Understandably, not much serious birding today in the almost steady rain

Birding at the Prince Edward Point National Wildlife Area has started to

    No further sign of the 13 CATTLE EGRETS that appeared in Picton on

On Friday, a BLUE-HEADED VIREO was seen in the old picnic ground area at

So, there is still lots of movement as we approach November. And with

A ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK at Ridge Road, PILEATED WOODPECKER near Bongard's

Our thanks to David Okines (Prince Edward Point Bird Observatory), Rob

WEEKLY BIRD REPORT FROM PRINCE EDWARD COUNTY AND THE QUINTE AREA for Sunday, October 26, 2003 Understandably, not much serious birding today in the almost steady rain to end this past week's birding period. However, some great sightings during the week, including, a BALD EAGLE at Fish Lake Road yesterday, four COMMON RAVENS a day earlier at Point Petre, and a late YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT on October 22nd east of Picton. Also noteworthy, date-wise, was a late NORTHERN PARULA banded at Prince Edward Point on Saturday, topped only by a TUFTED TITMOUSE that was banded at the Prince Edward Point Bird Observatory a day earlier. Birding at the Prince Edward Point National Wildlife Area has started to slow down as fall comes to a close with only kinglets, robins and juncos providing any numbers of birds. Banded during the week were 143 NORTHERN SAW-WHET OWLS, as well as one SCREECH OWL and a LONG-EARED OWL. A flock of 9 GREAT BLUE HERONS flew over the Point on the 19th. On the 20th, a ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK was seen flying over and on the lake there were 37 BUFFLEHEAD. Also on that date, 5 LESSER YELLOWLEGS were in the harbour, followed by 4 HOODED MERGANSERS two days later. On the 23rd, 120 LONG-TAILED DUCKS were at the Point. A nice YELLOW PALM WARBLER was trapped in the nets on the 23rd. At first light on the 24th, 850 AMERICAN ROBINS flew over high, and later in the day, SHARP-SHINNED HAWKS (50) and RED-TAILED HAWKS (45) started to move as well. No further sign of the 13 CATTLE EGRETS that appeared in Picton on the 17th, although one did appear just north of the county line, near the 401 and Marysville exit the following day. RED-BELLIED WOODPECKERS were reported at Smith's Bay and Beaver Meadow Wildlife Management Area during the week. Also at Beaver Meadow, on October 20th, there was lots of stuff around, typical of this prolific area, including RUSTY BLACKBIRD, HERMIT THRUSH, FOX SPARROW and WINTER WREN being among the more noteworthy. Athol Bay the same day produced a conservative estimate of 15,000 GREATER SCAUP, and on the Salmon Point side of the bay, there were 2 or 3 female BLACK SCOTERS mixed in with a flock of WHITE-WINGED SCOTERS. The far end of the Salmon Point Road yielded a ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER, and at adjacent Sandbanks Provincial Park, 3 LITTLE GULLS turned up in East Lake at the park's group campground. This area bears watching from now until freeze-up as numbers of this species have increased to highs of 40 in some years in the East Lake/Outlet River mouth area. On Friday, a BLUE-HEADED VIREO was seen in the old picnic ground area at Point Petre. To the east, Army Reserve Road produced hundreds of juncos and robins with a young BROAD-WINGED HAWK observed harassing the flocks at eye level. So, there is still lots of movement as we approach November. And with that approach, we are seeing definite signs of winter. This season's PROJECT FEEDERWATCH is about to begin to record some of the activity that is starting to occur at some feeders in the Quinte area. PURPLE FINCHES are coming to feeders in Trenton and Madoc, and more than a dozen species were listed in a backyard near Waupoos. A flock of TREE SPARROWS and a SNOW BUNTING turned up on Army Reserve Road on Friday, and four more SNOW BUNTINGS were seen at Prince Edward Point. Another two were seen yesterday at Belleville's Zwick's Island Park, and a dozen or so were on a beach in the Pleasant Bay area on Friday. A ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK at Ridge Road, PILEATED WOODPECKER near Bongard's Crossroad and RED-WINGED BLACKBIRDS coming to feeders at Pleasant Bay, Smith's Bay and at Big Island rounds off this week's report from Prince Edward County and the Quinte area. Our thanks to David Okines (Prince Edward Point Bird Observatory), Rob Kellough, Linda Lavallee, Bob Sachs, Ken & Shirley Joyce, June Hazell, Henry Pasila, John & Sacha Squair, John & Sharron Blaney, Sean Blaney, Don Chisholm, Donn Legate, and John Charlton for their contributions to this week's report. This report will be updated by 8:00 p.m. on Sunday, November 3rd. Bird sightings must be in by 6:00 p.m. to be included in the next report. Good birding. Terry Sprague Picton, Ontario tsprague@kos.net www.naturestuff.net "Terry Sprague" <tsprague@kos.net> Visit http://www.ofo.ca/ontbirdsguide.htm for information on leaving and joining the list. As well as general information and content guidelines.