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December 2000 Sightings in the Windsor Area

The nature centre now has a Public Internet Access Site as part of the Community Access Program. Visitors are welcome to use this computer for surfing the net, e-mail or learning more about Ojibway.

Local Christmas Bird Count Dates: Cedar Creek - Dec 16, Rondeau - Dec 17, Point Pelee - Dec 18, Pelee Island - Dec 20, Rockwood/Amherstburg - Dec 23, North Shore (Tecumseh-Belle River) - Dec 30, Detroit River - Jan 01. Call the nature centre if you wish to participate in any of these counts.

Friday, December 22: A partial solar eclipse will occur on Christmas Day starting at 10:52 am in Windsor with maximum occlusion at at 12:27 pm. 57% of the sun's diamameter will be obscured.

The new space station will be visible from Windsor on Boxing Day for three minutes at 6:17 pm. Look for it 19 deg above NNW to max elevation of 35 deg above N and ending 25 degrees above the ENE.

Wednesday, December 20: The first round of Christmas Bird Counts have been completed. The Cedar Creek count was held on Saturday and covered the central southern portion of Essex County including Kingsville, Harrow, McGregor and Essex. Snow, heavy rain and fog made birding a challenge for the thirty participants (80 species were recorded). American Crows jumped from 15,000 last year to over 117,000 birds this year. This dramatic increase may be due in part to the abandonment of the Chatham crow roost this fall. The complete results are available at "cedar00.htm".

Both the Screech-Owl and Fox Sparrow were seen this morning at the nature centre.

The Point Pelee CBC recorded 84 species on Monday. Highlights included a Virginia Rail and 105 Northern Harriers.

Thursday, December 14: A red phase Eastern Screech-Owl has been using the nest box in front of the nature centre since early December. It is often seen around 5 pm. poking it's head out of the hole. A Fox Sparrow has been a regular visitor to the centre feeders since the snow storm on Monday.

Wednesday, December 06: A Hermit Thrush and two Eastern Bluebirds were reported today in the nature reserve by Fred Urie. On December 3 a Fox Sparrow was found at Black Oak Heritage Park.

The Detroit River is a traditional location for large numbers of wintering Canvasbacks. Over 6,000 were present at the mouth of the Canard River on December 3 (Fred Urie).

Send reports of your latest sightings to:

Ojibway's web site: Paul Pratt, 519-966-5852 (ojibway@city.windsor.on.ca)
Essex County Field Naturalist's: Jim McAllister, 519-254-1854 (home)
(The weekly birding column by Tom Hince has been discontinued by the Windsor Star)
Detroit RBA (Michigan and south-western Ontario): Karl Overman, 248-473-0484 (home)

Rare Bird Alerts in Ontario & Michigan (These are taped messages, updated weekly.)

Point Pelee 519-322-2371
Essex County Field Naturalists' 519-252-2473
Detroit, Michigan 248-477-1360

Hamilton 905-381-0329
Oshawa 905-576-2738
Ottawa 613-825-7444 Sault Ste-Marie 705-256-2790
Toronto 416-350-3000 ext 2293
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