The Blue Bill Volume 66 Number 1 - March 2019 · 2019. 3. 17. · PEPt 71 76 71 65 63 55 55 69 70...

TheBlue BillQuarterly Journal of the Kingston Field Naturalists

ISSN 0382-5655

Volume 66, No. 1 March 2019

Contents1 President’s Page / Anthony Kaduck 1

2 Kingston and Area Christmas Bird Counts / Kathy Webb 2

3 Mid-winter Waterfowl Inventory (2019) /Mark D. Read 8

4 Kingston Region Birds – Autumn 2018 (August 1st – November 30th) /Mark D. Read 12

5 Articles 185.1 Exercise Timbit Traveller III - The Great Ontario Birding Tour 2018 / Anthony Kaduck . . . . . . 18

6 KFN Outings 266.1 Ramble to the Cataraqui Cemetery (January 8, 2019) / Anne Robertson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266.2 Ramble to the Bu ernut Creek Trail (January 22, 2019) /Marlene Rothenbury . . . . . . . . . . . 276.3 Ramble to the Cataraqui Trail at Perth Road (February 5, 2019) / Nancy Spencer . . . . . . . . . 286.4 Teens Clean Out Wood Duck Nest Boxes (February 9, 2019) / Amelie Robitaille . . . . . . . . . . 296.5 Ramble to the Bayview Bog (February 19, 2019) /Maureen Martin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296.6 Amherst Island Outing (March 2, 2019) / Janet Sco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306.7 Ramble to the Rogers Side Road Trails (March 5, 2019) / Rosemary Bradley . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

7 Winter Bird Photos 34

8 Clipped Classics 36

2018/2019 Executive

President . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Anthony Kaduck

Honorary President . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ron Weir

Vice-President (Speakers) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Kenneth Edwards

Past President . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Alexandra Simmons

Treasurer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Larry McCurdy

Recording Secretary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Janis Grant

Membership Secretary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John Critchley

Archives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Peter McIntyre

Bird Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mark Read

Bird Sightings/Ontbirds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mark Read

Book Auction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Janet and Bruce Ellio

Conservation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Chris Hargreaves

Editor of The Blue Bill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Peter Waycik

Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Shirley French

Facebook Coordinator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Polly Aiken

Field Trips/Slideshow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Gaye Beckwith

Junior Naturalists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Anne Robertson

May Dinner Coordinator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Polly Aiken

Nature Reserves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Erwin Batalla

Newsle er . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Janet Ellio

Ontario Nature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John Donihee

Publicity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jackie Bartnik

Website . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lesley Rudy

To contact any member of the executive or for general inquiriesabout the Kingston Field Naturalists, please send an email [email protected].

The Blue Bill is the quarterlyjournal (published March,June, September and De-cember) of the KingstonField Naturalists, P.O. Box831, Kingston ON, K7L 4X6,Canada.

kingstonfieldnaturalists.org

Send submissions to the editorby the 5th of the month of pub-lication (i.e. the 5th of March,June, September, or December)to

[email protected]

Submissions may be in anyformat. Equations should be inLATEX. Please provide captionsand credit information for pho-tos.

Canadian Publications MailProduct Sales Agreement#047128

https://kingstonfieldnaturalists.org

The Blue Bill Volume 66, No. 1 1

1 President’s Pageby Anthony Kaduck

Our new website is now up and running! We hadbudgeted up to $4,000 to have it redesigned pro-fessionally but our Blue Bill Editor, Peter Waycik,suggested that we could do the work in-house atnext to no cost. Well the results of that effort arenow on display and I think you will agree that thenew site is a significant upgrade: be er organized,more informative, and more pleasing to the eye.It is also mobile-friendly, so it is now much easierto access the site from a smart phone or a tablet.There are still a few fixes to make but we decidedto go ”live” now rather than waiting until we hada perfect solution.

So how can you help get to the finish line? First, byusing the website. If you find any problems, suchas a link that does not connect to the right pageor missing information, contact Lesley Rudy, thewebsite manager, and it will be sorted out. Youcan also contribute your own photos, whether ofwildlife or of club activities, to help us show in im-ages what the club is all about.

Developing the new site endedup costing us a cou-ple of hundred dollars instead of thousands, so Iwould be remiss if I failed to recognize the manyhours of work that went into this project. Theweb-site commi ee was chaired by Lesley, with PeterWaycik, Gaye Beckwith, Chris Hargreaves andmeas members. The commi ee met several times towork out how the site should be organized, but thevast majority of the actual work of building it andtransferring information was done by Lesley andPeter. This was a significant effort–I would esti-mate they spent close to one hundred hours on theproject, and we all owe them a debt of gratitude.So Lesley and Peter: on behalf of all the membersof the KFN, Well Done!, and thank you for takingthis on.

And now that I am on the subject of volunteer-ing... Our club relies onmany people volunteeringtheir time to run our various lines of effort–field

trips, rambles, the Teen and Junior programmes,the newsle er, the Blue Bill, the May Dinner, ourFacebook and Flickr pages and the website.

Less visible to the members but equally impor-tant are bookkeeping and budgeting, collectingdues and issuing membership cards, finding andbooking speakers, tabulating bird records, draft-ing minutes, placing advertisements, managingour nature reserves, representing the Club at On-tario Nature and of course ensuring that our viewson the environment and conservation are heard bymunicipal and provincial levels of government.

If you would be interested in helping out with anyof these activities please contact me or the relevantcommi ee chair and offer to pitch in. You don’thave to take on huge responsibilities, but simplethings like helping to staff an information booth ata public event would help lessen the load on ”theusual suspects.”

There are three places in particularwherewe coulduse some additional help from members:

• If you enjoy taking part in the field tripsplease consider running one yourself. It’snot a lot of work and your efforts will be ap-preciated.

• We are always on the lookout for new con-tent for the Blue Bill. Articles and observa-tions are welcome, as are photos.

• We need a volunteer to record sightings ofOdonates (dragonflies and damselflies). Ide-ally this personwould be an ”odonatophile,”but experience is less important than interestand the desire to learn.

If you think you could help out with any of theseprojects please contact any member of the execu-tive and we will point you in the right direction!

2 March 2019

2 Kingston and Area Christmas Bird Countsby Kathy Webb

Christmas Bird Counts (CBCs) take place within afixed 24km diameter circle and always take placeon a single day between the dates of 14th Decem-ber and 5th January. The Kingston count alwaysfalls on the first Sunday within that time frame:the recent count took place on Sunday, December16, 2018 and the next count will take place on Sun-day, December 15, 2019. Kingston’s first Christ-mas Bird Count (CBC) was held in 1948. OtherCBCs established within the KFN birding area in-clude: Moscow (1964), Westport (1964), Napanee

(1965), Thousand Islands (1974), Prince EdwardPoint (1977), Amherst Island (1990), Delta (2000),Gananoque (2014) and Frontenac (2015). Moscowfell by the wayside in 1994, returned in 2016 and2017, but failed to take place in 2018 due to a lack ofvolunteers; hopefully, sufficient volunteers can berecruited for a return in 2019. As always, the con-tinued efforts of the coordinators, compilers andparticipants of all local counts are greatly appreci-ated.

Figure 1: One of the highlights of the Kingston CBCwasaGreaterWhite-frontedGoose – the second record in thelast 20 years and the first since 1999. The goose was seenon RMC property as part of the area 9 count. It stayedaround for a fewmore days allowing other birders to seeand photograph it. (Sharon David)

Figure 2: The first Boreal Owl included as part of theKingston CBC was seen and photographed by KristaFazackerley at the Li le Cataraqui Conservation Areaduring count week on December 18, 2018. (Krista Faza-ckerley)

Table 1: Overall statistics for the Kingston area, 2018

King Westp Nap 1000 Is PEPt Amherst Delta Gan Front16-Dec 14-Dec 23-Dec 20-Dec 15-Dec 04-Jan 19-Dec 27-Dec 15-Dec

Species 86 52 53 63 69 63 36 55 49

Birds 35869 4273 7286 5726 11324 4114 1245 8182 3362

Participants:field+feeder 57 + 75 18 + 11 19 + 0 23 + 15 26 + 1 60 + 5 11 + 0 19 + 2 53 + 9

Low (◦C) -2 -3 -3 -4 -4 5 -6 -15 2

High (◦C) 2 4 0 5 4 10 3 -7 4

Rain/Snow None Lightrain pm None None None None None None None

Sun/Cloud Cloudy Cloudy PartlyCloudyPartlyCloudy

PartlyCloudy Cloudy

PartlyCloudy

PartlyCloudy

PartlyCloudy


Table 2: The number of species found over the last 15 years, with average (*no count held)

’04 ’05 ’06 ’07 ’08 ’09 ’10 ’11 ’12 ’13 ’14 ’15 ’16 ’17 ’18 Avg.

Kingston 103 103 104 * 106 101 102 105 108 96 104 84 96 82 86 99

Westport * * 52 34 36 33 37 51 47 39 42 44 39 55 52 43

Napanee 58 50 56 51 57 60 59 59 58 51 66 66 59 60 53 58

1000Islands 57 60 64 60 55 50 63 54 55 55 55 59 64 63 63 58

PEPt 71 76 71 65 63 55 55 69 70 63 74 61 64 80 69 67

AmherstIs 36 64 54 54 57 56 57 69 61 54 74 51 50 53 63 57

Delta 43 38 48 40 42 42 40 38 44 41 41 46 44 41 36 42

Gananoque - - - - - - - - - - 56 63 74 51 55 60

Frontenac - - - - - - - - - - - 37 37 49 49 43

Moscow - - - - - - - - - - - - 36 40 * 38

Table 1 shows a selection of statistics for the ninecounts held within our area. Participation washigh for the Kingston, Amherst Island and Fron-tenac circles; a record number of backyard feederwatchers also took part in the Kingston CBC. Tem-peratures hovered around zero for most of the lo-cal counts with a general lack of precipitation. Formost counts, there was very li le ice on the mainlarge bodies of water. However, shallow and in-land bodies of water were mostly frozen, therebyimpacting the diversity and numbers seen in sev-eral counts.

Table 2 provides species counts and averages overthe last 15 years. On average across counts, thenumber of species seen this year was similar to theaverage over the past 15 years. However, the num-ber of species and the total number of birds seen inthe Kingston count were significantly below the 20year averages of 102 and 49,920, respectively.

Table 3 contains a breakdown of species for eachcount as taken from the Audubon website. Under-lined numbers indicate record high counts. Theabbreviation ‘cw’ indicates a species seen during‘count week’, consisting of the 3 days before andafter the actual count day. An interesting statis-tic not included in the table is the combined totalnumber of species across all counts. This year, 109species with an additional 4 count week specieswere seen, which illustrates the great diversity ofspecies that can be found in this area during thewinter months.

