Amherst Island delights

This morning Kyle Blaney and Brad Hamilton found an American Avocet in the Ducks Unlimited Pond on the Martin Edwards Reserve (Amherst Island) so when we got word of it we headed down for the ferry. Erica and I met up with Mark on the 11:30 ferry and started the 20 minute boat ride from Millhaven to Stella. The ferry crossing at this time of year is a great way to see Common Loons up close as we had 15 on the way over and 14 on the way back (and you can get many more than that). They often are quite close to the ferry, offering great looks:

Once we got across it was straight to the Martin Edwards Reserve - this property is owned by the Kingston Field Naturalists and is known by many as simply the "KFN Property". It should be noted that, for liability reasons, you must be a member of the KFN, or accompanied by one, to enter the property. As soon as we got to the pond we could see our prize waiting for us, a beautiful American Avocet!

After enjoying very nice scope views of this bird we headed out further to the end of the reserve where we were able to pick up a nice assortment of ducks including a relatively rare for the area Black Scoter. Also present was a Snowy Owl, presumably the same bird that has been seen sporadically at least since late summer.

On the way out we kept moving to stay warm with the brisk south wind in our face but we did stop long enough to enjoy some Snow Buntings on the beach: