Hello Birders Today Mary Schuster and I started the day off at Hall's Road, Cranberry Marsh to see the SNOW BUNTINGS. We were treated to a flock we estimated at 2000 at the very south end of the road near the lake. They were roosting in the trees to the west of the field, and periodically lifted off in a glittering white cloud in the sun. Fantastic. Mary was able to pick out 1 LAPLAND LONGSPUR amongst them. Also in the field on the west side of the road, Mary spotted a NORTHERN SHRIKE, sitting on a wire. At the feeders was the usual cast of characters, including COMMON REDPOLLS, RING-NECKED PHEASANT and our first RED-WINGED BLACKBIRDS of the year. (A note of caution, at least 2 cars went into the ditch on Hall's Road today and had to be towed out. The ditch is filled with snow and the road looks wider than it is) Next we headed out to Newcastle to look for the Hoary Redpoll at Markus Lise's feeders, with no luck. We did, however, have 12 species of birds there, not bad considering 2 of them were COOPER'S HAWK and RED-TAILED HAWK, which, along with 3 cats, were patrolling the yard. Next we headed up onto Durham's country roads looking for winter finches, waxwings or more buntings, but what we found instead were 76 WILD TURKEYS in a corn field on the east side of the 6th Concession, south of Goodwood Rd (Durham rd 21). They were feeding in the late afternoon sun, digging down through the snow. They were having trouble walking on the snow, and kept sinking to their bellies. We had watched them for about 15 minutes when an alarm call went up and they all ran or flew to the cover of the trees. Looking up to see what a turkey would be afraid of, we were amused to see it was a DARK PHASED ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK. A pretty good way to end a very nice day of birding. Directions: To Cranberry Marsh: It is at the foot of Hall's Road, which runs south off of Victoria Street in Whitby, between Lakeridge Road and Brock Street. Exit the 401 at either Salem Road in Ajax, or Brock Street in Whitby, then head south to Victoria Street (called Bailey in Ajax). From Salem go east, form Brock go west to Hall's Road. To Markus Lise's house, as in his post earlier today: Take exit # 410 off Hwy # 401 Mill St. S. My feeders are 500 m. before the lake. To the Wild Turkeys: The 6th concession is the northerly continuation of Wesney Road in Ajax. The turkeys were south of Durham Rd 21 (Goodwood Rd). Good Birding Carol Carol Horner Toronto, Ontario, Canada scrubjay@NOSPAMsympatico.ca remove NOSPAM to reply to this address Carol Horner <scrubjay@NOSPAMsympatico.ca> Visit http://www.ofo.ca/ontbirdsguide.htm for information on leaving and joining the list. As well as general information and content guidelines.