BIRD LIST
last updated Jan 11th, 2009
A couple of older photos of good yard birds: SUMMER TANAGER male April 30th, 2004 and PRAIRIE WARBLER male July 16th, 2004 - both at Wild Rose guest house
Tom and Lily moved to Wheatley, Ontario on February 26th, 1999. This list of birds includes all species positively identified by sight or sound while birding on their property. The Wild Rose is located on the east side of Wheatley next to a small creek that feeds into Wheatley Provincial Park. Most of their 2.5 acre property is deciduous woodland. This list will be updated as new birds are found.
UPDATE: June 1st, 2005 - last night (May 31st) at around 11:30 pm Tom heard a SORA calling from the backyard. This was presumably a late migrant because there is not really enough habitat back there for a breeding site. This was the 200th species for the Wild Rose yard list!!UPDATE: - On March 23rd, 2007 around 4 pm Tom heard and saw a WHOOPING CRANE flying low over the yard flying west! This amazing sighting was the first of a series in southern Ontario this spring!
UPDATE: - On November 13th, 2007 a single EVENING GROSBEAK flew west over the yard in mid morning.
UPDATE - On June 20th, 2008 a male WORM-EATING WARBLER was first heard and
then seen foraging in the yard. It was present for most of the day and then
again briefly on the 22nd, and 23rd of June.
- Common Loon (regular in April flying off the lake from the southeast in early morning)
- Double-crested Cormorant
- Great Blue Heron
- Great Egret
- Green Heron (likely nests nearby)
- Black-crowned Night Heron
- Yellow-crowned Night Heron (observed on property prior to owning it)
- Turkey Vulture
- Snow Goose (one record with Canada Goose flock)
- Canada Goose
- Tundra Swan (several large flocks seen in early March)
- Wood Duck (has nested right over the pool!)
- American Black Duck
- Mallard
- Gadwall (one record, April 30th, 2005)
- Blue-winged Teal (one record)
- Green-winged Teal (one record)
- Canvasback (three in flight Oct. 99 spotted by Al Maley!)
- Lesser Scaup (one record)
- Common Goldeneye (two records)
- Hooded Merganser (four records - all females flying up and down the creek in spring)
- Common Merganser (two records)
- Red-breasted Merganser (one record)
- Osprey
- Bald Eagle (at least five records)
- Northern Harrier
- Sharp-shinned Hawk
- Cooper's Hawk (a regular at the feeder)
- Red-shouldered Hawk (regular in fall, occasional in winter - #149)
- Broad-winged Hawk (finally! - August 21st, 99 - #150)
- Swainson's Hawk (one record with broad-wings, Sept 2000)
- Red-tailed Hawk (surprisingly few observations, though a regular some winters in the ravine)
- Rough-legged Hawk (first Nov. 29th, 99, one or two a year)
- Golden Eagle (two records, first an adult, Oct 99)
- American Kestrel
- Merlin (one bird in early March 2001 chasing birds at feeder, two others)
- Peregrine Falcon (three records, two the same day in Sept, 2000)
- Ring-necked Pheasant (spring 2004 male calling for several weeks)
- Wild Turkey (now seen sporadically in the back yard after an initial sighting in 2005)
- Sora (May 31st, 2005 11:30 pm - our 200th species for the yard!)
- Sandhill Crane (three records!)
- WHOOPING CRANE (March 23rd, 2007 - flying low over the yard calling and heading west!!!)
- Black-bellied Plover
- American Golden-Plover
- Semipalmated Plover (August, 2001)
- Killdeer
- Greater Yellowlegs
- Lesser Yellowlegs (flock of ten in flight on Aug. 14th, 99 - #148)
- Solitary Sandpiper (at night, by call several times)
- Spotted Sandpiper (regular in the creek)
- Upland Sandpiper (at night, by call - several daytime flyovers in fall)
- Ruddy Turnstone (night flyover)
- Least Sandpiper (night flyover)
- Pectoral Sandpiper
- Dunlin (night flyover)
- Short-billed Dowitcher (night flyover)
- Common Snipe
- American Woodcock (breeding on the property)
- Bonaparte's Gull
- Ring-billed Gull
- Herring Gull
- Great Black-backed Gull
- Caspian Tern
- Common Tern
- Forster's Tern
- Black Tern
- Rock Pigeon
- Eurasian Collared Dove (June 21st, 2001!)
- Mourning Dove
- Black-billed Cuckoo
- Yellow-billed Cuckoo
- Eastern Screech Owl (breeds most years in the yard)
- Great Horned Owl (heard irregularly)
- Long-eared Owl (squeaked into the back deck at 11:45 pm on Dec 17th, 2008! Landed on top of the feeder post!)
