WEEKLY BIRD REPORT FROM PRINCE EDWARD COUNTY AND THE QUINTE AREA FOR THE WEEK ENDING Thursday, March 19, 2009
A few days of mild temperatures never fails to jump start the spring migration which was in high gear this past week throughout Prince Edward County. New arrivals included KILLDEER at North Beach on March 15th, now here in great abundance. The first TURKEY VULTURES appeared the same day with one flying over Picton, followed by a steady stream of them over the next few days, 5 appearing over the town the next day and in the Chuckery Hill area. The first AMERICAN WOODCOCK on Fry Road on the 16th was only a forerunner of a major influx of the species over the next two days. On Sprague Road and North Big Island Road before daybreak this morning, I counted 16 calling along the 2.5 km stretch of road, from both sides. SONG SPARROWS also poured into the County this week, and one feeder in Trenton had 12. EASTERN BLUEBIRDS are nesting on Powerline Road between Brighton and Trenton, and a pair was seen at a nesting box on Fry Road on the 12th. An uncharacteristically slow PEREGRINE FALCON flew close to one observer at West Point in Sandbanks Provincial Park on the 16th. However, the big news this week has been the arrival of waterfowl, mostly as a result of many of the bays and lakes becoming free of ice. What had to be "half the North American population" of CANADA GEESE was noted by one observer early this week at Elmbrook, and while somewhat exaggerated of course, numbers were unquestionably high all week, both in migration and in gaggles in popular loafing areas. Numbers at Prince Edward Bay ranged from 700 to 4,500 through much of the week as local aggregations of them moved around from lakeside to corn fields. Warm weather quickly opened up the popular "Kaiser Crossroad Cornfields" . On Sunday, only the south pond was open with a couple thousand geese loafing about, but by mid-week conditions continued to improve with new waterfowl moving in almost daily. Highlighting the arrivals were four GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GEESE, present since the 17th, and increasing to five as of yesterday. NORTHERN PINTAILS have also increased from their debut on the 17th when some 50 were present, and that number has since soared to over 200. Also present, and increasing in numbers there, have been TUNDRA SWANS, WOOD DUCKS (5), AMERICAN WIGEON (10), MALLARDS (200), RING-NECKED DUCKS, GADWALL, HOODED MERGANSER, AMERICAN BLACK DUCKS, and GREEN-WINGED TEAL, along with a couple GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULLS. Certainly the place to be this weekend, but observers are cautioned that the waterfowl are easily spooked and birders are urged to use some discretion when parking along the roadside and erecting their spotting scopes as there is nothing to hide behind. If things don't work out there, a roadway leading to the Prince Edward Bay from the south end of Kaiser Crossroad will produce thousands of CANADA GEESE, GREATER SCAUP with smaller numbers of MUTE SWANS, TUNDRA SWANS, LONG-TAILED DUCKS, BUFFLEHEADS and COMMON GOLDENEYE. Kaiser Crossroad runs between County Roads 7 and 8 and can be reached either by travelling east from Waupoos on the Prince Edward Bay side, or from Lake on the Mountain from the Adolphus Reach/Bay of Quinte side. A good spotting scope is needed at Wellington Harbour where open water has extended some distance into West Lake. On Sunday there were some 2,500 CANADA GEESE present. At Log Cabin Point in East Lake, about 100 GREATER SCAUP are there, along with 66 MUTE SWANS, RING-NECKED DUCKS and COMMON GOLDENEYES. Mostly this weekend, it will be a case of seeking out the ice edges where many of these ducks tend to hang out. At bird feeders, things have become rather quiet since the blustery days of winter, but both COMMON REDPOLLS and PINE SISKINS are still present at most feeders across the region, but reduced in numbers from earlier totals, and 3 HOARY REDPOLLS are still present at a feeder east of Lake on the Mountain. PURPLE FINCHES appeared in ones and twos at feeders at 23 Sprague Road, and a single WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL was in Belleville on the 17th, the latter species having all but disappeared from the Quinte area this past week. There was a COMMON RAVEN along Greer Road, just east of Highway 33 in Hillier on the 15th, and a ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK was seen circling on Fish Lake Road the following day where an immature BALD EAGLE was also seen. An adult BALD EAGLE was spotted on Muscote Bay on the 14th. A pair of RED-TAILED HAWKS are nesting in a backyard tree along a side street in Stirling. A GREAT BLUE HERON was also seen in that area this week. And from the Arden area, 7 km southeast of Kaladar, some species of interest noted there this past week included AMERICAN WOODCOCK, GREAT BLUE HERON, HOODED MERGANSER, WOOD DUCK, RED-SHOULDERED HAWK, 8 RED CROSSBILLS and an unexpected flock of 24 BOHEMIAN WAXWINGS. And that's it for this week from Prince Edward County and the Quinte area. Our thanks to Kay Camp, Cathie Stewart, Borys Holowacz, Kathy Felkar & Mike Burge, Bill Leet, Michael & Joyce Jaques, David Bree, Wayne McNulty, Joanne Dewey, Olive Root, Fred Chandler, Donna Fano, Garry & Elaine Kirsch, Fiona King, Pamela Stagg, Steve Bolton, Cindy Stapleton, Doris Lane, Henri Garand and Michael Biro for their contributions to this week's report. This report will be updated on Thursday, March 26th, but sightings can be e-mailed any time before the Wednesday night deadline. Featured photo this week on the Main Birding Page of the NatureStuff website is a distant shot of the four GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GEESE at Kaiser Crossroad. Photos of CANADA GEESE and an AMERICAN ROBIN in the online edition of the Quinte Area Bird Report are by Derek Dafoe of Belleville. -Terry Sprague Prince Edward County tspra...@kos.net www.naturestuff.net _______________________________________________ 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/
