I know! It’s only Friday and I’m posting “the Checkup” but….I’m heading out late tonight/early tomorrow morning for Grand Manan Island in New Brunswick and won’t have a chance to post the most recent news until the middle of next week. So, here’s what came across my desk this week. [And, you know, we really do need some pictures of you and your sites and your (possible) birds to spruce things up….even if they’re just the lovely snowless scenery around your site.]

I guess the big question at this point is: Who Will Band The First Snow Bunting of the Season?

So here’s the news:

November 4:
Hi Rick
Friends in Port Burwell [ON] have seen Snow Bunting on the beach. Photos are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ovnaturalists/
Best, Kathryn Boothby

November 4:
Hi Rick just heard about a flock of 200 plus birds just outside of Englehart!!!!!! [Ontario] here we
go !!!!!
Bruce Murphy

November 5:
SNBU have been here for the last 2 weeks, I have tried baiting for them with absolutely no luck!!! Is there anything else i could use instead of cracked corn? I’m getting very frustrated! On a better note though I have caught 4 snowy owls so far, they are showing up in great numbers.
Mike Blom
Peace Region Raptor Study
Peace River Alberta Canada

November 5:
Hi/Bonjour Rick & all
Here in the Tantramar marsh, New-Brunswick where I do surveys till Dec., we have started seeing SNBUs two weeks ago in little groups of 2-25 birds coming through. Also some Longspurs with them here and there. Last week-end on Grand Manan Island, I saw my first flock over 50 SNBUs and a smaller 20 some birds with 4-5 Longspurs.
I will start reporting more if my 200+ “yard flock” comes back to corn in the Memramcook Valley this year and dont elude me like last winter.
Alain Clavette
@Acadian_Birder on Twitter

November 5:
Good morning Rick,
I saw a flock of about 60-70 Snow Buntings, just across the road from my farm last Thursday, November 1st.
We are situated 2 miles north and a mile west of Edenwold. Or about 27 km northeast of Regina.
We did not have really any snow at that point, but did get a couple inches the next day. Today is suppose to be +7 degrees so that should all melt away…
But they are forecasting 10 cm on Friday this week.
Hoping for a better snow bunting year here in Saskatchewan!
Jared
Jared B. Clarke
Park Naturalist
Wascana Centre Authority

November 5:
Hey Rick,
I actually had an unusually early small flock of Snow Buntings (<10 birds) on the Maples golf course in Muskoka near Lake Rosseau on Sunday October 7th.

On Thursday, October 25, I drove to Silver Islet which is about 3/4 of an hour east of Thunder Bay. Once on the Sibley penninsula I had flock after flock of Snow Buntings eating grit from the road. Easily saw 1000 birds in total. This is a neat spot because they are on a fairly narrow road surrounded by thick Boreal Forest. Unfortunately it also meant seeing some road kills.
Cheers,
Ben Walters

November 6:
Hi Rick,
Snow Buntings are flooding into lower Bruce County now. I observed several hundred today and there have been reports from a variety of locations in the area in the past few days.

Cindy Cartwright
Saugeen Shores – base of the Bruce Peninsula

November 6: (refer to Mikes’ earlier note above)
Hi Rick,
Yes there was 2 ft of snow until yesterday, everything melted with the +7 temps yesterday and today so it looks like i’m back at square one 🙁
Mike Blom
Wildfire Ranger
Peace Management Area

November 7:
Here are some backdated sightings. It seems like they have been seen along the Killarney highway and in the Burwash area which is west of hwy69 and north of the Killarney highway [Ontario, southwest of Sudbury].
Darryl Edwards
>>> Dave McGeachy 11/07/12 10:26 AM >>>
already been seeing them
2 weeks ago I saw the first group
flocks of 20-25 seen in Burwash other smaller ones along the Killarney hwy

November 8:
hi rick.
my partner kenny tuach just called to report small flocks (of 5-15 birds) of SNBU in St. Anthony [Newfoundland] yesterday and in Eddies Cove this morning. friends in st anthony say they’ve been seeing SNBU since last week.
attaching GE image of both locations for your info.

t
Tina Leonard
Protected Areas Ecologist
Department of Environment and Conservation
Parks and Natural Areas Division

November 8:
I have seen Snow Buntings on
the Lk Ontario shore at Van Wagners beach recently. I don’t have the
date recorded, but I believe it was Fri Oct 26. I only saw 3 but they
have started to appear in the area…
Cheers
Yves Scholten
Terrestrial and Wetland Ecologist

Rick