Amherst Island -- Jan 16 2010

On January 16, my girlfriend Abby and I spent the afternoon on Amherst Island. It was the first time that I've been there and I look forward to heading back towards the end of the winter. It was a cold day accentuated by the really strong wind coming in off of the Lake. We found a number of Northern Harriers and Rough-legged Hawks on the ground. It seemed like the wind was keeping them down and making them harder to see.

We saw about sixteen Northern Harriers. They were the most common bird by far. Rough-legged Hawks were around but not quite to the extent of the Harriers. There were a couple of adult Bald Eagles south of Emerald where the majority of the raptors were found. There was a flock of about 50 Snow Buntings near the KFN property. We had a single male Snowy Owl on the 3rd Concession at the "S" bend. Owl Woods had an American Robin near the feeding area. The Black-Capped Chickadees there are pushy. They were landing on us as we walked through the area so of course we had to feed them a few sunflower seeds.

Abby feeds the chickadees

After talking to a few groups of disappointed people who hadn't seen anything, we managed to find a single Long-eared Owl. It was in the only White Spuce in the immediate area.

Long-eared Owl -- Owl Woods, Amherst Island

We didn't see much in the way of waterfowl. The rough conditions combined with us running out of light due to focusing on raptors were to blame. The only thing of note were two Gadwall flying past the KFN property.