Sightings For Saturday November 14

After about 3 hours of searching without success both in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu and Chambly this morning and early afternoon for one of the Franklin's Gulls seen in the last few days, Darlene and I decided to check out the Ornitho-QC postings for today to see if anyone had come across the birds at any point other than very early this morning. There were no reports however there were two postings, one from Pierre Bannon and one from Samuel Denault.

Both were reporting one, and possibly two, Cave Swallows in the bay at Ste-Catherine, Récré-O-Parc - map/carte. We left St-Jean and upon arriving at the locks at Ste-Catherine, we saw a line-up of about 7 or 8 cars parked along the top of the cliff just past the bridge. We decided to go a little further along the road to a clearing on the right where we could see down into the bay. Darlene almost immediately noticed two swallow-like birds swooping around a bushy clump in the shallow water below. Seeing that they were the only two swallow-like birds visible, we figured it must be them. We returned to where the cars were parked. A birder returning to his car said that definitely the two birds were cave swallows. He suggested following the path off to the left at the bottom of the stairs and that we would eventually run into a large group of birders.

Success...a lifer for both of us! 2 Cave swallows Hirondelle à front brun at the western end of the bay we found a group of about a dozen birders, at water-level, just across from the bushy clump we had seen from above. The two birds were very active and, at times, very close to the shore, offering up great views.

Get them while you can. Who knows if they will stick around and, will they be able to find enough food to survive. If I were them I'd want to be heading off to warmer territory pretty quickly.

Thanks to Pierre and Samuel for tipping off the local birding community to their great discovery. - Sheldon Harvey
-------------------------------------------------------------
Fort Chambly, map/carte: 16 species - 1500 Canada Goose, 3 American Black Duck, 50 Mallard, 10 Common Merganser, 1 Double-crested Cormorant, 20 Bonaparte's Gull, 1 Little Gull, 300 Ring-billed Gull, 1 Herring Gull, 4 Rock Pigeon, 1 Downy Woodpecker, 3 Blue Jay, 2 American Crow, 1 Common Raven, 1 White-breasted Nuthatch, 5 European Starling

16 espèces - 1500 Bernache du Canada, 3 Canard noir, 50 Canard colvert, 10 Grand harle, 1 Cormoran à aigrettes, 20 Mouette de Bonaparte, 1 Mouette pygmée, 300 Goéland à bec cerclé, 1 Goéland argenté, 4 Pigeon biset, 1 Pic mineur, 3 Geai bleu, 2 Corneille d'Amérique, 1 Grand Corbeau, 1 Sittelle à poitrine blanche, 5 Étourneau sansonnet - Pierre Bergeron Raymond Belhumeur

-------------------------------------------------------------

Saint-Jean-sur Richelieu, Halte Cayer map/carte: 23 species - 300 Snow Goose, 1 Ross's Goose, 2000 Canada Goose, 12 American Black Duck, 35 Mallard, 3 Bufflehead, 250 Common Goldeneye, 3 Hooded Merganser, 50 Common Merganser, 1 Double-crested Cormorant, 8 Bonaparte's Gull, 3 Franklin's Gull, 75 Ring-billed Gull, 2 Herring Gull, 1 Great Black-backed Gull, 4 Rock Pigeon, 1 Downy Woodpecker, 2 Blue Jay, 2 American Crow, 3 Black-capped Chickadee, 10 European Starling, 1 American Goldfinch, 2 House Sparrow

23 espèces - 300 Oies des neiges, 1 Oie de Ross, 2000 Bernaches du Canada , 12 Canard noir, 35 Canard colvert, 3 Petit Garrot, 250 Garrots à oeil d'or, 3 Harle couronné, 50 Grand Harle, 1 Cormoran à aigrettes, 8 Mouette de Bonaparte, 3 Mouette deFranklin , 75 Goéland à bec cerclé, 2 Goéland argenté, 1 Goéland marin 4 Pigeon biset, 1 Pic mineur, 2 Geai bleu, 2 Corneille d'Amérique, 3 Mésange à tête noire, 10 Étourneau sansonnet, 1 Chardonneret jaune, 2 Moineau domestique - Pierre Bergeron