March 31 – Checking out the Otonabee River yesterday I saw three Cackling Geese swimming together with the many Canada Geese near the bus barns. The Snow Goose was not there but I found it later in a cornfield on Douro 8th Line. As I approached the large number of gulls by the Trent Rowing Club they all took off as I pulled up beside them. Murphy’s law! No – I decided to wait for them to settle, but I immediately saw an eagle come into sight through my front windscreen. I jumped out of the car to get a better look – all dark underneath and no white head or tail – an adult Golden Eagle soaring in circles as it made it’s way westwards. Tony Bigg
March 30 – Our bay has some open water this past week (Buckhorn Lake.. north shore) and have buffleheads, wood ducks, red-breasted, common and hooded mergansers, great blue herons, and of course Canada geese. Also, beavers out on the ice. The water levels are the lowest I have ever seen at this time.. maybe 8 inches of water in our bay….. the herons and geese are standing on the bottom of the lake. Don’t know why the TSW has dropped it this low.. I anticipate major fish kill once ice is melted..we shall see. The water at the Gannon’s Narrows Bridge between Buckhorn and Ennismore has really opened up the past 2 days and there are huge flocks of diving ducks as well as an otter on the ice. Check them out…spring is around the corner… Jane Philpott
March 29 – 1 adult Iceland (Kumlein’s) Gull on Otonabee at Trent U., 2 1st-yr. Iceland gulls on Otonabee at Trent U., 1 adult Lesser-black backed Gull on Otonabee at Trent U., 1 Snow Goose on Otonabee at Bus Barns. Dave Milsom
March 28 – Pied-billed Grebe on Otonabee River at Trent U., 2 Glaucous Gulls (1st-year) at Little Lake. Dave Milsom
March 27 – Last night, at the end of my volunteer shift at Kawartha Club Bingo (on Clonsilla, just east of the Parkway), I heard an American Woodcock peenting repeatedly in the field just west of the parking lot. It was around 10 PM, ~2 C and calm. Let’s hope he handles the next few days of below-freezing temperatures. Walter Wehtje
March 26 – Today, there was a saw-whet owl calling from the cedars beside my house (Cavan Wood Drive). On April 5, I found it dead behind my garden shed next to a cedar hedge. It has probably there for a while and appeared quite thin. Scott McKinlay, Cavan
March 25 – I heard a strange song tonight and spied a blackbird in a neighbour’s tree. I had never heard this particular song before so I went online and looked it up. It was a Rusty Blackbird. It’s the first time I’ve seen (or heard) one! Anne Corke, Cathcart Crescent (southwest of Peterborough)
March 24 – I saw my first Bald Eagle this spring on Fothergiill Island, Pigeon Lake, Ennismore at about 6 pm -west side of the isle. How I love Spring…..listening to the Red-winged Blackbirds during a dog walk, watching a neighbour making maple syrup from her tapped maple trees… You have to love it after such a brutal winter. Rose Rogers
March 20 – River Otter on the ice just north of the Lakefield Marsh. Tony Bigg
March 21 – Turkey Vulture over Crawford Drive in the south of Peterborough, and eight Ring-necked Ducks by the beach in Lakefield. The Bald Eagles have been on their nest on Lake Katchewanooka for about two weeks now.
March 21 – An extremely pale American Goldfinch (picture below) was on our feeder on March 21st. Marilyn Emery, Ennismore (N.B. This appears to be a leucistic bird, which means it is lacking in pigmentation. Leucistic goldfinches turn up fairly regularly. You can find other examples on my website by entering “leucistic” in the search bar.
March 16 – There were half-a-dozen Red-winged Blackbirds calling in the Lakefield Marsh. The same day there was a noticeable increase in the number of American Robins and European Starlings around. Today I saw two Bohemian Waxwings at the southernmost end of David Fife Line. Just north of there a pair of Eastern Bluebirds were present on Mike Gillespie’s property as previously reported. I still have a flock of about a hundred Common Redpolls coming to my feeder just north of Lakefield. Tony Bigg
March 15 – We live, and have for the last 50 years, on Parkview Drive in Peterborough. We back onto Jackson Park. Yesterday our dog had an encounter with what I believe to have been a Virginia Opossum in our backyard, very close to the house. Thankfully the dog didn’t hurt it; the teeth and noise made her backoff! I had the chance to have a good look at it. The long, rat-like tail is a give away. I’ve seen opossums in New Zealand and it looked very similar but smaller. I had no idea they lived in Ontario. Pat Roberts
March 7 – On Friday afternoon, Matthew Tobey and myself travelled to Hastings to look for birds. The Trent River above and below the locks was full of Common Goldeneye – in excess of 300 individuals – half above and half below the dam. There were also all three species of mergansers, a flock of Cedar Waxwings below the dam and an adult Bald Eagle that flew over. Martin Parker
March 1 – This morning I had a Barred Owl in my backyard on Lock St. He was checking out the neighbors pigeons. 🙂 Ernie Basciano
Leucistic American Goldfinch – Mar. 2015 – Marilyn Emery – Ennismore
Ring-necked Duck – Karl Egressy
Red-winged Blackbird by Karl Egressy
