Sightings for Saturday February 23rd

Mont St-Hilaire: Gyrfalcon (Faucon gerfaut), Peregrine falcon (Faucon pèlerin) - Daniel Ouellette

Montreal, parc nature du Bois-de-Liesse: Eastern screech owl (Petit duc maculé) bois francs sector in the direction of boul. Hyman - Michel Juteau - click photo to enlarge

Montreal Botanical Gardens: Carolina wren (Troglodyte de Caroline), European goldfinch (Chardonneret élégant), Hoary redpoll (Sizerin blanchâtre), Common redpoll (Sizerins flammés), 2 American robins (Merles d'Amérique) etc.

Laval, Bois Papineau: in it’s hole behind the police station - Eastern screech owl (Petit-duc maculé) dans son trou habituel, derrière le poste de police. Great horned owl on it’s nest (Grand-duc d'Amérique) sur son nid. Not far from the feeders - Barred owl (Chouette rayée), Common redpolls (Sizerins flammés), American tree sparrows (Bruants hudsoniens), House finch (Roselins familiers), 4 Pileated woodpeckers (Grands Pics) etc. - Michel Bertrand

Verdun, rue Leclair at the lookout: Lesser black-backed gull (2nd winter) (Goéland brun 2ème Hiver) - Diane Demers

Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, on the open water west of the rail bridge: 2 Common loons (Plongeons huards) – R. Gregson

Pointe du Lac: Northern hawk owl (Chouette épervière)

Ste-Foy, south east corner of autoroute 40 (Charest) & 540 (Duplessis): Great horned owl (Grand-Duc d'Amérique) - Stéphane Blais

Hudson: Great gray owl (Chouette lapone)
I played a hunch this afternoon after reading the report about a great gray owl at Parc Les Iles de Boucherville and decided to see if any were around my favourite spot for this species west of Finnegan's Market in Hudson. I should probably buy a lotto ticket tonight because I found two within 5 minutes of starting out. This was at 1:30 p.m. in bright sunlight so I may try again later, nearer dusk, to see if there is more activity. My past experience with these birds has been that they are much more active on cloudy overcast days and tend to stick closer to cover on bright days like today so finding two in the open was actually a bit of a surprise (although not a great one if they are hungry). Unfortunately I cannot add them to my "growling" (green owling) BGBY listbecause I drove in the car to my starting point! Did manage to add a couple ofravens to that list today however. - W. Grubert


Darlene and I, together with Mary Ellen Graham, decided to explore some of the spots in south-western Quebec this morning, looking for a number of species that had been reported over the last week or so. It turned out to be a very successful day.

Ste-Catherine: 100’s Common Mergansers (Grand harles), Black-backed Gulls(Goéland marin), Mallards (Canard colvert) and Common Goldeneye (Garrots à oeil d'or). Darlene's keen eye scoping the water between the shore and Heron Island found a Barrow's Goldeneye (Garrot d'Islande) in a small group of Commons.

Chateauguay, rue Higgins: in The feeders and trees were alive with activity here. Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers wereeverywhere, as well as numerous American Tree Sparrows(Bruants hudsonien), Black-capped Chickadees (Mésanges à tête noire), White-breasted Nuthatch (Sittelle à poitrine blanche) and Common Redpolls (Sizerins flammé). We were rewarded with an excellent view of the Red-bellied Woodpecker (Pic à ventre roux). We hoped to find a Tufted Titmouse (Mésanges bicolore) but were unable to see it, although we did hear it nearby on two different occasions.

Valleyfield, at the end of St-Jean-Baptiste Street: Our next stop was Hungry Bay. The target here was the King Eider (Eider À tête grise) which has been seen in the area off and on for several weeks, including a sighting yesterday by Sylvie Vanier. Upon arriving we met up with Monique from the Chateauguay Birding Club. We could not locate the bird. Monique decided to call Sylvie and check the location with her. She indicated that yesterday's sighting was actually across the canal from Hungry Bay, at the end of St. Jean-Baptiste Street in Valleyfield. We headed there, and although the glare of the sun on the water made viewing a challenge, Monique found one unique bird in the midst of hundreds of Common Mergansers. All four of us agreed that the field marks matched. She had found the King Eider, although we all would have liked to have had a better look.

Saint-Urbain-Premier, close to civic address #9 on Highway 205, south-east of Sainte-Martine: Snowy Owl (Harfang des neiges). Our species count for the day was 25. – S. Harvey