Timiskaming Birds Forum

Sorry to you get you all excited - I have no spring migrants to report yet this year.  But we'll start seeing signs of "spring-to-come" fairly soon, so I wanted to get this thread started to give us a place to track the ongoing saga of our returning visitors. In particular, keep your eyes and ears tuned in around late afternoon and dusk, as we should start to hear Great Horned Owls and Barred Owls starting to return to set up their local nesting territories in the next week or two.  (February 17 was our first observation of Great Horned last year.)

As before, I would ask that you post your new arrivals as a reply to this thread in preference of starting a new thread so that it is easier for me to collate results.  (If you want to review last year's discussion on this point, please review the thread here: http://timbirds.info/communityserver/forums/t/149.aspx).

On an administrative note, I have not had the time this winter to do as much collating of historical data for the species accounts pages as I had hoped.  Not to fear - it will all happen eventually.  I must admit though, that it's more of a job than I had forecasted.  I might have to take a sabbatical from my real job to get the site to where I'd really like it to be. In the meantime, if there is a particular piece of information that you are wondering about (or you are just trying to settle a bet with a friend), then let me know and I'll dig into the records and see if I can find an answer for you.

By the way - one set of data I'd really like to get my hands on is a complete set of the newsletter of the Kirkland Lake Nature Club called "The Peep".  It ran as a regular publication of the club for over 40 years. If anyone has any copies of this newsletter, or knows where I can find some, please contact me directly at 544-8333.  I'll pay for photocopies.

 Saw 2 crows at approximately 11:10 on Government Road just outside Earlton, and 2 more off Hwy 11 near Earlton.  (I couldn't tell if they were really new arrivals, or if they had stayed here all winter, but, to be first, I really think they had left and came back...

Had two morning doves at our feeder at around 4 pm today

I've had three at my feeder continuously since last fall.

Two Bald Eagles today on River Road in Beauchamp Twp.  Both are full adults, and possibly a breeding pair since adults are typically on breeding territory at around this time of year in northern Ontario (according to the 2007 Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas).  Recorded egg dates from southern Ontario as early as late February.

 Robin, if I remember right you mentioned delivering something to a farm West of Earlton, on the road past the church, next to the liquor store.

Check out this map.  River Road goes north all the way up to near Englehart

Doug Fraser got an excellent photo of a Great Horned Owl in his yard in Haileybury on January 27, 2009, as reported by e-mail to Bruce Murphy.

Today at the Vieux-Fort (http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=fr&geocode=&q=vieux-fort&sll=47.287613,-79.457932&sspn=0.222635,0.439453&dirflg=r&date=09%2F03%2F07&time=17:09&ttype=dep&noexp=0&noal=0&sort=&tline=&ie=UTF8&ll=47.327654,-79.557495&spn=0.211297,0.439453&z=11), were present 15 Herring gulls eating leftovers.

 On feb 27th, we could observe 3 Bald eagles (1 adult) 2 km south of Temiscaming city on Ottawa River (http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=fr&geocode=&q=temiscaming&sll=47.327654,-79.557495&sspn=0.211297,0.439453&dirflg=r&date=09%2F03%2F07&time=17:09&ttype=dep&noexp=0&noal=0&sort=&tline=&ie=UTF8&ll=46.696316,-79.117012&spn=0.112556,0.219727&z=12&iwloc=addr).

 Also quite a few Boreal waxwings around the house these past days.

 Thought we had a new species there for a while, but I finally got it: Bohemian waxwing = jaseur boreal.

Sorry! What a mix!  It would be a good name too...

A  huge Bald Eagle was sighted this a.m by friends Sherry and Fred Swain. Sherry says it is one of the biggest they ahve seen and they see a lot. They prospect in the area.

Cheers Gert

Are you seeing open water yet anywhere else on your travels in Timiskaming?

The only other place i've seen open water is at the dam in Latchford, it seems to be clearing up pretty well there, but there always seems to be alot of current. And i dont think the pond in front of the Kirkland  power plant ever freezes.

A Barred Owl was calling last night in Kenabeek. "Who Cooks For You???"

If it doesn't freeze, it should be a nice place for goldeneyes too

 A short drive on Church rd and I saw my Urban Snowy Owl.  I thought I would get a shot at him, so I turned around and went to park, when another very light colored bird (raptor) with a long tail & black wing tips came swooping by & did a short aerial dance with my owl.  The owl landed on a post, but the harrier headed towards the airport.

Today at about 5:30pm I saw a Merlin just outside of Judge on Hwy 65 W.

Also, though they don't count as Timiskaming first sightings, there were 5 male Common Mergansers and a male and female Common Goldeneye in the river at Notre-Dame-du-Nord on Quebec.

Ducks are invading fields in central Ontario now, and though things are going to cool off now for a few days, it can't be too long before they hit Timiskaming.  Looks like the waterfowl invasion might be a bit early this year.

 Yesterday coming home from the Marsh, I spotted a gull flying overhead towards earlton (go figure) black wing tips, white belly, grey back. I'm thinking it was just a ring billed, but its the first one ive seen this year. Also the common grackles are back at my grandmothers house in town.

I had a grackle too this morning in Ville-Marie (at feeders)

Hi ALL,

 My friend Bill Fox spotted an  American Kestrel a couple of days ago...

Gert

Hi,¸

an American Robin was foraging on my neighbor's grass this morning.  His second name was not Voyer

A Northern Shrike on the west side of Casey Twp. yesterday.  Also saw Serge's Maybrook Rd. Snowy Owl and male Harrier.

Was just reviewing some posts in the General Bird Talk Forum, and noticed that Bruce had reported a Shrike on March 3 at Hilliardton Marsh, which he banded, and Gert reported one on Jan. 26 at her feeder in Gowganda.  I guess we really can't report this species in this "First Sightings" forum, since some of them overwinter here.  We do get an influx of southern birds coming into the area in the spring on their way north, but we can't really treat the Shrike as a returning migrant because of our resident population.  I remember having the same dilemma last year. I wanted to report what were very likely birds returning north, but we already had sightings of resident birds earlier in the year.  From now on, I'll leave my observations of this species in the General Bird Talk Forum, just to avoid confusion.

Keep an eye on the skies and bushes tomorrow.  With the warmer temperatures and south winds, we might get a few more arrivals despite the rain.

Hi, this is Cassandra  from CSPS.

   Today we saw a couple of Black-Capped Chickadees, Many Redpolls,the male Redpolls' breasts are  bright red, ready to mate!

2 Starlings, and 2 Robins, the first we have seen around here! They were at the feeder under our crab apple tree.

Yesterday Mr. Milton saw a Hairy Woodpecker at one of our feeders, he also said that he saw 2 Crows. 

I just saw a Crow at our feeders when I went to see the Hairy Woodpecker Mr. Milton just saw! 

I hope we get to see more spring arrivals!

A dark morph Rough-legged Hawk in Casey Twp. this afternoon.   Good to hear about the Robins in Charlton too. Well done Cassandra.