Willow Beach Field Naturalists News
First winter male Smew, Whitby Harbour, 28 December 2011. Photo© Bruce Parker.
Last Updated: January 17 2012
Whitby Harbour Hosts Ontario Rarity
A very rare first winter male Smew was first discovered and photographed by Jim Robinson on the morning of December 26 2011. According to Jean Iron, the Smew a rare duck from Eurasia has only two previous records accepted by the Ontario Bird Records Committee: one was a female on the Niagara River between Fort Erie and Chippawa from 21 February to 30 March 1960, and the other also a female was at Normandale near Long Point on 9 and 10 December 1973. (2000 OBRC Report by Kayo Roy in August 2001 issue of Ontario Birds)
The Smew was present from December 26 to December 28 and was mixing with large numbers of Red-breasted Mergansers and gulls. While seen by hundreds of birders, as is usually the case, some missed seeing it including an American birder, John Vanderpoel, who was finishing a North American Big Year. Jean relates the interesting details of John and his quest to find the bird on her website.
TO READ ABOUT JOHN VANDERPOEL'S QUEST FOR THE SMEW FROM JEAN IRON'S WEBSITE CLICK HERE.
Smew and Red-breasted Merganser, Whitby Harbour, 28 December 2011. Photo© Bruce Parker.
TO READ ELIZABETH KELLOGG'S ARTICLE ABOUT THE SMEW CLICK HERE.
WBFN Latest Updates!
¬ Winter Bird and Soup Hike in the Northumberland Forest. Sunday, January 22, 2012
Meet at the new Non-motorized parking area off County Rd. 45 (opposite Woodland Rd.) at 9 a.m. We will search the forest trails and roadsides for winter birds and end about noon at the home of Barry King, 12162 Dunbar Rd., for soup and a studio tour! Please bring a large mug for your soup.
Contact Roger at 905-885-9615 or ekrf@eagle.ca to let him know if you are coming. We don’t want to run out of soup!
¬ Northumberland Land Trust Lecture Series Thursday, February 9th, 2012
The County Building at 600 William St. in Cobourg at 7:30 p.m. Janine McLeod, Natural Heritage Coordinator Alderville First Nation is going to speak on the Alderville Black Oak Savanna and Flora of the Rice Lake Plains.
¬ Presqu’ile Waterfowl Viewing Weekend – March 17-18 2012, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Presqu’ile will once again be hosting a waterfowl viewing weekend, where nature enthusiasts can come and appreciate one of the great spectacles on earth – the return of migrating waterfowl to their staging areas along the lower Great Lakes. For more information on the event or on volunteering please contact David or Lisa at 613 475-4324 ext 225 or david.bree@ontario.ca.
¬ January 2012 Issue of the Curlew is now posted on the Curlew Page. Those members who do not want to receive a paper copy of the Curlew please leave a message by going to the Contact Us Page or indicating it on the Membership Renewal Form.
¬ Check out the News and Events Page for more of the latest.
Glaucous Gull, Chub Point, 11 January 2012. Photo© Sherwood McLernon.
Presqu'ile Christmas Bird Count 2011 Report - David Bree
The final results are summarized below. The "unusual" birds and numbers can mostly be associated with our late arriving winter.
Total species seen - 84 species plus 6 count week - this is 10 above the 20 year average of 73 species but is the same as last year.
Total birds - 19636
Record high counts were recorded for -
(old record in brackets)
Canada Goose (again) - 2420 (2270 in 2008) (there was 1 counted in
1986)
Mute Swan (again) - 624 (504 in 2010)
Tundra Swan - 100 (23 in 2008)
Cooper's Hawk - 9 (6 in 1995)
Merlin - 4 (1 in several
years)
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 6 (5 in 2010)
American Crow - 1594 (1156 in 2000)
Carolina Wren - 2 (ties old record
from a couple of years - almost annual now)
Dark-eyed Junco - 568 (474 in 2005)
Count Week Birds included -
Brant (would have been new for the count if it stayed 1 more days)
Black Scoter
Common Loon
Horned Grebe
Glaucous Gull
Other birds of note include:
Green-winged Teal - 3rd time recorded in last 20 years
Red-necked Grebe - 3rd time recorded in last 20 years
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker - 1st record in last 20 years
Savannah Sparrow - 3rd time recorded in last 20 years
Miscellaneous -
The 8 Purple Sandpipers was 4x more than the average 2 seen but a far cry from the remarkable 57 tallied on the 1998 count.
There was one Pink-sided Junco in with all the Slate-coloured.
Missed was Belted Kingfisher with is usually tallied.
The 2 Snow Buntings were down a bit from the 2000+ seen last year
The 1 Common Redpoll was conspicuous by its solitude.
