Winter bird list update

*****To those who don't care at all about the "Ontario winter list", or listing in general, I apologize for this post. More interesting content (actual birding, etc) will be posted soon enough!*****

Since my post on Ontbirds about the Ontario winter bird list a few days ago, my inbox has been flooded with additional reports. As well, some people have asked me where some select species have been found, so I thought I would quickly highlight the recent additions to the list over the last 2 days here, as opposed to spamming Ontbirds with an additional report. I'll send another report to the listserv in a week.

I sent Blake an email with 11 additional species, and he has already posted the update onto his site (http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/maybank/other/onwinter.htm). The 11 new species are:

Brant : December 5 - present (Trenton)
Barrow's Goldeneye : late November to present (Oshawa)
Dunlin : December 3 (Erieau harbour)
Northern Hawk Ow l: December 7 (waaaay up north near Attawapiskat)
Great Gray Owl : December 5 to present (waaaay up north near Attawapiskat)
Red-headed Woodpecker : December 6 (the Pinery). Most likely a wintering family
Varied Thrush : November 29 to present (west of Thunder Bay)
Orange-crowned Warbler : December 2 to December 3 (Highland Woods, London)
Chipping Sparrow : several reports
Field Sparrow : several reports
Red Crossbill : several reports.


There have been an additional 13 species which I have heard about recently, and thus their presence isn't indicated on Blake's site yet. They are:
Pacific Loon : December 3 (Prince Edward Point)
Great Egret : December 3 (Luther Marsh)
Spotted Sandpiper : December 7 (Long Sault Parkway)
Wilson's Snipe : December 10 (Rondeau area)
Long-eared Owl : December 10 (Bronte)
Northern Saw-whet Owl : December 2 (near Ottawa)
Eastern Phoebe : December 8 (Ayr, near Cambridge)
Black-billed Magpie : December 4 (Thunder Bay area)
Ruby-crowned Kinglet : December 1 (Oshawa's Second Marsh)
Eastern Towhee : seen in December, photo taken, but haven't verified dates yet
Spotted Towhee : November 13 to present (Longlac)
Clay-colored Sparrow : December 3 (Kingston area)
Hoary Redpoll : December 4 (Rainy River area)

This brings us to 185 species for the winter birding season so far, with lots of time left to break 200! Some possible species which I haven't heard any reports of so far, include:

Eurasian Wigeon (though there was one in the Ottawa area on the Quebec side)
Blue-winged Teal
either Ptarmigan (who wants to go to Hudson's Bay?)
Gyrfalcon
Virginia Rail
many shorebirds, including Black-bellied Plover, Lesser Yellowlegs, American Woodcock etc
Boreal Owl
House Wren
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Townsend's Solitaire
Pine Warbler
Vesper Sparrow
Brewer's Blackbird
Baltimore Oriole