H-April 4

Trip Leader: Judith

Participants: Fred, Judy, Dave, James, Ralph and Mary Anne, Blain and Marg, Carole, Norma, Arlene, John and Kay, Liz and Bruce, Beryl, Judith, Bil, Joy, Bonnie

Hi Everyone,

Today was an exciting day in that we saw a lot of species for this time of year and we had two exciting sightings. One was at Isaac Lake where we saw an immature Bald Eagle swoop down and pick off a Buffelhead of teh water and take it into the woods. The second most exciting thing was that on Redbay road west of Mar, we spotted and tried to study a probable Loggerhead Shrike. The bird had a white breast with no noticeable striping, which is opposed to darker white breast with more noticeable striping of a Northern Shrike. We never were in a position to see if the black bar went across the bill. We must have chased this bird for about 45 minutes. It was wary of us but was a very active bird in searching for food. This is the time of year that LOSH arrives in our area. Bonnie has taken some pictures and we will pass the information on to the people who are interested in studying this bird. The one thing about birding is that you never know what lies around the next corner or if you should go the extra mile. In this case it was worth it. Thank you Judith for taking us out for an enjoyable day.

The weather was windy, about 5 C and with mixed sun and cloud.

Areas visited and birds seen. We covered a lot of ground and the specific sites may be hard to figure out. Please contact me if you want more details about a bird.

1- Southampton Harbour

2- Heading to Hepworth via Allenford Road, Park Head Road, S.R.5. Silver Lake Road, C.R. 10

3 - Heppworh to Wiarton via S.R15 (near Sauble), N.Diagonal RD, Boat Lake Rd, Municipal RD, MAryville Rd,Crooked Hill RD.

4- Wiarton - Elm Street, Sewage Lagoons,

5- Isaac Lake

• Common Loon - 3,

• Pied-billed Grebe -3, 4,

• Double-crested Cormorant -1

• Great Blue Heron

• Canada Goose

• Wood Duck 3,4

• Mallard

• Gadwall -3

• American Wigeon 4.5

• Northern Shoveler -4

• Ring-necked Duck 2,3,4,5

• Greater Scaup -4

• Lesser Scaup -3,4

• Bufflehead

• Hooded Merganser -3

• Common Merganser -4

• Red-breasted Merganser -4

• Turkey Vulture

• Northern Harrier -3,4

• Sharp-shinned Hawk -4

• Red-tailed Hawk

• Rough-legged Hawk -2

• Bald Eagle -5

• American Kestrel

• Ruffed Grouse -2

• Wild Turkey

• Ring-billed Gull

• Herring Gull

• Mourning Dove

• Rock Pigeon

• Belted Kingfisher -3

• Downy Woodpecker

• Northern Flicker

• Eastern Phoebe

. Loggerhead Shrike - Possible

• Blue Jay

• Common Raven 2

• American Crow

• Black-capped Chickadee

• White-breasted Nuthatch

• Eastern Bluebird

• American Robin

• European Starling

• Northern Cardinal

• Song Sparrow

• Eastern Meadowlark 3,4,

• Brown-headed Cowbird- 2

• Red-winged Blackbird

• Brewer's Blackbird -2

• Rusty Blackbird -2

• Common Grackle

• American Goldfinch

53 species seen

Any errors or ommisions, please contact sender.

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