Highlights on count day included: a GreaterWhite-fronted Goose (Kingston), 3 Tufted Tit-mice (Kingston, Delta, Thousand Islands), 1Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (Kingston), 1 Black-backed Woodpecker (Westport), 1 Marsh Wren(Kingston), 3 Carolina Wrens (Kingston, West-port, PEPt), 1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet (Kingston),1 Savannah Sparrow (Kingston), 1 Eastern Mead-owlark (Thousand Islands), White-winged Cross-bills (2 Kingston, 1 Amherst Island), Eastern Blue-birds (53 PEPt, 8 Napanee, 4 Thousand Islands),and a high of 20 Common Loons in the ThousandIsland count. Notable “count week” species in-cluded a Boreal Owl (the first ever for the Kingstoncount), a Long-eared Owl (Kingston), a Green-winged Teal (Frontenac), and a Chipping Sparrow(Gananoque).

Notable high counts were found for Mute Swans,Blue Jays, Northern Cardinals and Dark-eyed Jun-cos. The large number of feeder watchers inKingston likely contributed to high counts forsome of the birds that commonly a end feed-ers, i.e., woodpeckers, nuthatches, chickadees,cardinals, juncos and goldfinches. This wasan irruption (flight) year for winter finches inthe East since cone and birch seed crops arepoor in most of Ontario and the Northeast;as such, it was forecasted that we should ex-pect flights of winter finches into southern On-tario (h p://jeaniron.ca/2018/wff18.htm). In accor-dance, record/high numbers of Pine Siskins (a highof 78 in Kingston), Pine Grosbeaks (25 in Na-panee, 19 in Gananoque, 16 in Kingston), Pur-

https://netapp.audubon.org/CBCObservation/CurrentYear/ResultsByCount.aspxhttp://jeaniron.ca/2018/wff18.htm

4 March 2019

ple Finch and Common Redpolls were seen; afew Evening Grosbeaks and Hoary Redpolls werealso seen. Another irruptive species is the Red-breasted Nuthatch, which reached record highs inthe Kingston count.

Notable low counts were seen for Snow Buntingsand notable misses included the LaplandLongspur and the Horned Lark. Noticeable lows

includedmany of the waterfowl. Low counts wereseen for some of the dabblers (Gadwall, Ameri-can Wigeon, Mallard), while others were missed(Northern Pintails, Northern Shovelers). Therealso appeared to be low counts for some of thediving ducks: Bufflehead, Common Mergansers,Greater and Lesser Scaup. Only 1 American Cootwas seen in the area during the count.

Table 3: Kingston Area Christmas Bird Counts 2018

King Westp Nap 1000 PEPt Amher Delta Gan Front

Greater White-frontedGoose 1

Cackling Goose 1

Canada Goose 16442 440 2813 1432 1004 1676 125 2784 538

Mute Swan 232 40 187 421 18 325

Trumpeter Swan 18 4 17 12

Tundra Swan 573 83 4 54 8 35

Wood Duck 2

Gadwall 97 1 111

American Wigeon 12 5

American Black Duck 263 25 2 20 19 23 2 2 5

Mallard 1784 35 109 183 286 120 6 73 142

Green-winged Teal cw

Canvasback 4

Redhead 1758 2019 1

Ring-necked Duck 48 8

Greater Scaup 721 1 1

Lesser Scaup 7 21

Harlequin Duck 2

White-winged Scoter 356 1

Black Scoter 1

Long-tailed Duck 2478 1 9 2638 22

Bufflehead 116 1 10 29 106 7 1

Common Goldeneye 921 167 106 83 854 262 22 2

Hooded Merganser 72 29 3 4 4

Common Merganser 399 1268 52 169 30 33 1 591 57

Red-breasted Merganser 1785 8 12 122 43

Ruffed Grouse 2 3 8 7 1 3 28



Ring-necked Pheasant 6

Wild Turkey 129 131 59 122 102 31 72 172

Common Loon 1 1 3 20 1 1 10

Horned Grebe 1

Red-necked Grebe 1 1

Double-crestedCormorant 1 2

Great Blue Heron 4 1 1 2 1 1

Turkey Vulture 5

Northern Harrier 20 3 90

Sharp-shinned Hawk 1 3

Cooper� Hawk 2 1 4 2 1 3

Bald Eagle 19 19 9 16 28 28 17 15 15

Red-tailed Hawk 42 4 17 34 8 57 8 17 20

Rough-legged Hawk 13 1 3 59

American Coot 1

Ring-billed Gull 194 8 25 34 144 10 7 5 22

Herring Gull 186 56 686 159 78 41 48 128 80

Iceland Gull 1

Glaucous Gull 2

Great Black-backed Gull 8 1 42 19 7 3 4 9

Rock Pigeon (feralpigeon) 655 282 848 213 114 18 118 543 151

Mourning Dove 350 152 156 201 116 118 22 276 147

Eastern Screech Owl 6 2

Great Horned Owl 2 1 1 1

Snowy Owl 18 55

Barred Owl 10 5 3 1 1 2 4

Long-eared Owl cw

Short-eared Owl 1 10

Northern Saw-whet Owl 4

Boreal Owl cw

Belted Kingfisher 2 1 1 1 2

Red-belliedWoodpecker 15 3 1 10 16 10 3 11 8

Yellow-belliedSapsucker 1

Downy Woodpecker 125 48 20 38 40 24 17 62 37

Hairy Woodpecker 73 56 10 35 23 21 12 31 56

6 March 2019


Black-backedWoodpecker 1

Northern Flicker 2 cw 2 10 1 3

Pileated Woodpecker 21 7 cw 22 5 3 8 8 19

American Kestrel 4 4 1 2 5

Merlin 2 1 1 4 1 1

Peregrine Falcon 1 1 1 1 1 1

Northern Shrike 1 4 2 2 2 2 1 1

Blue Jay 310 220 121 277 373 91 116 252 244

American Crow 233 35 175 146 105 56 45 75 71

Common Raven 27 30 21 46 13 55 23 58 31

Black-capped Chickadee 1332 437 246 401 552 210 142 471 557

Tufted Titmouse 1 1 1

Red-breasted Nuthatch 33 11 4 5 3 5 19

White-breastedNuthatch 302 94 32 98 97 34 21 82 136

Brown Creeper 4 2 6 3 2 1 7

Winter Wren 1 cw 1

Marsh Wren 1

Carolina Wren 1 1 1

Golden-crowned Kinglet 8 1 2 1 4

Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1

Eastern Bluebird 8 4 53

American Robin 64 3 4 15 92 1 27 2

European Starling 2143 413 939 1056 475 374 98 516 245

Bohemian Waxwing 60 cw

Cedar Waxwing 42 12 45 15 145 75

Snow Bunting 100 1 15 113 212 4

Yellow-rumped Warbler 27

American Tree Sparrow 82 27 52 40 20 44 19 84 43

Chipping Sparrow cw

Field Sparrow 1

Dark-eyed Junco 321 30 189 125 80 13 28 230 94

White-crowned Sparrow 2 1

White-throated Sparrow 16 2 3 1 3

Savannah Sparrow 1

Song Sparrow 18 1 3 1 4

Swamp Sparrow 2



Northern Cardinal 125 10 15 19 17 12 6 38 12

Red-winged Blackbird 15 11 15

Eastern Meadowlark 1

Common Grackle 1 2 35

Brown-headed Cowbird 2

Pine Grosbeak 16 25 8 1 19 1

House Finch 170 6 33 16 13 16 31

Purple Finch 17 1 1 2

White-winged Crossbill 2 1

Common Redpoll 138 30 106 29 3 257 1054 75

Hoary Redpoll 1 1 2

Pine Siskin 78 5 8 cw

American Goldfinch 296 32 38 147 45 20 47 85 63

Evening Grosbeak 1 4 2 4 8

House Sparrow 268 46 67 151 32 83 34 68 17

Total species 86 52 53 63 69 63 35 55 48

Total individualsincluding ’sp’ (below) 35869 4273 7286 5726 11324 4114 1245 8385 3362

Swan sp. 19 213

ABDUxMALL hybrid 1

Greater/Lesser Scaup 1

Merganser sp. 20

Duck sp. 30 86 42

Waterfowl sp. 25

Buteo/hawk sp. 1 5 1

Gull sp. 7 20 208 7 5

Owl sp. 1

Woodpecker sp. 4 2

Passerine sp. 8

Common/Hoary Redpoll 2

Sparrow sp. 4

Finch sp. 4

bird sp. 26

Total ’sp’ counts 89 0 20 0 516 12 0 0 105

Further information regarding count dates and locations can be found on the Bird Studies Canada website.

To view or download historical results from any location, please visit the Audubon website.

http://www.birdscanada.org/volunteer/cbc/http://netapp.audubon.org/cbcobservation/

8 March 2019

3 Mid-winter Waterfowl Inventory (2019)by Mark D. Read

The Mid-Winter Waterfowl Inventory (MWWI) iscarried out throughout North America during thefirst weeks of January. In Canada, a coordinatedground survey of Lake Ontario typically takesplace on the first Sunday during the period 6th-12th

January. CWS offshore aerial data is then added tothe shoreline ground counts to form the final LakeOntario count. This gets added to the other lowerGreat Lakes data to form the Ontario contributionto the entireMississippi Flyway totals. These num-bers are then used in waterfowl management de-cisions on a continent-wide basis (habitat restora-tion, bag limits etc.).

Fifteen observers surveyed theKingston region, allthe way from Ivy Lea to Prince Edward Point, aswell as north along the Rideau to Westport. It wasamainly cloudydaywith sunny intervals and tem-peratures holding just below 0◦C. Visibility wasgood and the majority of waterways were open.This was one of the most pleasant counts for sometime. CWS conducted their aerial survey 11th-12th January, just a few days after the ground sur-vey. Participants were Shannon Badzinski (CWS),Barb Campbell (CWS), Cheryl Anderson, SharonDavid, Stephanie Davison, Bill Depew, Ken Ed-wards, Chris Heffernan, Kurt Hennige, Todd Nor-ris, Mark Read, AmandaRonce i, Martin Ronce i,Kathy Webb, and Peter Waycik. Results from theAmherst Island CBC held on the 4th January wereused for that section of the survey. Sincere thanksgo to all participants.

Table 1 shows results of the combined ground andaerial survey for the Kingston area as provided byKim Benne (MNRF). In total, 69,804 individualswere counted of 21 species (compared to 6,362 in-dividuals of 20 species in 2018 and 74,739 individ-uals of 25 species in 2017). An amazing 52 BaldEagles were also tallied by the ground survey. Lo-cal results were then submi ed to the Lake On-tario compiler (Glenn Coady) who then returnedthe overall data found in Table 2. These re-sults do not include any of the aerial data. Areas sur-veyed along Lake Ontario from east to west wereKingston, Quinte, Presqu’ile, Port Hope, Durham,

Toronto, Hamilton and Niagara.