- Common Nighthawk
- Whip-poor-will (one record - May 2nd, 99)
- Chimney Swift (a regular)
- Ruby-throated Hummingbird (seems to be breeding in yard)
- Belted Kingfisher (heard often, seen rarely)
- Red-headed Woodpecker (despite great habitat, only seen in migration)
- Red-bellied Woodpecker (breeds nearby, regular at feeder in winter)
- Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (lots during migration)
- Downy Woodpecker (breeds in yard)
- Hairy Woodpecker (scarce, but most winters a female or a pair at the feeders)
- Black-backed Woodpecker (one record fall 2003)
- Northern Flicker (breeds in yard)
- Olive-sided Flycatcher
- Eastern Wood Pewee
- Yellow-bellied Flycatcher
- Acadian Flycatcher (three records - all in June, the first on June 22nd, 1999)
- Alder Flycatcher
- Willow Flycatcher
- Least Flycatcher
- Eastern Phoebe
- Great Crested Flycatcher (breeds in yard)
- Eastern Kingbird
- Northern Shrike (juvenile November 2004)
- White-eyed Vireo (at least five records)
- Yellow-throated Vireo
- Blue-headed Vireo
- Warbling Vireo
- Philadelphia Vireo
- Red-eyed Vireo
- Blue Jay
- American Crow
- Horned Lark
- Purple Martin (formerly bred at the end of our street now rarely seen)
- Tree Swallow
- N. Rough-winged Swallow
- Bank Swallow
- Cliff Swallow
- Barn Swallow
- Black-capped Chickadee (nests in yard)
- Tufted Titmouse (two records)
- Red-breasted Nuthatch (first record an early fall migrant July 28th, 99, sometimes overwinters)
- White-breasted Nuthatch (mostly in winter)
- Brown Creeper
- Carolina Wren ( a family group of four arrived in early July, breeds almost every year)
- House Wren
- Winter Wren
- Marsh Wren
- Golden-crowned Kinglet
- Ruby-crowned Kinglet
- Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
- Eastern Bluebird (four records including a pair investigating a box in spring 2002)
- Veery
- Gray-cheeked Thrush
- Swainson's Thrush
- Hermit Thrush
- Wood Thrush
- American Robin
- Gray Catbird (nests)
- Northern Mockingbird (one record April 2002)
- Brown Thrasher (at feeder in early spring several times)
- European Starling
- American Pipit
- Cedar Waxwing
- Blue-winged Warbler (five records all in May)
- Golden-winged Warbler (three records, all in May)
- Tennessee Warbler
- Orange-crowned Warbler
- Nashville Warbler
- Northern Parula
- Yellow Warbler
- Chestnut-sided Warbler
- Magnolia Warbler
- Cape May Warbler
- Black-throated Blue Warbler
- Yellow-rumped Warbler
- Black-throated Green Warbler
- Blackburnian Warbler
- Pine Warbler
- Prairie Warbler (one record a singing male photographed July 16, 2004)
- Palm Warbler
- Bay-breasted Warbler
- Blackpoll Warbler
- Cerulean Warbler (May, 2001)
- Black-and-white Warbler
- American Redstart
- Worm-eating Warbler (one record of a male seen and heard June 20, 22nd and 23rd, 2008)
- Ovenbird
- Northern Waterthrush
- Louisiana Waterthrush (two records including one record, August, 2001)
- Connecticut Warbler (May, 2002)
- Mourning Warbler
- Common Yellowthroat
- Hooded Warbler (eight records, seven of which were males)
- Wilson's Warbler
- Canada Warbler
- Summer Tanager (adult male for 3 weeks at feeder in both '99 and 2000, plus males seen and photographed in '01 and '04)
- Scarlet Tanager
- Eastern Towhee
- American Tree Sparrow
- Chipping Sparrow
- Field Sparrow
- Vesper Sparrow (one record, heard on April, 2001)
- Savannah Sparrow
- Fox Sparrow (up to six at a time at feeder in spring and fall)
- Song Sparrow
- Lincoln's Sparrow
- Swamp Sparrow
- White-throated Sparrow
- White-crowned Sparrow
- Dark-eyed Junco
- Lapland Longspur (regular fly over in spring and fall in good numbers)
- Snow Bunting (regular fly over with Horned Larks in early spring and late fall)
- Northern Cardinal (28 at once during a snow storm in March!)
- Rose-breasted Grosbeak (up to a dozen at the feeder in early May)
- Indigo Bunting (another feeder regular in May)
- Dickcissel (flyover in summer, 2000)
- Bobolink
- Red-winged Blackbird
- Eastern Meadowlark
- Rusty Blackbird (regular at feeder in late March)
- Common Grackle
- Brown-headed Cowbird
- Orchard Oriole
- Baltimore Oriole (breeds)
- Purple Finch
- House Finch
- White-winged Crossbill (seven small flocks Jan 11, 2009)
- Common Redpoll (single flyover Nov. 99)
- Pine Siskin
- American Goldfinch
- Evening Grosbeak (flyover November 13th, 2007)
- House Sparrow
- ?
Home Bed & Breakfast Tom and Lily May Birding Packages Directions Links