[Ontbirds]Sharp-tailed Grouse - OFO Manitoulin Trip

[Jean Iron]

In perfect weather on Saturday and Sunday, members of the Ontario 
Field Ornithologists (OFO) attended the 12th annual Manitoulin Island 
trip to view Sharp-tailed Grouse at the Gore Bay Airport. From a 
blind we watched about 50 Sharp-tailed Grouse dancing and cooing on 
this large lek. Other sightings on Manitoulin included two Bald Eagle 
nests, dancing Sandhill Cranes, several Brewer's Blackbirds, many 
Rusty Blackbirds, two Upland Sandpipers, a Short-eared Owl, Pileated 
Woodpeckers, an adult Glaucous Gull, Pine Warblers and Brown 
Thrashers. See two pages of trip photos. 
http://www.jeaniron.ca/2008/manitoulin2008.htm

For information on Sharp-tailed Grouse see account in the new Ontario 
Breeding Bird Atlas by Nick Escott and the two articles by Harry 
Lumsden in the Canadian Field-Naturalist, vol. 119, no. 4, 2005.

Don Barnett coordinated the trip. OFO thanks our Manitoulin hosts, 
Steve and Reta Hall, Sylvia Kemp-Fletcher, Rodney Campbell and The 
Friends of Misery Bay for their hospitality and for showing us the 
Sharp-tailed Grouse.

Jean Iron
Toronto ON