TO READ THE FINAL TOTALS FOR THE PRESQU'ILE CHRISTMAS BIRD COUNT 2011 CLICK HERE.
David Bree
Natural Heritage Education (NHE) Leader
Presqu'ile Provincial Park
328 Presqu'ile Parkway
Brighton, ON K0K 1H0
One of 390 American Tree Sparrows seen on the Presqu'ile Christmas Bird Count 2011. Photo© Bruce Parker.
Port Hope-Cobourg Christmas Bird Count
On December 17, 40 observers participated in the 41st Port Hope-Cobourg Christmas Bird Count. Mild weather prior to count day kept most small bodies of water open. Count day was cold with a low of -8º and a high of -4º C. Partly cloudy skies and light north-west winds made for pleasant birding. However, lack of snow cover made birds hard to find.
2 American Coots were seen this year on the Port Hope-Cobourg Christmas Bird Count 2011.
Photo© Bruce Parker.
In total, we tallied 18,386 birds of 77 species on count day, with an addition 8 species seen during count week. Highlights included: Common Loon - 1; Double-crested Cormorant- 1CW; Snow Goose-1; Wood Duck-1; Gadwall-6; American Wigeon-1; Northern Pintail-1; Green-winged Teal-1; Black Scoter-1; Ruddy Duck-1, Bald Eagle—1; Northern Goshawk-1; Peregrine Falcon-1CW; American Coot-2; Killdeer-1CW; Purple Sandpiper-1; Snowy Owl-1; Carolina Wren-1CW; Hermit Thrush-2; Northern Mockingbird-1; Chipping Sparrow-1; White-crowned Sparrow-1.
Record high counts were tallied on 4 species: American Crow-2,077; European Starling-2,945; American Goldfinch-999; Northern Flicker-9.
Seven species were found in very low numbers: House Sparrow-193; House Finch-48; Snow Bunting-7; Horned Lark-2; Pileated Woodpecker-3, Northern Harrier-1; Common Goldeneye-157.
...... Roger Frost
November Meeting Brings Large Turnout
On Friday, November 25, 2011 at the WBFN General Meeting at Cobourg Public Library a large crowd was was in attendance to hear Dr. Brent Patterson, Research Scientist MNR and Adjunct Professor Trent University, speak about the present status of Ontario’s wolves and coyotes, and some interesting findings from the recent research on which he has been working.
Dr. Brent Patterson, Trent University. Photo© Bruce Parker.
Dr. Patterson started his talk with the history of wolves and coyotes in Ontario. Ontario has two different wolve species but coyotes were not native in the province. While wolf populations have shrunk, coyote populations have increased due to a number of factors Dr. Patterson explained. He also discussed hybridization amongst different populations and the genetic research that was being carried out at Trent to identify different groups.
Dr. Patterson shared with the audience his most recent research on a study of coyote populations in Prince Edward County. Radio collars were placed on 100 coyotes and their movements have been studied from May 2010 to November 2011. At least 60 packs of coyotes have been found in the County and Dr. Patterson explained the results of his findings to date dealing with territorial size, reproduction rates, mortality rates and movement of packs in the County. A question period followed his presentation.
WBFN Member and Speaker Co-ordinator Trish Whitney thanked Dr. Brent Patterson on behalf of the club.
Photo© Bruce Parker.
Snowy Owls
There have been a number of sightings of Snowy Owls reported across Ontario this fall and winter. Both Port Hope and Cobourg Harbour have had owls present over the past several months.
Snowy Owl, Port Hope Harbour. Photo© Bruce Parker.
Snowy Owl, Cobourg Harbour. Photo© Bruce Parker.
ONTARIO NATURE- "Advocates for Nature"
ONTARIO NATURE's website has a number of important links to get you involved in protecting our natural world:
• Read about the latest Action Alert issue. Click here for more information.
Wind Turbines and Ostrander Point, Prince Edward County
To watch the CBC report on the issue
Click Here
For further information about the proposal Click Here
Birds of Northumberland County Revision
WBFN member CliveGoodwin has announced that The Birds of Northumberland County website has now been wholly revised, with the addition of species' accounts and many illustrations, plus listings of County vascular plants, butterflies and dragonflies. Leads are given to all the charts, tables, and other information in the present guide, which have also been completely revised and updated.
Yellow-throated Vireos © Allyson Parker
The address is: http://www.wings4d.com/BNC/Welcome.html
The main text is in the form as a large pdf file, which some persons can have trouble downloading. Be sure to follow the downloading instructions given on the 'Welcome' page.
Installing sections of the new boardwalk at Peter's Woods. Photo© Gina Tremblay.
For Older News... Click Here