As noted by Glenn,

”…contributions have allowed us toprovide comprehensive coverage ofthe entire Ontario shoreline of LakeOntario for the 40th consecutive year. Ithas been an amazingly sustained com-mitment and a substantial contribu-tion to waterfowl conservation effortsto have good numbers upon which tobase decisions on from bag limits onhunting to priorities for research dol-lars and habitat improvement and ac-quisition.

A quick look at our results will re-veal that this year provided excep-tional species diversity with 40 speciesseen lake-wide to tie our best ever,achieved only in one other year in 2000.Our lake-wide total of over 120,000birds was up by more than 25% overlast year, probably in part due to themuch more favourable viewing condi-tions and much more open water area.

Although most routes detected num-bers typical for their areas in recentyears, there was a noticeable dropin the number of diving ducks fromHamilton over to eastern Mississauga.The lower than usual count of Trum-peter Swans may be a ributable tomore birds still found on open inlandwater bodies due to the mild weatherthroughout December. This may alsoaccount for the late arrival of some ofthe diving ducks at the western endof the lake. The ongoing explosivegrowth in numbers of Mute Swans atthe east end of the lake is in stark con-trast to the declining numbers at thewest end of the lake where nest controlmeasures now seem to be having an ef-fect.


Kingston is so awash in Bald Eaglesthat this year we have a record hightally of 71 Bald Eagles. Nice work atthe eastern end of the lake.

Yet again this year we set an all-timerecord low count of 307 lake-wide forthe American Black Duck - might wesee its near disappearance from LakeOntario within another generation? As

recently as 2005 we tallied 4217 birds.

No record-high counts were set for anyspecies, although the 8 Red-throatedLoons approached the record high of9.”

Next year’s ground survey is scheduled to takeplace on Sunday 12th January. Please [email protected] if interested in taking part.

Table 4: Combined aerial and ground survey results for the Kingston area.

Ivy HI WI King AI Hy33 CP PEPt Napa Rid Totals

Canada Goose 1814 1740 5703 940 1676 3247 8000 445 1051 135 24751

Mute Swan 272 312 201 121 18 16 32 136 36 29 1173

Trumpeter Swan 1 3 6 - - 1 - - 1 59 71

Tundra Swan - 19 83 - 8 - - - - 82 192

Swan sp. - - - - - - - - - 67 67

N. Shoveler - - - 2 - - - - - - 2

Gadwall - 7 - 21 111 10 - - - - 149

A. Wigeon - - - 2 - - - - - - 2

Mallard 302 465 2851 471 120 559 136 2 181 10 5097

Am Black Duck 4 8 91 3 23 1 2 25 14 6 177

Canvasback - - - 7 - - - - - - 7

Redhead - - 43 470 - - - 600 - 20 1133

RN Duck - - - 20 - - 1 - - - 21

Greater Scaup - - 9 440 1 188 17 1 - - 656

Lesser Scaup - - 1 10 - 1 - - - - 12

Scaup sp. - - 141 25 - - - 38 - - 166

WW Scoter - - 50 - 1 - - 208 - - 259

LT Duck 6 358 360 22 22 19 2 26652 - - 27441

Bufflehead - 2 6 17 67 16 21 40 - - 169

C. Goldeneye 267 110 679 160 262 279 164 368 79 93 2461

Duck sp. 7 - - - - - - - - - 7

H. Merganser - - - 8 4 - - - - 10 12

C. Merganser 1812 1564 542 441 302 569 - 15 2 204 5451

RB Merganser 19 50 165 34 13 7 - 40 - - 328

Species Counts(21) 9 12 15 18 14 13 9 12 7 10 69804

Bald Eagle 6a, 3i 4a, 1i 2i - 28 - 2a, - - 1 3a, 2i 52

Key: Ivy = Ivy Lea Bridge to RMC; HI = Howe Island; WI = Wolfe Island; King = Kingston (LaSalle toCollins Bay); AI = Amherst Island; Hy33 = Amherstview to Glenora Ferry; CP = Cressy Peninsula; PEPt =Black Creek to PEPt; Napa = Glenora/Picton to Napanee & Hay Bay; Rid = Rideau system north of 401 toWestport, including Bedford Mills. For Bald Eagles ’a’ refers to adults, ’i’ refers to immatures”. Swan sp.,Scaup sp. and Duck sp. are not included in the Species Counts.

mailto:[email protected]

10 March 2019

Table 5: Combined aerial and ground survey results for the Kingston area.

Species KingstonQuinte Presqu’ilePortHope Durham Toronto HamiltonNiagara Total

Red-throated Loon - - - 1 - 1 1 5 8

Common Loon - - - - - 2 1 - 3

Pied-billed Grebe - - - - - 1 - - 1

Horned Grebe - - - - - 2 - - 2

Red-necked Grebe - - - - - - 10 - 10

DC Cormorant - 1 - - - 6 57 23 87

Tundra Swan 192 158 - - - 2 - 3 350

Trumpeter Swan 63 3 1 - - 145 60 - 270

Mute Swan 732 430 120 - 4 235 48 3 1572

GWF Goose - - - - - 2 - - 2

Snow Goose - - - - - 1 - - 1

Canada Goose 20422 2696 452 2876 2229 10893 1938 456 41962

Cackling Goose - 4 - - - 2 - - 6

Wood Duck - 1 - - - 1 - - 2

Green-winged Teal - - - - - - 2 - 2

American Black Duck 68 3 - 57 6 127 34 12 307

Mallard 1329 200 1 525 63 3053 2378 159 7708

Northern Pintail - - - - - 2 - - 2

Northern Shoveler 2 - - 1 - 1 91 - 95

Gadwall 149 - - - 28 487 41 - 705

American Wigeon 2 - - - - 30 - - 32

Canvasback 7 31 9 - - 12 17 4 80

Redhead 1133 1615 450 - - 2074 17 126 5415

Ring-necked Duck 21 1 - - - 1 - 1 24

Greater Scaup 656 360 645 156 973 11550 1731 3250 19321

Lesser Scaup 12 3 1 - - 23 44 2 85

Scaup sp. - 60 - - - - 33 17 110

King Eider - - - - - - 1 - 1

Harlequin Duck - - - - 1 1 - - 2

Long-tailed Duck 998 1183 2334 209 363 4971 2908 6531 19497

Black Scoter - - - - - 5 10 2 17

Surf Scoter - - - 2 - 32 75 97 206

White-winged Scoter 209 9 8 - - 217 186 1137 1766

Common Goldeneye 1817 559 982 252 624 2851 1390 3972 12447

Bufflehead 93 17 43 34 204 869 168 254 1682

Hooded Merganser 12 2 - - - 17 38 - 69

Common Merganser 2404 3 9 7 19 286 689 165 3582

RBMerganser 312 13 180 274 285 1000 727 737 3430

Ruddy Duck - - - - - 2 31 1 34


Species KingstonQuinte Presqu’ilePortHope Durham Toronto HamiltonNiagara Total

American Coot 2 - - - - 2 31 - 33

Swan sp. 67 - - - - - - - 67

TUDU x Scaup sp. - - - - - 1 - - 1

COGO x HOME - - - - - 1 - - 1

ABDU x MALL - - - 1 - 14 - - 15

Duck sp. 807 - - 75 - - 2 121 1005

Total Birds 31505 7352 5235 4470 4799 38931 12751 16975 122018

Total Species 21 21 14 12 12 37 27 20 40

Participants 13 1 7 2 3 30 20 13 89

Party-hours 32 9 18 8 10.5 52.75 25 14 169.25

Bald Eagle 52 3 1 - - 7 7 1 71

Figure 3: Immature Bald Eagle. (Mark D. Read) Figure 4: Female Common Merganser. (Mark D. Read)

Figure 5: Mute and Trumpeter Swans. (Mark D. Read)

12 March 2019

4 Kingston Region Birds – Autumn 2018 (August 1st – November 30th)by Mark D. Read

The KFN reporting area is centred on MacDon-ald Park, Kingston and extends for a radial dis-tance of 50 km. An interactive map showingthe KFN circle is available on the website. If er-rors are noted or significant observations omit-ted, please contact me and I will update accord-ingly. We also encourage you to submit all sight-ings, so that a be er understanding of our region’sbirdlife can be achieved. Members already usingeBird can very easily share their sightings withthe username ’Kingston FN’. Alternatively, pleaseemail or phone me directly with your sightings([email protected] / 613-217-1246). Pleasenote that some of the following reports remain un-confirmed until accepted by the Rare Birds Com-mi ee.

In total, 250 species of bird were recorded in ourregion during the reporting period, exactly match-ing last year’s autumn total. The vast majorityof sightings were obtained from eBird – 32.0% ofwhich were shared with the KFN account (com-pared to the 23.0% shared in the summer). In to-tal, 312 observers logged 2833 checklists, equatingto 35,566 sightings. Only a few records were re-ceived via phone/email/word of mouth, indicat-ing the popularity of eBird (www.ebird.ca). Asusual, an impressive number of individual birds(510,761) were recorded, though many of thesewere, of course, the same birds seen on subsequentdays. A huge thank you goes out to every ob-server, without whom our understanding of birddistribution would be far more limited. Unfortu-nately, only observerswith sightings in the currentreport are noted below.

The autumn of 2018 was generally warm at firstduring late summer cooling in September andthrough October – a pre y ’average’ season. Anumber of rare birds were recorded includingPurple Sandpiper, Parasitic Jaeger, Pacific Loon,American White Pelican, Black Vulture, WesternKingbird, Lark Sparrow, and Hooded Warbler.Here are the highlights of autumn 2018:

SnowGoose: Two birds feeding on a lawn in Dex-

ter, NY, on 6th August were unusual (LeE). Typicalarrival began in late September with a high countof 350 at Gananoque on 24th November (JET).

Brant: The first bird of the season (1) was seen atMartin Edwards Reserve, Amherst Island on 13th

October (EBR). Passage was over by 20th Novem-ber (90 at Brewers Mills (MDR)), with a high countof 250 at Morton on 15th October (MDR).

CacklingGoose: The first birds of the seasonwereseen at Reed’s Bay, Wolfe Island on 5th October,with this season’s high of 11 seen at the same loca-tion on 14th October (MDR).

Mute Swan: Numbers continue to increase in ourareawith a high count of 181 at Bayfield Bay,WolfeIsland on 14th August (MDR).

Trumpeter Swan: A high count of 16 was receivedfrom Chaffey’s Locks on 22nd November (SLD).

Tundra Swan: The first returning bird (1) was seenon Amherst Island on 3rd October (BMDL). A highof 300 birds was made at Point Peninsula, NY on24th November (RiB).

Blue-winged Teal: Plenty of autumn sightingsagain this year with a high of 125 at Perch River,NY, on 31st August (JSB). The last bird of the sea-sonwas seen atMartin Edwards Reserve, AmherstIsland, on 22nd October (DeB, ShJ).

