A hardy group of RHN members met early Saturday morning at the RH Go-station to arrange car-pooling for the trip. We set out for our first stop down where Grays Road hits the lake, W of the Confederation Park Conservation Area (some cars had a few hawks along the way). The day was great, with not much wind and good sunlight on the myriad birds out on the lake. Good views were had by all of SURF SCOTER, WHITE-WINGED SCOTER, LONG-TAIL DUCK (aka OLDSQUAW), COMMON GOLDENEYE, RED-HEADED DUCK, and both SCAUP. A couple of us saw a COMMON MERGANSER as we were setting up.

Leaving this spot, we headed for Van Wagner’s Beach and Hutch’s Restaurant for a bio-break and coffee. While there, we had a BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER, several HERRING GULLs, and of course numerous RING-BILL GULLS. A few folks saw a CASPIAN TERN. Ready to forge on, we headed to Windermere Basin (just at the W end of Hamilton Harbour), where we were treated to a pair of RED-TAILED HAWKS floating motionless in the air low over a field. Beautiful! In the basin were several DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANTS, a few RUDDY DUCKS, a number of NORTHERN SHOVELERS, in amongst the multitude of SCAUPS. Walking up the new road being constructed on the N shore of the basin, we had several WHITE-CROWNED SPARROWS in the shrubs, plus SONG SPARROWS. An AMERICAN KESTREL swooped over while we were watching.

From here it was off to La Salle Park on the other shore of the harbour. Here were a number of TRUMPETER SWANS and MUTE SWANS, along with more RED-HEADED DUCKS and both RUBY-CROWNED and GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLETS, BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEES, a DOWNY WOODPECKER, and AMERICAN COOTS. There were a couple of (apparently escaped) GREYLAG GEESE. As we were getting ready to leave, a PIED-BILLED GREBE and a HORNED GREBE showed up, and had some interesting interactions.

We headed up to a nearby restaurant for lunch (Chaps on Plains rd), and after a tasty if leisurely meal decided it was time to head back to home to make the promised 4pm time.

[gmap name='mymap' width='450' lat='43.303242' lng='-79.84432' zoom='10' desc='LaSalle Park']

Participants: Rod and Denise Potter, Tom Waechter, Graham Leonard, Karen DeGroot, Lynn Grabner, Charlene and Gene Denzel.

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 18th, 2006 at 11:56 am and is filed under Birds, Reports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.