Count week bird sightings - I

Among the sightings tabulated for each CBC are those of species seen three days before or after the day of the count, but not on the actual count date. Today we did a few hours of scouting around Marathon and turned up 19 species. Much of the harbour, including the sheltered cove recently favoured by an errant American Coot, had frozen overnight. At the distant ice edge swam a male Ring-necked Duck and much further out bobbed a trio of Common Goldeneyes - no sign of the coot. At a feeder on Sund Crescent we found a White-breasted Nuthatch (seldom seen in Marathon) and near Pukaskwa, along Hwy 627 we found a typically boisterous flock of 50 or so Bohemian Waxwings feeding on Mountain Ash fruit.
Bohemian Waxwing near Pukaskwa
More surprising was a small flock of Rock Pigeons we found having a drink at the Lafarge cement plant NW of the mouth of the Pic River. The species has been recorded on only a single Marathon CBC in the last 23 years.

Rock Pigeon pauses while having a drink from Lake Superior