Canvasback: It was a poor seasonwith just 5 sight-ings. A high count of 11 birds came from BayfieldBay, Wolfe Island, on 11th November (MDR).

Redhead: A coordinated survey of Wolfe Islandon 3rd November produced a total of 8,100 birds,about half that reported last year (MDR).

Ring-necked Duck: This year’s high count of anestimated 1500 birds was received from BayfieldBay, Wolfe Island, on 3rd November (MDR).

Black Scoter: There were 7 records this season,with a high count of just 2 birds seen at Prince Ed-ward Point on 22nd October (BER).

mailto:[email protected]?subject=Bird%20Sightinghttps://www.ebird.ca


Ruddy Duck: The first 2 birds of the season wereseen at Belle Park, Kingston, on 5th October (WTD,KAW), with a high (and last) count of 63 comingfrom Bayfield Bay, Wolfe Island, on 3rd November(MDR).

Pied-billed Grebe: A high count of 30 was notedat Perch River WMA, NY on 30th August (JSB).

Horned Grebe: The first record of the season wasof 3 birds at Martin Edwards Reserve, Amherst Is-land, on 3rd October (KJH). A total of 26 birds (sea-son high count) was present by the end of the day(BMDL).

Red-necked Grebe: There were 14 sightings thisseason with a high of 2 at Amherst Island on 3rd

October (BMDL).

Common Nighthawk: The usual mass migrationof this species in August brought an impressivecount of 200 birds through Verona on 19th (TAN).An exceptionally late bird (but not quite the lateston record) was seen at Frontenac Provincial Parkon 20th October (CHB, MAJ).

Sandhill Crane: There was a good number ofrecords this year (22 in total), with a high countof 27 seen near Crosby on 17th November (SLD,CTH).

American Golden Plover: There were just 2 re-ports this season; the first from Fishers Land-ing, NY, on 27th August (ChF), and the secondfrom Thousand Island Park, NY, on 15th Septem-ber (BBM).

Killdeer: The last birds of the year (5) were seenon Amherst Island, on 4th November (JPR et al).

Stilt Sandpiper: There was just 1 record this sea-son of 2 birds at Perch River WMA, NY, on 21st

September (JSB).

Purple Sandpiper: An unusual observationwas ofa single bird at Cape Vincent, NY, on 20th October(LoK).

Baird’s Sandpiper: A poor season with just 4records, though a high count of 5 birds at MartinEdwards Reserve, Amherst Island, on 23rd August

is noteworthy (EDB).

White-rumped Sandpiper: There were 17 recordsthis season, with an impressive count of 16 comingfrom Big Sandy Bay, Wolfe Island, on 21st October(ErH, LoK).

Pectoral Sandpiper: A high count of 30 birdscame fromWilton Creek, Morven, on 18th October(BER).

Wilson’s Phalarope: There were just 2 records: 1was seen at Perch River WMA, NY, on 31st August(JSB); another single was present at AmherstviewSewage Lagoons on 1st September (JPR et al).

Parasitic Jaeger: An immature bird was seen atTibbe s Point, NY, on 20th October (LoK).

Li le Gull: There were just two records; 1 atPrince Edward Point on 13th October (MJP), andanother single at Amherstview Sewage Lagoonson 18th October (BER).

Iceland Gull: The first bird of the season was seenat Heritage Point, Bath, on 15th November (BER).

Lesser Black-backedGull: The only recordwas ofa single bird at Heritage Point, Bath, on 30th Octo-ber (KJH).

Glaucous Gull: The first (of just 2 birds) was seenat Violet Dump on 22nd November (VPM).

Red-throated Loon: There were 10 records, with ahigh count of 7 seen at Tibbe s Point on 20th Octo-ber (LoK).

Pacific Loon: A single bird was seen near Chau-mont, NY, on 21st October (NiL).

American White Pelican: An adult bird was seenin the Thousand Island National Park on 18th Au-gust (DPC).

Least Bi ern: There was just one record, fromWellesley SP, NY, on 29th August (ChF).

Black Vulture: An unusual inland record camefrom Chaffey’s Lock where a single bird was seenon 6th September (RiH).

14 March 2019

Osprey: The last bird of the yearwas seen at PrinceEdward Point on 25th October (LuF, ErG).

Golden Eagle: Six records this year (all sin-gle birds) from five different locations includ-ing Prince Edward Point on 13th October (PRF),Crosby on 22nd October (SLD, CTH), Belle Park,Kingston on 29th October (WTD, KAW), Prince Ed-ward Point on 30th October (AlM), Amherst Islandon 3rd November (FFN), and Murphys Bay Wet-land (Davis Lock) on 4th November (SLD, CTH).

Northern Goshawk: There were 5 records thisseason; 2 from Wellesley SP, NY, with individu-als seen on 29th and 31st August (ChF), 1 at BlackRapids on 1st October (KJH), 1 at Prince EdwardPoint on 18thOctober, and 1 nearMillhaven on 23rd

October (KJH).

Red-shouldered Hawk: The last record of thisspecies was from Opinicon Road on 4th November(PJB, CHB, MAJ).

Broad-winged Hawk: The last report of thisspecies came from Prince Edward Point on 6th Oc-tober (DeW).

Rough-legged Hawk: The first birds of an appar-ently good seasonwere seen onAmherst Island on7th October (GrM, NaM).

Snowy Owl: It is hard to identify the first bird ofthe season as an individual summered onAmherstIsland. The first occurrence of more than 1 bird(2) was on 26th October, also from Amherst Island(ShJ).

Long-earedOwl: Twobirdswere banded at PrinceEdward Point this year (PEPtBO). Another 2 birdswere seen on Amherst Island on 3rd November(KFN).

Northern Saw-whet Owl: A total of 554 birdswere banded at Prince Edward Point this sea-son, mainly during October. An incredible 127were banded on the night of 13th October alone(PEPtBO).

Red-headed Woodpecker: Two birds were seenthis autumn including an immature at BedfordMils 12th-14th October (MEC, LJN), and another at

Brownville WMA, NY, on 18th-19th October (ElT).

Olive-sided Flycatcher: There were 5 records thisautumn with the last being noted at Belle Island,Kingston, on 4th September (RBDC).

Yellow-bellied Flycatcher: There were 9 recordsthis year, with the last birds (2) seen at Prince Ed-ward Point on 27th September (TMW).

Western Kingbird: A great find for the area wasthis bird seen on 22nd-23rd September at Prince Ed-ward Point (PeH).

Loggerhead Shrike: The last sighting of birdsfrom the known breeding location of NapaneePlain IBA was on the early date of 2nd August(DaT). The last of the seasonwas seen at Prince Ed-ward Point on 13th September (TMW).

Tufted Titmouse: There were numerous recordsfrom Jefferson County, NY, over the period,mainly of a continuing bird at Millen Bay (DaM).Birds from this side of the border included a birdnear Treasure Island on 5thOctober (CeH), anothernear Desert Lake on 21st October (MaR), and asingle at Belle Park, Kingston, on 21st November(RKFE).

Sedge Wren: The only record came from FishersLanding, NY, on 26th August (ChF).

Carolina Wren: There were 27 widespread ob-servations this season, way up on last years’ fourrecords.

Grey-cheeked Thrush: An early bird was bandedat Prince EdwardPoint on 30thAugust (TMW). Thelast of the season was seen on Amherst Island on14th October (OFO).

NorthernMockingbird: Therewere just 2 records:1 was seen near Yarker on 23rd August (MaB), withanother at Point Peninsula, NY, on 22nd September(LoK et al).

Evening Grosbeak: It was an irruption year forthis and the following species. With over 80 ob-servations, the first were seen near Crosby on 9th

September (SLD, CTH). A high count of 45 birdscame from a property near Verona on 15th Novem-


ber (TAN).

Pine Grosbeak: There were fewer records of thisspecies (19) than the above but with their absencefor many years, it was good to catch up with someof the flocks. The first bird was seen near Veronaon 4th November (TAN), with a high count of 10from Amherstview on 22nd November (EDB).

Common & Hoary Redpoll: It was a great sea-son for Common Redpolls with 77 widespreadrecords received. Amongst those birds, a singleHoary Redpoll was seen onAmherst Island on 14th

November (JPR).

RedCrossbill: One birdwas recorded at a locationnear Verona on 23rd August (TAN), with two nearYarker on 22nd October (TAN).

White-winged Crossbill: Two were seen nearCrosby on 22nd October (CTH), with a single atMurphy’s Bay Wetland near Davis Lock on 4th

November (SLD, CTH).

Pine Siskin: There were 245 records this seasonwith a high count of 75 at Prince Edward Point on25th October (TMW).

Clay-coloured Sparrow: The last bird of the sea-son was seen near Newboro on 22nd September(LeG).

Lark Sparrow: A good find for the observer, a sin-gle birdwas photographed at Prince Edward Pointon 16th August (TMW).

Nelson’s Sparrow: A bird banded at Prince Ed-ward Point Bird Observatory on 3rd October wasthe first for that location (PEPtBO). Another birdwas seen at themore typical location ofMartin Ed-wards Reserve, Amherst Island, also on 3rd Octo-ber (KJH).

Orange-crowned Warbler: There were 20 recordsthis autumn, with the first seen at Point Peninsulaon 22nd September (LoK et al). The last sightingwas of a single bird at Wartman-Pa erson Park,Kingston, on 20th November (KFN).

Mourning Warbler: There were 4 records: 1 nearVerona on 23rd August (TAN); 1 near Elginburg

on 3rd September (EDB); 1 at Prince Edward Pointon 11th September (ShT); and 1 at Marshlands CA,Kingston, on 14th September (VPM).

Hooded Warbler: A cracking bird was seen onAmherst Island on 14th October (OFO).

Cerulean Warbler: The only two records bothcame from the vicinity of Frontenac ProvincialPark, on 4th and 9th August (DaT).

Prairie Warbler: Both records came from theknown breeding location of Chaumont on 4th and5th August (StK, CWS).

