Hello Guys and Gals or Gals and Guys
Sorry that this post is a few days late :oops: but it is still relevent and all birds seen may still be found especially with the NW winds predicted for next weekend. Birds not here but seen by others to be aware of is the Northern Gannet off Van Wagners Beach in Burlington and Pine and Evening Grosbeaks being seen in multiple places.
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Today Sat., Nov. 10th Ian Cannell and I headed for the Burlington area to try and find a Bohemian Waxwing or any birds actually.
We first stopped at the Valley Inn area and after parking at the start of the Hendrie Valley trails we walked back and across the bridge heading up the road to the railway tracks. We proceeded up the hill and under the railway bridge where we saw a small flock of Cedar Waxwings land further up the road. We climbed the road to them and they had increased to about 100 birds spread over 3 or 4 trees. With a sigh we started to sort through these birds and at almost the same instant Ian and I spotted a nice Bohemian Waxwing among these birds. Just before heading back down the road to the car we noticed other flocks of Cedars joining the original ones until there were about 300 birds. A nice sight.
We now headed under the railway bridge and back down the hill another large flock of Waxwings flew into the trees above us and to our surprise we were looking at a flock of about 100 Bohemian Waxwings. Not a bad haul at all.
Other good birds seen in the Valley Inn area were 2 Great Egrets, a large flock of Trumpeter Swans, 3 cackling Geese, N. Shovelers, 5 Killdeer and a singing Carolina Wren.
From here we went back up the road to Woodland Cemetery and though we did not find any more Waxwings we did see ( on the harbour ) 14 A. Coots and 16 Ring-necked Ducks and in the trees were 2 Common Redpolls, another Carolina Wren, 3 N. Flickers and overhead and flying west was a N. Harrier, N. Goshawk and a Rough-legged Hawk.
Now off we went to the Grays Road area in Stoney Creek and off Grays Road we found the previously reported male Barrow's Goldeneye among the 500 or so Common Goldeneyes as well as all 3 Scoters and off Sayers Park we found a nice raft of about 75 Black Scoters as well as some Surf and White-winged Scoters.
Other highlights of our day were an amazing 5000 Bufflehead at the start of the Niagara River in Fort Erie as well as Pied-billed and Horned Grebes and on Peter Street in Chippawa we came up with 3 Tufted Titmice and 2 Red-bellied Woodpeckers among the A. Goldfinches and House Finches.
We also noted that along the Niagara River from Fort Erie to Niagara Falls were approx. 500 Bonaparte's Gulls and a few Great black-backed Gulls and finally at Niagara-on-the-lake we did see a N. Mockingbird.
DIRECTIONS:-
VALLEY INN AREA IN BURLINGTON
Exit the QEW Highway at Plains Road East and drive west on Plains past Waterdown / LaSalle Park Roads. About 2km after passing Waterdown you will pass Holy Sepulchre Cemetery on your left. Be sure to be in the left or centre lane and just at the west end of the above cemetery turn left on Spring Gardens Road. Drive past Woodland Cemetery and continue to the bottom of the hill. The mud flats etc. are on your right at the bottom of the hill. The noisy bridge is on your left but you don
