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<br><div><br><div>Begin forwarded message:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#000000" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"><b>From: </b></font><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">James Hirtle <<a href="mailto:jrhbirder@hotmail.com">jrhbirder@hotmail.com</a>></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#000000" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"><b>Date: </b></font><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">October 17, 2009 11:44:06 PM ADT</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#000000" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"><b>To: </b></font><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Naturens Naturens <<a href="mailto:naturens@chebucto.ns.ca">naturens@chebucto.ns.ca</a>>, Rare Alert <<a href="mailto:ns-rba@yahoogroups.com">ns-rba@yahoogroups.com</a>></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#000000" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"><b>Subject: </b></font><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"><b>[NatureNS] Bird Fall Out</b></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#000000" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"><b>Reply-To: </b></font><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"><a href="mailto:naturens@chebucto.ns.ca">naturens@chebucto.ns.ca</a></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; ">Dorothy Poole and I set out to make a day trip to Brier Island. We reached Digby Neck by 11:10 and by 18:30 had only gotten as far as Mink Cove. Now for those not familiar with Digby Neck we were not even near the end or close to the ferry at that point.<br> <br>Before I go into any details of what we discovered, I'll list some other birds of note before Digby Neck. There were 20 evening grosbeaks at Princedale. There also appeared to be a nice movement of sparrows with 11 song sparrows, a swamp sparrow and a chipping sparrow. A common yellowthroat was also nice for the first warbler for the day. Thirteen American Robins were present. So keep in mind the sparrows and robins for later as both were moving through in numbers. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br> <br>At Bear River we had a flock of 42 common grackles, which disappeared before we could see if any other blackbirds were with them. American Robins numbered 57 and we had four hermit thrushes. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br> <br>Now to Digby Neck where 21 ruby-crowned kinglets were a treat. My best counts were one group of eight at one time a few feet in front of me. Another group contained six and the rest were in ones and twos. American Robins totaled 197. There were six more hermit thrushes. For sparrows, we had two juvenile American Tree Sparrows, 143 song sparrows, 211 chipping sparrows (these are just what we saw, and who knows how many more there were. Keep in mind we did not cover all the way out the neck, nor Long Island. The largest groupings were one of 47 birds and another with 60. At the Sandy Cove Wharf to the left coming from Digby we had two white-crowned sparrows. We had two clay-colored sparrows, one at Gulliver's Cove GPS 268052 4942670. The other was at Sandy Cove to the right if coming from Digby. The only other sparrows were one white-throated sparrow, three swamp sparrows and a savannah sparrow. Thats 363 sparrows in total.<br> <br>For warblers we had common yellowthroat, a palm warbler, and 48 yellow-rumped warblers. <br> <br>A female harlequin duck was a surprise at Sandy Cove as was a female blue grosbeak. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br> <br>I do not know where the wind turbine is going to end up in that area. We saw signs of protest everywhere. I just hope and pray that it is not going to be on the ridge that runs out to Gulliver's Cove. If I were to recommend a mountainous area for a hawk monitoring station in Nova Scotia that would be the spot. It would be at the point of land that juts out at the end of Gulliver's Cove. I've seen in the past 300 broad-winged hawks along the ridge, as well as turkey vulures, sharp-shinned hawks, merlins, American kestrels, and northern harriers. In the fall you hardly ever drive by without seeing at least a few hawks.<br> <br>Getting to the point at Gulliver's Cove. We likely missed a lot before arriving, but it was one of the best hawk spectacles, that I've seen in a while. In all we had 14 red-tailed hawks, nine bald eagles, 23 sharp-shinned hawks, 10 turkey vultures, an osprey, an american kestrel, and six peregrine falcons. I'm not sure what transpired, but we watched three peregrines meet and greet one another with calls and acrobatics. They then sailed off together out over the ocean. There were two males and a female. The raptor show was basically over by 14:00 and we had only been watching for under an hour. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br> <br>A group of 50 red-breasted mergansers is worth mentioning and denotes that they are now migrating. A flock of 16 red-winged blackbirds was also nice to see. The only other species of note for the time of year was a blue-headed vireo at Sandy Cove. <br> <br>James R. Hirtle<br>Bayport <br> <br> <br> <br> <br><br><hr>Faster Hotmail access now on the new<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9677399" target="_new">MSN homepage.</a></span></span></blockquote></div><br></body></html>