Other species observed during the reporting pe-riod: Canada Goose, Wood Duck, NorthernShoveler, Gadwall, American Wigeon, Mallard,American Black Duck, Northern Pintail, Green-winged Teal, Greater Scaup, Lesser Scaup, SurfScoter, White-winged Scoter, Long-tailed Duck,Bufflehead, Common Goldeneye, Hooded Mer-ganser, Common Merganser, Red-breasted Mer-ganser, Ring-necked Pheasant, Ruffed Grouse,Wild Turkey, Rock Pigeon, Mourning Dove,Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Black-billed Cuckoo, East-ern Whip-poor-will, Chimney Swift, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Virginia Rail, Sora, Com-mon Gallinule, American Coot, Black-belliedPlover, Semipalmated Plover, Upland Sandpiper,Sanderling, Dunlin, Least Sandpiper, Semipal-mated Sandpiper, Short-billed Dowitcher, Amer-ican Woodcock, Wilson’s Snipe, Spo ed Sand-piper, Solitary Sandpiper, Greater Yellowlegs,Lesser Yellowlegs, Bonaparte’s Gull, Ring-billedGull, Herring Gull, Great Black-backed Gull,Caspian Tern, Black Tern, Common Tern, Com-mon Loon, Double-crested Cormorant, Ameri-can Bi ern, Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, GreenHeron, Black-crowned Night-Heron, Turkey Vul-ture, Northern Harrier, Sharp-shinned Hawk,Cooper’s Hawk, Bald Eagle, Red-tailed Hawk,Eastern Screech-Owl, Great Horned Owl, BarredOwl, Short-eared Owl, Belted Kingfisher, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Red-bellied Woodpecker,DownyWoodpecker, HairyWoodpecker, PileatedWoodpecker, Northern Flicker, American Kestrel,Merlin, Peregrine Falcon, Eastern Wood-Pewee,Alder Flycatcher, Willow Flycatcher, Least Fly-catcher, Eastern Phoebe, Great Crested Flycatcher,

16 March 2019

Eastern Kingbird, Northern Shrike, Yellow-throated Vireo, Blue-headed Vireo, PhiladelphiaVireo, Warbling Vireo, Red-eyed Vireo, Blue Jay,American Crow, Common Raven, Horned Lark,Northern Rough-winged Swallow, Purple Mar-tin, Tree Swallow, Bank Swallow, Barn Swal-low, Cliff Swallow, Black-capped Chickadee, Red-breasted Nuthatch, White-breasted Nuthatch,Brown Creeper, House Wren, Winter Wren,Marsh Wren, Blue-grey Gnatcatcher, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, East-ern Bluebird, Veery, Swainson’s Thrush, HermitThrush,Wood Thrush, American Robin, Grey Cat-bird, Brown Thrasher, European Starling, Amer-ican Pipit, Bohemian Waxwing, Cedar Waxwing,House Finch, Purple Finch, American Goldfinch,Lapland Longspur, Snow Bunting, Grasshop-per Sparrow, Chipping Sparrow, Field Sparrow,American Tree Sparrow, Fox Sparrow, Dark-eyedJunco, White-crowned Sparrow, White-throatedSparrow, Vesper Sparrow, Savannah Sparrow,Song Sparrow, Lincoln’s Sparrow, Swamp Spar-row, Eastern Towhee, Bobolink, Eastern Mead-owlark, Baltimore Oriole, Red-winged Blackbird,Brown-headed Cowbird, Rusty Blackbird, Com-mon Grackle, Ovenbird, Northern Waterthrush,Golden-winged Warbler, Blue-winged Warbler,Black-and-white Warbler, Tennessee Warbler,Nashville Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, Amer-ican Redstart, Cape May Warbler, Cerulean War-bler, Northern Parula, Magnolia Warbler, Bay-breasted Warbler, Blackburnian Warbler, YellowWarbler, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Blackpoll War-bler, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Pine Warbler,

Yellow-rumped Warbler, Black-throated GreenWarbler, Canada Warbler, Wilson’s Warbler, Scar-let Tanager, Northern Cardinal, Rose-breastedGrosbeak, Indigo Bunting, House Sparrow.

Observers:Debbie Barre (DeB), Erwin D. Batalla (EDB), Pe-ter J. Blancher (PJB), Jeff S. Bolsinger (JSB), CarolynH Bonta (CHB), Mary Brinklow (MaB), RichardBrouse (RiB), Mark E. Chojnacki (MEC), Dave &Pat Croft (DPC), Richard Brault & Dianne Croteau(RBDC), Stephanie L. Davison (SLD), William T.Depew (WTD), R. Ken F. Edwards (RKFE), LeeEllsworth (LeE), Chris Fisher (ChF), Lucas Foer-ster (LuF), Peter R. Fuller (PRF), Eric Giles (ErG),Leanne Grieves (LeG), Chris T. Heffernan (CTH),Eric Heisey (ErH), Kurt J. Hennige (KJH), Cered-wyn Hill (CeH), Peter Hogenbirk (PeH), RickiHurst (RiH), Sherri Jensen (ShJ), Michael A. John-son (MAJ), LoganKahle (LoK), Steve Kelling (StK),Bruce M. Di Labio (BMDL), Nick Leone (NiL),V. Paul Mackenzie (VPM), David Miller (DaM),GreggMiller (GrM),NathanMiller (NaM), Brian&Brooke Morse (BBM), Alan Moss (AlM), KingstonField Naturalists (KFN), Todd A. Norris (TAN),Linda J. Nu all (LJN), Ontario Field Ornithol-ogists (OFO), Mark J. Patry (MJP), Prince Ed-ward Point Bird Observatory (PEPtBO), Mary Rae(MaR), Mark D. Read (MDR), Bruce E. Ripley(BER), Jon P. Ruddy (JPR), James E. Thompson(JET), David Turner (DaT), Shae Turner (ShT), Eliz-abeth Truskowski (ElT), Kathy A. Webb (KAW),TomM.Wheatley (TMW), DebbieWheeler (DeW),Carol Williams-Suich (CWS).

Figure 6: Lark Sparrow – Prince Edward Point – 16th Au-gust, photo 1 of 2. (TomWheatley)

Figure 7: Lark Sparrow – Prince Edward Point – 16th Au-gust, photo 2 of 2. (TomWheatley)


Figure 8: Red-breasted Nuthatch with deformed bill.(TomWheatley) Figure 9: Loggerhead Shrike, September 13 at the point,

last sighting of 2018 in Ontario. (TomWheatley)

Figure 10: Western Kingbird, September 23rd. (TomWheatley)

18 March 2019

5 Articles5.1 Exercise Timbit Traveller III - The Great Ontario Birding Tour 2018by Anthony Kaduck

This article was originally published in The Adjutant –the Journal of the Army Ornithological Society. Wherenecessary, footnotes have been added to translate BritishMilitary English to Canadian Civilian English.

Last year I decided to do a “biggish year”, aimingto hit most of the major birding hotspots in South-ern Ontario, with the goal of seeing as many birdspecies as possible and also ge ing to know someof the top birding hotspots in Ontario. In order tosucceed I knew I would have to make a long roadtrip to hit a number of key sites during the peakweeks of early May.

Executing this master plan would involve thou-sands of kilometres on the road, late nights, earlymornings, breakfast at Tim’s, and long marches inall kinds of weather conditions. Travelling com-panionswere needed to share the driving load andbear witness to the mayhem of Spring migration,but they needed to be stout-hearted types ableto endure the conditions without whingeing. Sonaturally I turned to my colleagues in the BritishArmy Ornithological Society (the AOS) and on 5May AndrewHarrison andMikeWilliams arrivedat YYZ eager to pad their Canada lists. Mike’s wasat zero when he arrived, so he was at that happystage where every bird was potentially a lifer.

After the obligatory touristy stuff (a visit to thewildly-overpriced CN Tower, a somewhat ade-quate meal at Wayne Gre ky’s) we sped off downthe highway bound for the vortex that is PointPelee.

The VortexPoint Pelee National Park is justly renowned asone of the premier birding spots inNorthAmerica.As the southernmost point in mainland Canadaand the shortest way across Lake Erie it acts a su-perhighway for migratory birds. The masses ofinbound birds that flow through in May are onlymatched by the thousands of birders and photog-raphers who descend upon the park in droves.

Birding can be a peaceful, contemplative way ofenjoying nature, but birding in Pelee in May is…not. The hordes rush madly between trails andviewing areas, hot on the heels of any rarish birdthat peeks its head out of the bushes. Photogra-phers with massive lenses and tripods elbow theirway to the front, demanding to knowwhich bird isthe “good” one. Birders compare notes on what isbeing seen, often ending with the dreaded phrase“you should have been here ten minutes ago.”

So Pelee is, in short, a zoo, but it can’t be deniedthat we were seeing a lot of birds in a very shorttime. We arrived late on the 6th and “only” added13 species in the pouring rain. Another 22 showedup the next day, including White-eyed Vireo (alifer for me).

Figure 11: White-eyed Vireo. (Anthony Kaduck)

Figure 12: Us in the rain 6 May. (Anthony Kaduck)


Figure 13: Pelee Crowds. (Anthony Kaduck)

RondeauPoint Pelee is not the only hotspot in the bird-blessed Southwest of Ontario. Rondeau Provin-cial Park is about an hour away and a much morepleasant experience. The variety of birds on viewwas excellent but for some reason Rondeau doesnot a ract the mobs. We birded the park on the8th and added several good species including themuch-desired Prothonotary Warbler. And justwhen spirits were dangerously flagging the Visi-tor Centre came up with cups of good coffee, andall was well again.

Figure 14: Prothonotary Warbler. (Anthony Kaduck)

On theway back fromRondeau thewordwent outthat American Avocets were being seen at HillmanMarsh. Of course we had to check it out, so weand a couple hundred of our closest friends de-scended on this conservation area for a look. Thesmall, one-lane parking area was completely over-whelmed so we parked in a nearby churchyard,tabbed1 in on the double, saw the birds andmovedback out in the space of about 15 minutes – much

to the surprise of the lady collecting money at thegate. Then it was back to the vortex on the 9th forone last round of crowd-birding.

Figure 15: American Avocets. (Anthony Kaduck)

For all its oversubscribed charms, the Pelee areawas an excellent place to run up the year list.I started the excursion with 152 species on myyear list, and added 66 species over three anda half days. We missed the enigmatic Worm-eating Warbler, but added a few semi-rarities andhard-to-see birds including Kentucky, Hoodedand Cerulean Warblers, American White Pelican,Surf Scoter, Willet, the Avocets and a Red-headedWoodpecker.

Figure 16: American White Pelican. (Anthony Kaduck)

We also had an excellent meal of ribs at Ray’s Rib-house in Leamington, albeit on the third a empt:on Sunday evening the extraction fans broke downand the place was filled with smoke, and of courseas everyone knows (!) all restaurants in Leaming-ton are closed on Mondays. But Tuesday all waswell and it was worth the wait.

The morning of the 10th saw us headed East. Ashort side trip to the Blenheim sewage lagoons onthe way ne ed Wilson’s Phalarope, Horned Larkand a few waders, then it was on to Long Point.

1Tabbing – marching at speed, usually carrying a heavily loaded rucksack – or in the birding version, a telescope and tripod, acamera with a big lens, bins and other paraphernalia.

20 March 2019

Long PointThe Long Point area is another prime birdinghotspot in Ontario and we planned to have a goodlook around for about a day. There are dozens ofbirding spots in the area but ground zero is a small-ish patch of scrub known as The Old Cut. LongPoint itself juts well out into Lake Erie so it’s an-other shortcut for migrating birds. They land atthe point and then work their way North, foragingthrough scrub, reeds and wet boggy copses - thebird equivalent of a breakfast buffet.

