle colour intermediate between LBBG and GBBG. Next to a herring gull it is clearly larger and very bulky and block headed. It has a strong hood, with the classic dark eye patch and prominent pale eye, with broad white tertials. Most of the gulls seen were loafing on ice floes and slowly drifting down the river. Even if this bird is no longer on the St. Clair River, there is a good chance it could turn up somewhere on Lake St. Clair, or the Detroit River (Peche Island or Belle Isle). It is very striking! Yesterday I birded the St. Clair River from Port Huron/Sarnia all the way to Marine City/ Sombra. Unlike the day before the river was full of ice floes and large numbers of gulls were riding on the floes, all along the river. I observed about 2500 gulls in total along the river including 15 GLAUCOUS (8 adults, 6 first yr, 1 second yr), 78 GREAT BLACK-BACKED (60% or more adults), 1 THAYERS (first yr), 3 ICELAND (2 adults, 1 first), 2 Iceland/Thayers type – first yrs sitting on ice where more detail could not be seen, and 3 LESSER BLACK-BACKED (2 adults, 1 first yr). If anyone finds this bird, I would really appreciate an email. Also please get photos. Good birding! Tom G. Tom Hince P.O. Box 281 Wheatley, ON N0P2P0 Canada pelee...@netcore.ca 586 839-7482 ___ 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/
[Ontbirds] SLATY-BACKED GULL - St. Clair River - Jan 23, 2013 LOCATION INFO
This bird was seen approximately 4 miles north of Marine City/Sombra on ice floes in the St. Clair River. Almost all the gulls were floating on the river and not taking flight often, so the bird could be in a large stretch of the river. G. Tom Hince P.O. Box 281 Wheatley, ON N0P2P0 Canada pelee...@netcore.ca 586 839-7482 ___ 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/
[Ontbirds] WESTERN GREBE - SARNIA
At 2 pm today (Dec 16th) there was a Western Grebe swimming on both the MI and ON sides of the channel off lighthouse park in Port Huron and opposite the Sarnia waterfront. I obtained poor but readily identifiable stills and video. The bird was swimming and diving amongst the hundreds of long tailed ducks feeding north of the bridge. Also present were 28 white winged 1 surf and 1 black scoter (far to the north) and an adult Iceland Gull on the US side at the parking lot by the bridge (attacking some discarded garbage!). Tom Hince G. Tom Hince P.O. Box 281 Wheatley, ON N0P2P0 Canada pelee...@netcore.ca 586 839-7482 ___ 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/
[Ontbirds] BOREAL CHICKADEE - Holiday Beach Nov 1
Hi Folks Sorry for the belated report. I had a calling BOREAL CHICKADEE while doing the hawk count at the Holiday Beach hawk tower in Essex County, on November 1st. The bird was heard three times at 2:22 pm and never seen. All the chickadee flocks were on the move and I was not able to track down the boreal before the flock moved west along the lakeshore. Holiday Beach Conservation Area is just south of the town of Malden Centre in southern Essex County. Tom Hince P.O. Box 281 Wheatley, ON N0P 2P0 tomhince.blogspot.com ___ 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/
