As posted to ONTBIRDS:
Hi All,
Tonight (May 10) at around 7:30pm I saw the American White Pelican at the south end of Cook's Bay (Lake Simcoe), as first reported by Andrew Davis.
It was standing on a small reed island between 500m and 1km away (best guess), I could see it with my binoculars (but not really "identifiable" as such) so a scope is definitely worthwhile - the bird is in high breeding plumage with the big "knob" on the top of it's bill. Also here were 40+ Caspian Terns, 2 Black Terns, 50+ Lesser Scaup, 1 Osprey, 3 Common Terns and a heard-only Pied-billed Grebe. Also, over the fields were hundreds of Swallows (20+ Bank, 50+ Barn, 50+ Tree & 5 Northern Rough-winged).
DIRECTIONS: from Newmarket follow Leslie St. north to Ravenshoe Road. Turn left (west) on Ravenshoe past the residential area and into the fields. Turn right (north) on the first dike/road (unnamed and unmarked) that you come to and follow it a short distance to the lake. You can see the island/reeds directly offshore about 0.5 km.
WARNING: the dike road is fairly rough; you will want a high clearance vehicle. If you are in a car proceed very slowly and you won't bottom out too often, there are some deep ruts! Reminded me of California Gulch, Norm! :-)
FURTHER WARNING: due to the rains overnight yesterday, I would strongly suggest that if you do not have a 4-wheel drive vehicle, I would park on Ravenshoe and walk the muddy, short distance to the lake!
Good Birding,
Frank Pinilla
Richmond Hill, ON
