At Westminster Ponds, Reinhold Pokraka picked up seven phoebes, eight flickers, a pileated woodpecker, 18 flickers and a red-bellied woodpecker and saw a loon flying overhead.
Pokraka may also have heard and seen an fish crow. They have quite a different call than our common crows and sound much like a young crow here, but it's too early to see juvenile crows here yet, so it is possible it was a real sighting. I have seen a fish crow at Point Pelee in May - at least a month later.
Another bird that is often missed here because of the difficulty of identification is Bicknell's thrush, an eastern bird. It looks like a greyish back hermit thrush with the usual spots in front, but also has a reddish tail like that of a hermit, but it does not bob its tail up and down. The Bicknell's thrush could be identified by its call, but it does this rarely when not on territory in the eastern part of North America.
Last Tuesday was an even better day for Pokraka and Murray Larmour at Westminster Ponds. On Saunders Pond, they saw the beginnings of the waterfowl influx, which will peak in the next two weeks. Waterfowl included six pied-billed grebes, six wood ducks, bufflehead duck, a marsh hawk, ring-necked duck, ruddy duck, blue winged teal, hooded merganser, a coot and a red-necked grebe - the latter may increase in numbers by today.
Other birds spotted around Saunders and the Fish and Game pond were large numbers of flickers, two killdeers, three juncos and two chipping sparrows. They also picked up one snipe, 26 phoebes, a swamp sparrow, a winter wren and song sparrows.
There were also 30 cedar waxwings along with another 30 golden-crowned kinglets. There was an early blue grey gnatcatcher and a rough wing and tree swallow.
In all, they counted 47 separate species - very good for the middle of April.
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Pokraka also reported a male indigo bunting at a feeder outside London. Pokraka and Larmour spotted three yellow-rumped warblers.
Bob Hayward in south London also had several yellow-rumped warblers. There was a south wind for part of Monday night so it is likely they all came in together, as warblers and other birds will often do in the spring. This can be obvious at a place like the tip at Point Pelee in spring.
Bill and Colleen Lindley's visit to Aylmer produced few waterfowl but a lone tundra swan was still there.
thomasnhayman@rogers.com
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