From a birding point of view, Irene's currently estimated track is extremely exciting, and all the East Coast bird lists will probably start buzzing about this hurricane in the next few days.

BBS: No confident trend estimate is available from the BBS; relative abundance 0.01 birds/route. BBA: Breeding was confirmed on 9 of 39 blocks where located in the state, in two populations established in the 1970s, in the Housatonic Valley and at East Haddam.

Pew's curent estimate is about 2/3.

They turned out to be BOHEMIAN WAXWINGS and in checking the trees where they had flown, there were many more - we estimated numbers well in excess of 100. They were in the shrubs and on the ground on both sides of the road. We sat in the car and watched 20 - 30 of them land 10 feet in front of us on the gravel road to pick up grit.

The plan gives the occurrence, status, habitats, population estimates and trends of the breeding and migrant shorebirds in the province.

I estimated roughly 4-5000 around the falls and 3000 at the Whirlpool. We did not check Queenston where I suspect there were a few thousand more.

As an example, yesterday afternoon, I estimated a total of 1500 to 1600 Canvasbacks alone in a survey of a 5-km stretch of the river between Alexander Park and the Lakeview Marina.

Estimate that 10,000 'blackbirds' (mostly starlings) were seen. Predictions: I was unable to enter the date on Saturday since my car was broken into Saturday night in Windsor while at a banquet and my hawk data notebook, ipod, camera, and binocs were taken. The data notebook and ipod have been recovered by Windsor police this Sunday AM.

I walked down to the fence line and estimated that there were 4,000 Snows and several hundred Canadas. They made for a most beautiful sight in the sunset. The birds took off at dark. This sighting was on Cedar Grove Road west of Schoolhouse Road. Cedar Grove Road is accessible from Highway 34 5 kms north of Lancaster.

I would estimate that there were probably close to 60-80 birds by how much noise they made. Further down the trail I came across my first FOX SPARROW of the year.