Old Cut is the end of the road – the good habitatcomes to an end and their nextmove is a long flightto the next feeding station. So the birds tend tostooge around Old Cut for a while, ge ing in theirpre-flight meal and flinging themselves into mistnets so they can be banded by the diligent workersat the Long Point Bird Observatory.

What we were hoping to experience at Long Pointwas a “fall” of warblers. When conditions areright (or wrong, from the warblers’ point of view)unfavourable winds and/or rain can force a hugenumber of migrating birds to seek shelter in thenearest available cover. They then try to load upon food until the time comes to resume the North-ward trek.

A big fall is an epic experience. You can find your-self surrounded byhundreds ofwarblers of twentyor more species, all buzzing about and singingtheir special songs of love. Birders experiencinga fall often descend into warbler mania, a state ofgiddiness and mild confusion brought on by be-ing surrounded by fast-moving natural beauty andtrying to look at every bird at once.

Figure 17: Least Flycatcher. (Anthony Kaduck)

However, this time it was not to be. As in our visits

to Pelee and Rondeau, there were a good numberof birds passing through but nothing like the mad-ness we were hoping for. 24 hours at Long Pointonly added two new birds to our list, though wehad a frustrating missed-it-by-five-minutes expe-rience with an exotic yellow-throated warbler. Weconsoled ourselves in the traditional birder way(application of beer) and then girded ourselves forthe longest day of our trip.

The Long MarchThe next day we set out on a 500km road march,aiming to bypass Toronto, nab a series of scarcebirds that hang around in the Carden Alvar, andend up in Brighton poised for a thorough scouringof Presqu’ile Provincial Park.

We escaped Toronto traffic relatively unscathed,and made it to Kirkfield in time to have a greatlunch at the imaginatively-named but nonethelessestimable Kirkfield Restaurant. Thus fortified weheaded North toWylie Road, the heartland of spe-cial alvar birds.

We first visited my no-fail site for Vesper Sparrow– and failed. But things improved when we gotonto Wylie Road. Eastern Bluebird on the fence-posts. Tick. Bobolink in the grassy field. Tick.Stop at the bird hide and look for LoggerheadShrike. Tick. As we left the bird hide we weretreated to, in quick succession, excellent views ofField Sparrow and Grasshopper Sparrow. Tick,tick. Down to themarsh for SwampSparrow. Tick.About the only target bird we missed out on wasUpland Sandpiper, but for consolation we had ex-traordinarily close views of the normally shy andretiring Wilson’s Snipe. By 1730 our work therewas done, andwe headed south for Brighton and afew hours of sleep, punctuated by feverish visionsof multicoloured warblers fli ing just out of sight.

Figure 18: Wilson’s Snipe. (Anthony Kaduck)


Presqu’ilePresqu’ile Provincial Park is one of my favouritebirding haunts. It’s another migrant trap thatsticks out into Lake Ontario, but it also has longsand beaches that a ract migrating waders. Hav-ing arrived during peak migration season wehoped to find a selection of early waders, but ourhearts were still set on experiencing a fall of war-blers.

Our first stop was the Brighton Constructed Wet-land (another sewage lagoon, albeit with a down-town name). This site can be excellent in the rightconditions but it’s verymuch feast or famine. If thewater levels are too high themudflats, a.k.a. smor-gasbord for waders, are submerged. Our visit wasmore on the famine side, with only a few waderssneaking about. Blue-winged Teal, normally a reg-ular visitor, were also absent. The best sightingswere our first Marsh Wren of the year – expectedat the site – and Sedge Wren – apparently unex-pected at that site, provoking an I-don’t-think-soemail from the local E-Bird coordinator.

Figure 19: Marsh Wren. (Anthony Kaduck)

So basically we “dipped” at the sewage lagoons,but we hoped for a regainwhenwe got to the Park.Almost certainly we would be inundated by war-blers and sandpipers, as payback by the Bird Godsfor ourmany hours of driving and birding. Almostcertainly we were not.

Not that it was bad, mind you. We had two ploverspecies (Black-bellied and Semipalmated) and twosandpipers (Least and Spo ed). Nothing earth-sha ering but two of these were new to the triplist. We also added a nice (and early) Olive-sidedFlycatcher near theCampOffice and our firstGreatEgrets lounging about on Gull Island (as they do).Probably our best findwas a loneBlack Scoter lurk-

ing among a small gaggle of Surf Scoters. So…not bad, but not brilliant either. The warbler countconsisted of the three most commonwarblers (Yel-low, Yellow-rumped and Tennessee) and no oth-ers.

Poignantly, there is a plaque at the Lighthouse,dedicated by his friends to a now-deceased birder“in memory of many twenty warbler days”. Ourthree-warbler day seemed a bit sad in comparison.At this point I was starting to doubt whether wewould ever get to the 180+ species seen on the twoprevious ArmyOrnithological Society expeditionsto Ontario. A serious case of piss-taking seemedlikely.

So with tears in our eyes we set our course for Al-gonquin.

Algonquin Provincial ParkAlgonquin Park is basically a large chunk of bo-real forest with a road through it. It’s not a placewhere you go to see masses of birds, but we werethere aiming to spot some northern specialities. Soto cut to the chase, we were successful in our huntfor:

Black-backed WoodpeckerSpruce GrouseRuffed GrouseRed CrossbillWhite-winged CrossbillPine SiskinPurple FinchRed-breasted NuthatchMoose (OK, not exactly a bird, but an iconic Cana-dian beast that Andy and Mike needed to see).… and were unable to find:Boreal Chickadee (which have been very scarcethis year)Common Redpoll (though Andy may have seenone), andCanada Jay (which ought to have been easy to find,but alas our jay-hunting skills were evidently notup to the job)

22 March 2019

Figure 20: Moose. (Anthony Kaduck)

Assiduous early-morning scouring of the SpruceBog Boardwalk also ne ed (in the metaphoricsense, I hasten to add) a sleeping Northern Saw-whet Owl. Which in a triumph of hope overobservation skills I misidentified it as a BorealOwl, drawing another I-don’t-believe-you mes-sage from the E-Bird police. Any residual indig-nation at this offence to our amour propre waswashed away by a few pints of Muskoka’s finestat the Mad Musher. Then off to our next point ofcall.

Figure 21: Mad Musher 13 May. (Anthony Kaduck)

The CountyAfter lunch we made the long trek down to Pic-ton, arriving in time to check in at our hotel, beetleoff to Beaver Meadow for Black Terns and a Green

Heron, then engulf some large meals at the Acous-tic Grill.

Figure 22: Black Tern. (Anthony Kaduck)

The next day’s met2 was ominous, but as everwe had our crack-of-dawn breakfast at Tim’s andset off. The first stop was Kaiser X-Road, andunlovely bit of farmland that is usually flooded inthe Spring, and thus rather a ractive to visitingwaders. On that morning there was a decent ar-ray of waders from five species, but nothing newfor our list. And just as we arrived the rain startedto pour down with increasing enthusiasm. Theomens for a bird-free day were all around us aswe made our way to the Prince Edward Point Na-tional Wildlife Area at the southern tip. And sureenough, the rain was truly sheeting down whenwe arrived and there was nary a soul about – eventhe bird ringers from the bird observatory hadvanished. After we had stood under a makeshifttarp for an hour or so, not drinking the coffee thatshould have been there (the Friends of somethingor other usually offer coffee during the Bird Festi-val), we began to feel a bit glum. The subject wasnotmentioned out loud, but our inside voiceswerearguing for a retreat to the warmth and succour ofPicton.

It was then, at the moment of absolute weakness,that one of my local birding pals happened by.Soaked to the skin he was, as was his dog, but heallowed that he had heard some interesting war-bler calls from the woods at Traverse Point. NowKen is a bit of a bird savant, and will usually heara given bird about 100 metres before I will. But therain was starting to tail off a bit so we decided tosee what we could dig up.

2”Meteorology” – i.e. weather forecast.


Warbler Mania

Figure 23: Magnolia Warbler. (Anthony Kaduck)

Well, that title is a bit of a spoiler. Yep, wewent to the woods and there they were: hun-dreds of birds each lurking under their own equiv-alent of a shelter half3 waiting for the weather toturn. It was the true warbler experience we hadbeen hoping for, with each of us spo ing differ-ent birds simultaneously and trying to “get on”all of them at once. In between sponging off ouroptics we managed to tick off 48 species in twohours – 16 warbler species, including the muchsought-after Canada Warbler, Hermit and Swain-son’s Thrushes, a Black-billed Cuckoo (lifer for allof us), and a variety of other migrants. Peeringthrough the mist we spo ed a gaggle of Surf Scot-ers at close range, though by thenmy lens was wetinside and out so the images are – shall we say –atmospheric.

Figure 24: Surf Scoters. (Anthony Kaduck)

When we repaired to the Bird Observatory moregoodness awaited. A few other brave souls hadby then materialized4 and we goggled at the arrayof birds on hand. At one point we were admiringa Golden-winged Warbler at close range (a hard-to-see bird) when about six feet in the other direc-tion up popped a Blue-winged Warbler (equallyhard to see). Added up there were fifteen warblerspecies on the site, of which six were additions forthe day list.

As we made the trek out to the lighthouse we con-tinued to add to the list. The most unusual findwas a Common Nighthawk perched on a limb.This bird is rarely seen at the Observatory – asfar as I can tell “mine” was the only one spo edthis year – and as a purely nocturnal and well-camouflaged beast is usually only identified bycall. So to see and photograph onewas quite good.It also illustrates an important lesson of birding:the likelihood of seeing a rare bird increases loga-rithmically with distance from the car where oneleft one’s camera. Fortunately while I was tabbingway back to the Observatory and then returning tothe point the creature was content to sit in place,believing itself invisible, and dream of devouringgiant moths.

Figure 25: Common Nighthawk. (Anthony Kaduck)

3A tarpaulin carried by soldiers. One piece can be fashioned into an expedient lean-to; two pieces can be joined together to make asmall tent.

4Ken Edwards and Paul Mackenzie.

24 March 2019

So for a dreary, rainy day we ended up with 62species including six more for the Biggish Year list.Needless to say, a few pints of Prince Eddy’s wentdown that evening, in honour of an epic day.

The next morning we decided to give Presqu’ileanother chance, certain that it would have somewarbler goodness to show us. It did not, but wewere mollified by good looks some forest birds in-cluding Red-headed Woodpecker, Northern Car-dinal, Grey Catbird and lots of Cedar Waxwings.A sma ering of waders were about but nothingnew for the list. We then headed East towardsKingston, with a quick stop at a site along the wayyielding Sora and Virginia Rail, and a farmlandroad that finally offered up a Vesper Sparrow forthe trip. We descended into Kingston where mybeloved had dinner and beds waiting.

