Date: 04/16/2005

Number: 1

With this warm beautiful weather continuing we have gone from winter to summer in just 2 weeks (yesterday it hit 19C). The snow has evaporated and the ice is out on many of the creeks and rivers and the lakes are not far behind. With no rain the water levels are presently down, and the dry conditions are starting to get the forest fire crews nervous. Right now we are about 2 weeks ahead of things, and the migrants are starting to sing their way back up to their favourite boreal forest nesting sites to feed on our always generous , and soon to awake, supply of black flies, and mosquitoes.

The raptors have been flying in regularly this week with Northern harriers, rough-leggeds, red tails and many American kestrels now cruising many of the abandoned farmfields we have in the Hearst and Kapuskasing area. Yesterday afternoon the first sandhill cranes arrived and last night a winter wren was heard calling behind my house along Kendall creek. This afternoon a ruby crowned and a golden crowned kinklet was heard in the same location , which is 14 km. east of Hearst.

Hearst is a small french Canadian community of 6000 along the northern TransCanada Hwy. #11, 6 hours east of Thunder Bay and 6 hours north of North Bay.

Contributed by Don Davis

Hearst, ON

Latitude: 49.4 Longitude: -83.4

Observed by:
Contact Observer

The observer's e-mail address will not be disclosed.
Contact will be made through a web-based form.