[Ontbirds]Niagara River Sub-par

[Mark Cranford]

I'd don't want to rain on anyone's parade but the gull numbers on the 
River today were way below expectations.  Birding with Ron Scovell, we 
had a single Glaucous Gull and very low numbers of Herring, Ring-billed 
and Bonaparte's Gull.  We started at Niagara on the Lake about 8:30 am 
and left around 4:00 pm after covering most of the river to Fort Erie 
and back. Apologies to the memory of Gordon Bellerby but we ignored the 
fly-past (or was it fly-by). We may have spent too long searching for 
the Black-headed Gull but total numbers of Bonaparte's Gull could have 
been less than 1000 and Herring Gull much lower.    3 Red-throated Loons 
at  the gazebo at Niagara on the Lake along with a good numbers and 
diversity at the base of Fruit Land Road in Stony Creek were our 
high-lights.

Looking forward more optimistic reports but that is what we had today.

Directions and strategies for birding the Niagara River refer to Clive 
Goodwin's still accurate Bird-Finding Guide to Ontario.

-- 
Mark Cranford
Mississauga, Ont.

mark.cranford at rogers dot com