As regular CFZ-watchers will know, for some time Corinna has been doing a column for Animals & Men and a regular segment on On The Track... particularly about out-of-place birds and rare vagrants. There seem to be more and more bird stories from all over the world hitting the news these days so, to make room for them all - and to give them all equal and worthy coverage - she has set up this new blog to cover all things feathery and Fortean.

Friday, 6 November 2015

High winds blow in rare birds to the region

Some rare birds are making a stop in our region. K.C. Colby talks to a local naturalist on the reason why.

KC Colby, Reporter/Videographer, CTV News Barrie
Published Friday, October 30, 2015 5:

High winds this week rattled windows and blew leaves off trees but it also brought birds into the region that normally don't nest here.

Bird watchers on Kempenfelt Bay got a special treat this week; a rarely seen species of ducks and gulls temporarily called it home.

“We saw two or three little gulls in the bay here, we had a great view of them,” says York-Simcoe Naturalist Club President Doug Jagger.

Naturalist Bob Bowles says the little gull is feasting on Kempenfelt Bay smelt.

“Their feeding on the emerald shiners that are here in Kemoenfelt Bay, they’ll move on down to the Niagara River and then farther south during the winter,” says Bowles.

Some familiar species have returned to the bay along with some very rare sightings too.
“The last 7 or 8 days right here on Kempenfelt Bay there’s been Pacific loon, they’re a western bird,” says Bowles.

The Pacific loon is a bird that breeds in Alaska and northern Canada and winters along the pacific coast of North America. So why are they thousands of kilometres from their normal migratory route?

“I think it’s the weather patterns, right now we’re experiencing the aftermath of Hurricane Patricia and she’s blown herself out here to these inland waters and it brings a lot of sea birds that normally stay out on the main courses to these inland lakes,” adds Bowles.



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