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Wednesday, November 24, 2010 Orono Weekly Times - 9 A rare and unexpected visitor to Clarington by Jim Richards At one time or another, all of us who travel the highways and byways have perhaps had the sad misfortune of hitting a bird with our car. Others, especially those who feed birds in the winter, have experienced the odd `window kill', and still others, with house cats...well, that's another subject best left alone by this writer at this time. Then there are all the natural predators, birds and mammals alike that take their toll on other species. What we don't expect is to see a large bird flying low over a field, approach a busy highway and collide with a truck! That's exactly what happened to my good friend Tony Wood of Orono last week on Nov. 15. He was driving along Highway #2, heading west towards Bowmanville about noon, when a large bird slammed into a passing truck ahead of him. Tony could see that the bird was injured, but sitting species in the world: the black wingtips and a sharply upright on the road. Being Cape Gannet of southern and pointed tail. The crown and compassionate, he turned his western Africa; and the back of the head is a golden vehicle around to see what Australasian Gannet from yellow, while young (juvenile) birds are he could do to slaty brown, covassist. Upon ered with whitish arrival, he witspots. nessed the bird Why was I so being hit again surprised? Well, by an oncomperhaps it has to ing car. It was do with the fact now quite that this is a bird dead. that is normally The large found along the bill suggested east coast of a heron, but Canada. It breeds the webbed in small scattered feet suggested colonies in southa member of photo by J. Richards ern Quebec and the waterfowl An adult Northern Gannet. Newfoundland group. Living and formerly in in the country and being a keen observer, Australia, Tasmania, and Nova Scotia and New The most Tony only knew it was quite New Zealand. Both of these Brunswick. different. He dropped the species are somewhat small- famous colonies are on carcass off at my home with er than the Northern Gannet. Bonaventure Island, PQ with This is a very impressive about 110,000 pairs, and a note. Opening the bag on my return, I was astounded bird. It is just over 3 ft. (94 Cape St. Mary's, NF with to see a juvenile Northern cm) long and has a wingspan about 6,000 pairs. Post of about 6 ft. (183 cm). breeding dispersal of adults Gannet (Sula bassana). There are two other gannet Adults are pure white with and young of the year to various locations along the east coast is common. Birds have rarely ended up flying north into Nunavut and to Hudson Bay, but this is not to be expected, and their occurrence is regarded as "accidental". Likewise, but in a more frequent manner, birds (usually young of the year) tend to follow the St. Lawrence River and enter the Great Lakes to the point now of being regarded as "casual" due to the number of annual sightings in Lake Ontario, Niagara and Lake Erie. The first known record for what is now Durham Region was in 1861 on the Oshawa waterfront. The next sighting for Durham was in Oct., 1961 at Whitby. Since that time, birds have been recorded with some degree of frequency along the waterfront every few years, but it is certainly not a species one would expect to see. I have to wonder, are more birds engaging in postnuptial wandering, or is it a case of more active birders today than in the early- to mid-1900s? What is of even more interest about the current discovery by Tony, other than the fact this is the first record for Clarington known to me, is that it was encountered so far inland, away from the waterfront. In any event, I posted the happening on Ontbirds (a provincial list serve) on Tuesday, and also made arrangements to have the carcass given to the Dept. of Ornithology at the Royal Ontario Museum. They will preserve the bird by making a study skin and add it to their vast collections, along with the recorded data. Loyal Printing Ltd. "Everything with the printed word" · Business Cards · Forms · Letterhead · Envelopes ·Booklets WE DO LAMINATING 5310 Main St., Orono L0B 1M0 · 905-983-5301