Figure 26: Cedar Waxwing. (Anthony Kaduck)

We had a bit of a lie-in the next day and then ex-plored some sites in the local area. By now newbirds for the list were few and far between, butwe did get good looks at a Barred Owl family andGreat Crested Flycatcher. Then itwas back to townto freshen up, as we were scheduled to a end theannual dinner of the Kingston Field Naturalists.

The next morning featured a very early start, asone of our number required a 0200 visit to A&E5.By the time that was sorted out we decided to getsome sleep and get back in the saddle after lunch.We checked out some more local sites but by nowit was ge ing very difficult to find new birds forthe list so we eventually repaired to Chez Kaduckfor the traditional barbecue.

The next day would be our last so we set out tocheck out a few sites on the way to the airport. Itwas a wet and blustery day but we managed topick up a lone Piping Plover at Darlington, and fi-nally had our first decent views of Wood Ducks.Then it was time for a last visit to TimHorton’s be-fore we made the run to the airport.

Figure 27: Piping Plover. (Anthony Kaduck)

Figure 28: Tim’s. (Anthony Kaduck)

And so the third rotation of Ex TIMBIT TRAV-5The Emergency ward at a hospital.


ELLER came to an end. This will probably be thelast one for a while as most of the world-travellingAOS members took part in one of the three itera-tions. However Saskatchewan looms…

By the Numbers:Bird Species Seen by at least one member – 198(Previous Ex TT record 185)Seen by all members – 194Road Mileage – 3663 km

Road mileage from London to Moscow – 2879 km0530 Tim’s breakfasts – 11Tim’s Visited – 10Beer species consumed – 12National Parks – 1National Wildlife Areas – 2Provincial Parks – 5Conservation Areas – 10Outdoor Education Centres – 1Sewage Lagoons – 3

Reader Observations

Paul Arrowsmith sent in some photos of local birds to share with The Blue Bill readers.

Figure 29: House Wren with spider at Point St. MarkDrive (Paul Arrowsmith)

Figure 30: Hummingbird just north of Kingston (PaulArrowsmith)

Figure 31: Great Blue Heron at Kingston Mills (Paul Ar-rowsmith)

Figure 32: Mute Swans at Kingston Mills (Paul Arrow-smith)

26 March 2019

6 KFN Outings6.1 Ramble to the Cataraqui Cemetery (January 8, 2019)by Anne Robertson

Figure 33: Everybody showed up despite the ice underfoot. (Janis Grant)

Eight members met to walk the Cataraqui Ceme-tery Trails. The temperature was 4◦C but rem-nants of the freezing rain overnight made thewalking conditions nasty. We started by dis-cussing the European Larch (Laryx decidua–a goodname for a conifer that loses its needles each year)and the difference between that and our nativeTamarack (Laryx laricina) which has much smallercones. We then discussed Norway Spruce (Piceaabies–introduced) and White Spruce (Picea glauca–native). An English Yew (Taxus baccata) and its fre-quent planting in cemeteries was compared to thenative Canada Yew (Taxus canadensis) last seen on aRamble to the Sandbeach property on Amherst Is-land. Later we found a couple of the English Yewwith very red bark.

There are many very large trees in the cemeteryand it is a splendid place to walk and bird watch(as it says on the web site). Janis recorded CanadaGoose (16),MourningDove (1), Blue Jay (2), Amer-ican Crow (6), Black-capped Chickadee (13) andWhite-breasted Nuthatch (3). We visited Sir JohnA McDonald’s grave site and the Kentucky Cof-fee Tree (Gymnocladus dioicus) nearby. This treeis north of its range (found in Southern Ontario)

and is interesting for its doubly compound leaves(30 to 90 cm long!) as well as its pods. Manylong petioles li ered the ground. Next we checkedout the Black Walnut (Juglans nigra) trees and no-ticed how almost all the nuts had been eaten bysquirrels. Details of the twigs show leaf scars thatlook like a monkey face but in this species with-out the ”moustache” of hairs seen on the Bu er-nut (Juglans cinerea) twig. A small Ginkgo (Ginkgobiloba) tree resulted in a discussion about the of-fensive odor of the fleshy coating of the seed (onfemale trees).

This 70 acre site makes a peaceful walk in townwith interesting trees and birds to observe.

Figure 34: Yes, it really was this big. (Janis Grant)


6.2 Ramble to the Bu ernut Creek Trail (January 22, 2019)by Marlene Rothenbury

Figure 35: Cold Ramble at Bu ernut Creek. (JanisGrant)

The early morning temperature on Jan. 22, 2019was a brisk -26◦C. Thoughts of hot beverages andcosy comforters were top of mind. Regardless,five resolute Ramblers, including our leader AnneRobertson, met on a sunny, calm Tuesday morn-ing, temperature having risen to a balmy -20◦Cby 9:30 a.m. We were off to explore the Bu ernutCreek Trail at the end of Innovation Dr. on the eastside of Kingston.

Over the approximately 2 km of beautifullygroomed trail, we were rewarded for our almosttwo hour walk with the following bonanza of birdand plant life.

Birds Sighted: Barred Owl, Blue Jay, Cardi-nal, Hairy Woodpecker, another woodpeckerwe couldn’t identify, many Chickadees, WhiteBreasted Nuthatch, Crow, Goldfinch, Tree Spar-row, Morning Dove.

Plants, expertly identified by Anne: Buckthorn,

Sumac and Sumac berries on the snow, HighbushCranberry, Bur Oak, Knapweed, Ca ails..bothBroad and Narrow Leafed, Dog Strangling Vine.

We also examined a coughed up woodpecker pel-let, whichAnne retrieved from the debris under anenormous rectangular shaped hole, obviously cre-ated by a hungry Pilated Woodpecker. She brokethis open for us, revealing am amazing number ofant skeletol remains, which apparently the Pilatedis unable to digest.

Figure 36: Barred Owl at Bu ernut Creek. (Janis Grant)

28 March 2019

6.3 Ramble to the Cataraqui Trail at Perth Road (February 5, 2019)by Nancy Spencer

14 Ramblers ventured out on a grey, mild morn-ing and drove out to Perth Road Village, where thesun was shining! It was just above 0◦C and quiteslushy underfoot. We walked west from PerthRoad.

We identified many tree species and also wild-flower seed-heads. A flock of redpolls was seenby some, and the bird list reached 11, with agreat commotion of many Blue Jays out past thepond. Beaver activity was noted there, but thelocal landowners seem to have outsmarted themwith drainage pipes and fencing.

There were some colour–ferns that remain green,mosses, including ”feather” moss, sulphur-yellowbuds of the bi ernut tree, Herb Robert leaves andsome bright orange bi ersweet fruits.

Figure 37: Ferns and mosses still green in February.(Paul MacKenzie)

We found a variety of bird nests including Ameri-can Robin and Red-eyed Vireo. Wewere surprisedto find some flies and snow fleas active.

One phenomenon we noted was the snow thathad dropped from the trees and rolled down asteep embankment, forming snow Danish pastry-like coils known as snow rollers! The photogra-

phers were busy.

We saw one red squirrel, and evidence of othermammals in tracks and scat and high peeled bark,the work of porcupines.

Andwe found some pussy willows, which we hadbeen searching for.

So, altogether we had some brisk exercise and avery satisfying Ramble.

Figure 38: Snow roller still standing. (Paul MacKenzie)

Figure 39: Snow fleas. (Paul MacKenzie)

Figure 40: Fly on snow. (Paul MacKenzie)


6.4 Teens Clean Out Wood Duck Nest Boxes (February 9, 2019)by Amelie Robitaille

The Teen Naturalists went to the Helen QuilliamSanctuary on the 9th of February to clean out fourWood Duck houses. It was about a three hourlong process of walking there and taking the oldnest materials and adding new ones plus lookingat their condition.

On the way to the Wood Duck houses, we saw anold birch with odd bark on it. At first we had noidea it was a birch until we looked up the trunkand saw some birch bark.

Once we arrived we used various tools to helppry the boxes open and take out the remnants ofshells and bedding materials, then we closed thebox and put in new wood chips through the holewere the ducks go through. Iwas the first person toopen a box which was very exciting. While we didthis there was a curious immature Bald Eagle look-ing for food. Soon he lost interest and flew away.Then, we checked usage, which species used thebox and the condition of the box.

We found that three of the boxes were used. Therewas one successful nesting (probably a HoodedMerganser from the size of the shell fragments)and others were unknown. Some of the boxes

weren’t used (one had no wood chips- must havebeen forgo en last time) but one was used pos-sibly by a mouse and squirrel because of the scatand masses of pine needles that we saw. The con-ditions of the boxes were good therefore, nothingwas changed or replaced except the wood chips.

On the way back we saw a red squirrel scurry un-der a pile of rocks. Maybe it thought we were go-ing to eat it!

Figure 41: Cleaning out a Wood Duck box. (AnneRobertson)

6.5 Ramble to the Bayview Bog (February 19, 2019)by Maureen Martin

Figure 42: Ramblers on Lost Lake. (Janis Grant)

On Tuesday, February 19th, our group of eightwarmly dressedKFNmembersmet at the entrancegate to the Bayview Bog. The bright sun and li lewind made it feel warmer than -12◦C. We madeour way down the trail and I was impressed bythe diversity of the forest. The variety of decid-uous trees, aspen, birch, red oak, mossy cup oak... was soon interspersed with white cedar andwhite spruce. More open areas were filled withjuniper, grey and red osier dogwood, sumac bothmale and female, ca ails, purple loosestrife andelecampane.

We walked through a white pine plantation and

30 March 2019

the temperature felt quite a bit colder. As we de-scended downhill, the character of the forest re-vealed the presence of very acid soil. This is asurprise on the limestone of this area. BalsamFir showed their sap filled blisters and lenticelswhich are holes in the bark used for gas exchange.Tamarack and black spruce rose from the bog floorwhich was covered with leatherleaf, Labrador teawith its hairy orange underleaf and sensitive fern.

Past the bog was Lost Lake surrounded by alderwith its male and female catkins and swamp wil-low. During our walk we were accompaniedby Blue Jays, Black-capped Chickadees, White-breasted Nuthatches and a Downy Woodpecker.Two large nests were observed (smaller than a soc-cer ball but larger than a softball), one made up ofmany needles from fir trees and the other grassesand mosses. The printed snow revealed evidenceof fox, coyote, squirrels and grouse.

We left the trails leaving only our footprints andone very well made snow angel on Lost Lake. Itwas a beautiful day for a hike and the temperaturehad risen to -7◦C by noon.

