Sightings for Friday October 30th

Hemmingford: Despite the sometimes heavy rain had a decent afternoon. Flushed and and shortly afterwards found a Norhtern Saw-Whet Owl (Petite nyctale) . Very nervous and unapproachable. 4 Eastern Bluebirds (Merlebleu de l'Est), 2 Evening Grosbeaks (Gros-bec errant), 1 White-Winged Crossbill (Bec-croisé bifascié), 1 Winter Wren (Troglodyte mignon), 3 Swamp Sparrows (Bruant des marais), approx 225 Snow Geese (Oies des neiges) in 6 flocks, 1 American Woodcock (Bécasse d'Amérique), 3 Ruffed Grouse (Gélinotte huppée), 2 Hermit Thrushes (Grive solitaire) - Mark Tomalty
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Sainte-Anne de Bellvue: At about noon today Mabel and I sighted a Fork-tailed Flycatcher (Tyran des savanes) flying from the McGill Seed Farm across Chemin Ste. Marie and into the old Dillingham horse farm/stables property located between the Ecomuseum and MDA parking lot. We had just arrived at the MDA parking lot from Morgan Road and had turned to face north, as we usually do when hawkwatching. The bird we saw was a dark grey above(the underside of the flight feathers were also darkish) accentuated by the dull overcast, with a floppy, long, dark tail with no obvious white. It was probably a HY bird. Unfortunately, the bird was out of sight in only a few seconds so I had no time to grab my camera. Our impression was that the bird was in a distinct hurry, flying quickly around and over trees and bushes and probably did not land nearby. About half an hour earlier, while we were hawkwatching on Morgan Road about 1 km to the east, Mabel had briefly spotted a long-tailed bird hovering near the highway, which quickly flew SSW and out of sight. She was not able to get much on it other than it appeared to be a flycatcher. Unfortunately, I did not see that bird. She said that it did look
shorter tailed than the Fork-tailed we saw later but the angle to the bird was different and the tail was then widely spread and deeply forked. Whether this was a different Tyrannus (savana) flycatcher will likely never be resolved and it will therefore remain as a long-tailed tyrannus sp. unless the bird(s) are seen again.


I searched the area briefly without success but notified the banders at MBO before returning to the hawkwatch. A light rain had begun to fall and about 2 hours later it started to rain heavily, so it is doubtful that anyone was able to search for the bird for long, if at all. It is supposed to get cold tonight, with periods of snow, which does not bode well for the bird(s). We visit the area very frequently and had not seen the bird(s) before, thus it was probably just in transit. Just a couple of days ago we had had three days of very strong and warm SW winds, hence it is likely that this brought some southern birds up to the north-east (including Cave Swallows!), many yet to be discovered.

We had another Fork-tailed Flycatcher flying over the seed farm, on 18 September, 2002. Two in 8 years ain't bad! - Cheers, Bob Barnhurst, Mabel McIntosh
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11 golden eagles at Tadoussac Today, one of the largest total in a day that we recorded 7 years. The northwest winds will continue tomorrow. A site such as Cap Tourmente expected to see some of these large specimens tomorrow

11 Aigles royaux à Tadoussac aujourd'hui, un des plus gros totaux en une journée que nous avons enregistré depuis 7 ans. Les vents nord-ouest se poursuivent demain. Un site comme le Cap Tourmente devrait permettre de voir quelques uns de ces gros spécimens demain - Samuel Denault