Today Ian Cannell, Jay Peterson and I birded some of the areas from Stoney Creek to Nanticoke and a fine day it was.
We didn't arrive at the lake off Stoney Creek until noon and while there among the low numbers of the usual suspects Jay spotted two adult male Black Scoters. We also found White-winged and Surf Scoters in the same area.
From here we headed to Grimsby and up Fifty Road to 10th Road E finding a N. Mockingbird on the way. We made one pass along 10th seeing very little and on the return drive we stopped at the house closest to Ridge Rd and Jay spotted the only Redpoll we would see all day and to our delight it was seen to be a male Hoary Redpoll that gave us great looks. We then reversed coarse to make one more pass along 10th and halfway to the railway tracks we spotted the wintering Hawk Owl on the west side of the road at the tree line. We did see a couple of birders / photographers wandering the woods in the same area but they didn't seem to be looking at the Owl.
It was now off towards Nanticoke via some back roads and on the way there and back to Fisherville area we found 1 E. Screech Owl, 1 Bald Eagle, 3 A. Kestrels, 3 N. Harriers ( all males ), 18 Red-tailed Hawks, 15 Rough-legged Hawks, 1 Red-bellied Woodpecker, 1100 Snow Buntings, 113 Horned Larks and 5 Lapland Longspurs, 132 A. Tree Sparrows and another piece of icing on the cake was a close look at a Red-shouldered Hawk beside the road at the Haldimand Conservation Area at Peacock Point east of Nanticoke.