Figure 43: Snow angel. (Janis Grant)

6.6 Amherst Island Outing (March 2, 2019)by Janet Sco

Figure 44: Members of the Kingston Field Naturalists gathered in the Amherst Island School parking lot. (Gaye Beck-with)

On Saturday, March 2nd, 2019, 16 members of theKingston Field Naturalists joined Bonnie Living-stone and I in the Amherst Island School parkinglot for what seems to have become our annual rap-tor outing thanks to Gaye Beckwith. We do sug-gest to anyone planning a group outing to the Is-land to organize cars and people in this spot asanywhere around the docks during this construc-

tion period is unsafe and inconvenient for parking.Wewere pleased that the weather co-operated andthat so many were able to join us.

Amature Bald Eaglewaited by the school until justthe moment that the ferry approached and then ittook a leisurely circle around the docks and ferryas if greeting our honoured guests. Actually it was


probably looking for edible flotsam stirred up bythe ferry propellers but calling this majestic raptora scavenger just doesn’t suit this special occasion.

I think we had six cars but at times we gained orlost one over the next four hours but fortunatelyonce again Gaye volunteered to be the shepherdcar at the end of the flock and to keep track of anylost sheep. We did get a compliment from an Is-lander that our group did keep to the edge of theroad and did not block traffic, as sometimes hap-pens when excited visitors to our Island abandoncars, doors open and parked dangerously on hillsand roads; so Bonnie and Iwho live here thank youfor that.

Our tour proceeded east from the village alongFront Road which usually provides a great va-riety of raptor sightings these days but it wasnot to be. We crept quietly up to Bob Hunter’sfarm with the wind-damaged barn hoping to spotthe Short-eared Owls that have been roosting atRichard and Wendy’s home, but they were a noshow. The feeder there provided House Finches,Red Polls, Mourning Doves and a Cardinal. Talk-ing to Richard on Sunday I learned that there were29 owls hunkered down in their Cedar Trees whilewe looked for them. They took off in a whooshlater when an expected visitor pulled into theirdriveway.

The trip around the foot, past the KFN propertyprovided Canada Geese but when we reached theSouth Shore we began to see several Red-tailedHawks and low-flying Northern Harriers. Bothshores were frozen in so we were unable to seeduck species. Crows and Ravens were numerousaround farms and fields.

On the trip north on the Stella Forty-foot we sawseveral raptors. The Rough-legged hawks werehovering and a dark phase made a wonderfulfly-past across the road in front of our caval-cade showing the two-toned effect under its darkwings; the light phase then followed on cue so thatwe could observe the black belly band and wristpatches.

On the Second Concession the Wild Turkeys werepresent at the Quinte Pastures plus more North-

ern Harriers and Red-tailed Hawks. Some Im-mature Eagles hang out along that road but thehighlight was a Long-eared Owl who stayed putin its hiding spot, although a second one tookoff. Cardinals, White-breasted Nuthatches andBlack-capped Chickadees entertained our watch-ers while each birder got a look at that elusive li leOwl in the cedar.

We had spent a very long time searching on thistrip for the Snowy Owls that hid and the Shrikethat wouldn’t appear, so lunch at my house wasrushed and folks had to hurry back to catch the1:00 ferry. Gaye and Betsy added a Great black-backedGull andHerringGull to the list and thank-you Anthony Kaduck for submi ing our list toeBird.

Figure 45: Greater black backed gull with herring gullsin the Amherst island ferry channel. (Gaye Beckwith)

Bird Species . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Canada Goose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12Wild Turkey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7Feral Pigeon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3Mourning Dove . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18Northern Harrier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7Bald Eagle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3Red-tailed Hawk (borealis) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9Red-tailed Hawk (abieticola) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1Rough-legged Hawk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Long-eared Owl (not in Owl Woods) . . . . . . . . . . . 2Downy Woodpecker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1Hairy Woodpecker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3Red-bellied Woodpecker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2American Kestrel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1Blue Jay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7American Crow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

32 March 2019

Common Raven . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17Black-capped Chickadee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23White-breasted Nuthatch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3European Starling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265House Finch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1Snow Buntings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19

Dark-eyed Junco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1Northern Cardinal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5House Sparrow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38Great Black-backed Gull . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1Herring Gull . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Figure 46: Immature Red-tailed Hawk posing for photographs. (Peter Waycik)

6.7 Ramble to the Rogers Side Road Trails (March 5, 2019)by Rosemary Bradley

Fifteen Ramblers turned out on a calm sunnymorning to explore a private property east ofRogers Side Road. It was a site new to many of us,and, with no trail evident, we headed out alonga limestone ridge. The mature deciduous treesand light undergrowth provided excellent condi-tions for the bird photographers in the group, butour species tally was only six. Twenty-eight chick-adees, 8 White- breasted Nuthatches, 3 DownyWoodpeckers, 2 American Crows, 1 Red-tailedHawk, and 1 Northern Shrike. Thank you PaulMacKenzie for this last sighting! It was wonder-ful to hear some of the chickadees in song, but theraucous calls of Blue Jays were conspicuously ab-sent as none were seen.

There was much interest in tree identification

as Anne mentioned the possibility of seeingChinquapin Oak (Quercus muehlenbergii) which isknown at this location but at the edge of its range.Mature specimens of Shagbark Hickory and Pa-per birch were in competition for the title of “mostraggedy tree trunk”while nearby therewas a natu-ral display of vines to compare. It turns out that theWildGrape vine, beingmuchmore robust than theadjacent almost delicate Bi ersweet vine, is moredetrimental to the the health of its supporting tree.A third vine in evidence, the Dog-strangling Vine,joins with Garlic Mustard, Japanese Knotweed,and the European Buckthorn shrub, making atleast four invasive species seen. The Barberrycould well have been Japanese Barberry, anotherinvasive alien. With Anne’s help, other trees and


shrubs were identified by bark texture, terminalbud features, leaf arrangement or winter leaf per-sistence (golden leaves on Blue Beech), or pos-sibly species-specific galls (observed on Bi ernutHickory). The term “ironwood” was discussedsince it has been applied to both Hop Hornbeamand to Blue Beech a.k.a American Hornbeam. Thela er was most easily identified by smooth greybark and undulating muscle-like appearance ofthe trunk, which has given it the alternate nameof “muscle tree.” The Hop Hornbeam has barkscales and distinctive hop-like fruits in summer.Also noted on the ramble were Prickly Ash, Beech-drops, and nests of grey squirrel (called dreys)and Red-eyed Vireo, and a wing mark of a RuffedGrouse where it had taken off where it came to theedge of the woods.

Figure 47: Wewere fascinated that this American Beech(Fagus grandifolia) was still alive considering the exten-sive girdling. There were only two thin strips of cam-bium intact. (Peter Waycik)

Another feature of the ramble was animal trackidentification. Identified cri ers were grey squir-

rel, woodland jumping mouse, Ruffed Grouse,fox, and a larger canid. The most curious trackwas eventually determined to be that of a porcu-pine. The soft hind foot pads–which are neces-sary for tree climbing–leave a prominent squar-ish impression where one might expect to see toeor claw marks as with other rodents. My per-sonal favouritewas a tiny trackwhere amouse hademerged from an under-snow tunnel to ventureacross the snow, leaving a wandering track withits characteristic tail drag. Perhaps the absence ofraptors wasn’t such a bad thing after all!

Figure 48: Paper birch (Betula papyrifera). (RosemaryBradley)

Other KFN Outings During this Period:January 13 Field Trip to Lemoine Point

February 18 Family Day Field Trip to Wolfe Island to see Snowy Owls

34 March 2019

7 Winter Bird Photos

Figure 49: Canada Jay inAlgonquin Park. (AnthonyKa-duck)

Figure 50: Horned Lark. (Anthony Kaduck)

Figure 51: Eastern Screech Owl from the January 6Mid-Winter Waterfowl Survey on Howe Island. (Peter Way-cik)

Figure 52: Lapland Longspur. (Anthony Kaduck)

Figure 53: Solitary SnowBunting in a tree observed dur-ing Family Day Field Trip to Wolfe Island. (Janis Grant)

Figure 54: Evening Grosbeaks were seen on Howe Is-land on several occasions this winter. This photo in-cludes one of a flock of six observed in December. (PeterWaycik)


Figure 55: Long-eared Owl from last year’s outing toAmherst Island. (Anthony Kaduck)

Figure 56: Photo of Short-eared Owls taken by MsDanzhu Yu on March 2, 2019 on Amherst Island. Shejoined the KFN group for lunch that day and shared herphoto of the birds we missed.. (Danzhu Yu)

Figure 57: Not a bird, but a fan of bird feeders, thisAmerican Red Squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) gets asip from a heated winter water station. (Peter Waycik)

Figure 58: Dark-eyed Junco in the winter sun. (PeterWaycik)

Figure 59: Northern Cardinals were plentiful this win-ter and enjoy the seeds left out by their human friends.(Peter Waycik)

Figure 60: Pine Siskin on Howe Island. (Peter Waycik)

36 March 2019

8 Clipped ClassicsExcerpts from past issues of The Blue Bill

From 65 years ago ...In the “Notes” section of the first edition of The Blue Bill (Volume 1, Number 1, March, 1954), Art Hyde(presumably) writes:

Cornell University Laboratory of Ornithologyasked on their radio program “Know your Birds”if they could be informed of observations ofEvening Grosbeaks whosewings they had paintedwith crosses and circles in various colours denot-ing the months of marking. We could not have

given much help in this project for no Grosbeakshave been reported from this region except for onesmall flock at Collins Bay in November. It will beinteresting to learn as otherwinter publications arereceived whether this has been a poor winter gen-erally for Evening Grosbeaks.”

From 60 years ago ...From an article entitled, “Robins and Waxwings,” A.M. Strong wrote in the March, 1959 Blue Bill:

Turning to follow the flock for a be er look Itramped for about one hundred yards when Iheard the twi ering of cedar waxwings, then sawtwo large pines and evidence of bird activity neartheir crowns. Scarcely believing my eyes, I identi-fied from 40 to 60 Bohemian waxwings in one treeand 100 to 150 cedar waxwings in the other. I wasfortunate in ge ing closer to be er compare thetwo species and made a note of the fluffier crests

in the Bohemians as well as the white wing barsand gray bellies. While studying the waxwings Iwas surprised to see so many purple finches, from500 to 1,000 as a very rough guess. All these birdsplus several pine and evening grosbeaks and afew chickadees seemed to be feeding on the blueberries of the red cedar which at this place werevery abundant.

From 50 years ago ...A field trip report to Presqu’ile Point on March 9, 1969 by Fred Cooke:

The long journey along the 401 was uneventful asfour carsmade up the party on a cold but calm andsunny morning. A stop for coffee at the ServiceCentre 1867 yielded a flock of 35 Redpoll in thetrees near where we parked

The Blue Bill Volume 66 Number 1 - March 2019 · 2019. 3. 17. · PEPt 71 76 71 65 63 55 55 69 70...

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Transcript of The Blue Bill Volume 66 Number 1 - March 2019 · 2019. 3. 17. · PEPt 71 76 71 65 63 55 55 69 70...