BPQ Field Trip Report - South Shore - Feb 10/07

13 birders took advantage of a very pleasant Saturday morning tovisit four popular South Shore birding spots today. We visitedChambly Basin, the compost site at St-Basile-le-Grand, St. HubertAirport and finally Parc de la Frayere in Boucherville. It wasn'tnecessarily a day for a large quantity of birds, but the quality wasexcellent.

Behind the fort in Chambly, there is a stretch of open water and rapids where a large number of ducks have congregated. Mostly Mallards and Am. Black Ducks make up the flock, but we were pleased to find 4 Hooded Mergansers and a number of Common Mergansers present. Unfortunately there was no sign of the Ring-necked Duckthat had been seen here recently.

The composting site at St-Basile was a very popular location for birding today, with a few other clubs present, including a group from Sherbrooke. The birds most in demand here were the Short-eared Owls spotted first last weekend. With the help of St-Hubert birder Raymond Belhumeur, we were able to have an excellent view of both birds. A number of Lapland Longspurs and Snow Buntings flew in, landing very close to us, providing excellent views as well.

Due to some light snow that moved in just as we arrived at St-Hubert, visibility was down and we were unable to locate the resident Snowy Owl.

Moving on to Parc de la Frayere in Boucherville, we were treated to views of three of the Long-eared Owls at the site, plus an up closeand personal encounter with a white-tailed deer.To summarize things, our total species count for the day was 18.

They were: Black Duck (Canard noir), Mallard (Canard colvert), Hooded Merganser (Harle couronné), Common Merganser (Grand harle), Red-tailed Hawk (Buse à queue rousse), Rough-legged Hawk (Buse pattue), Great Black-backed Gull (Goélands marins), Rock Pigeon, (Pigeon bisset), Long-eared Owl(Hibou moyen-duc), Short-eared Owl (Hiboux des marais), American crows (Corneilles d'Amérique), Common Raven (Grand corbeau), Horned Lark(Alouettes hausse-col), Black-capped Chickadee (Mésange à tête noire), Eruopean Starling (Étourneaux sansonnets), Lapland Longspur (Bruants lapon), Snow Bunting (Bruants des neiges), American Goldfinch (Chardonnerets jaunes)


A falcon species was also spotted at St-Basile-le-Grand, but not identified. An Am. Kestrel was spotted along Highway 132 in Longueuil on the ride home, after the field trip list was made.

Thank you to all who attended today.

Sheldon