Bruce Birding Club, November 16, 2011

Thank you to Doug and his able assistant, Stew who led 16 participants to some excellent birds.  It was a great outing which provided surprises and some great views of masses of bird species.  In the excellent bird department, we saw our first flock of Snow Geese including one Blue Morph and the first Northern Shrike of the season.  Bird surprises were 4 Sanderlings and 2 Baird's Sandpipers. In terms of uncommon numbers, we saw a gigantic flock of Red-breasted Mergansers who when they took flight looked like a cloud of locusts  and they with large numbers of Sandhill Cranes left us in awe.  Waterfowl were expected at this time of year and performed for us as well.  The Snowy Owl which was scouted by our leaders and seen as late as yesterday was not present when we looked for him.

The weather had mixed cloud, temperatures of 5 C and high winds providing a very chilly day for the birding club.

Places visited:
    1- Enroute
    2- Chantry Island View down by Jerry's Fries.
    3- Miramachi Bay
    4 - Independent Lagoons
    5 - MacGregor Park
    6- Fieldside Road near Alvanley
    7- Wiarton Sewage Lagoons
    8- Wiarton Harbour
    9- Sky Lake.

Species and locations

    • Pied-billed Grebe -9
    • Mute Swan -5
    • Canada Goose
    • Cackling Goose - 8
    • Snow Goose - 3
    • Mallard -3.4 5. 7 9
    • American Black Duck -2.3.7
    • American Wigeon - 7
    • Northern Shoveler -7
    • American Green-winged Teal -3,7
    • Lesser Scaup -7
    • Long-tailed Duck -4
    • White-winged Scoter -8
    • Common Goldeneye - 2,8
    • Bufflehead
    • Hooded Merganser - 9
    • Common Merganser - 2, 8
    • Red-breasted Merganser - 2,3.8
    • Northern Harrier - 1.3
    • Red-tailed Hawk -1
    • Rough-legged Hawk - 1
    • Bald Eagle - 2
    . Sandhill Crane - 6.
    • Wild Turkey -1, 6
    • Sanderling- 7
    • Baird's Sandpiper - 7
    • Bonaparte's Gull -3, 7
    • Ring-billed Gull
    • Herring Gull
    • Mourning Dove -1
    • Rock Pigeon
    • Northern Shrike -6
    • Blue Jay
    • Common Raven -4
    • American Crow
    • Black-capped Chickadee - 5
    • Red-breasted Nuthatch -5
    • European Starling
    • Dark-eyed Junco - 1


39 species seen