systemin New England,were responsible for a latearrival of thebulk of Neetropical migrants.As soonas the weatherimproved in lateMay, migrants rapidly moved through Quebecthe area,almost undetected. Looking at the weatherfor thewhole season, temperatures werenear normal in theSt. Lawrencevalley but increasinglywarmer than average farther north,with temperatures3ø C abovenormal in theUngava Peninsula. Precipitation levels werenormal in the St. Lawrencevalley but belownormal in centralQuebec. ,9•lnukjuak •' - We are very happyto welcomeOlivier Bardenas one of the editorsfor the Quebec Kuujjuaq Region.Olivier has been hooked on birding sincechildhood, and now just shortof 20 years old, he has alreadygained a solid knowledgeof Quebecbirds. We hope his as- Caniapi'sca•.U ß ß Radisson sociationwith ourteam will lastlong. GANNETTHROUGH EAGLES An ad. Northern Gannet at Saint-Louis-de- Bay F•rmont _• • • e'SablonBlanc- • Eastrna•r• Gonzague31 May was exceptionalfor ex- Havre-Natash- tremesw. Quebec(ph. JM. Legals).Very much the same can be said for a flock of 10 ßMatagami eC•hibou gamau' •,.•,ept_lies St.-Pierre_ Ile-dAnticostiquan GreatCormorants seen in flightat nearby Bale- c½•: Saint-Stanislas-de-Kostka15 Apr (BB,MM). eAmos •. fi'" ßGasp; The MagdalenIs. hostedour only ardeids œ.$aint-Jeanl '•ø,"ßMatane •c• Lawrence fromthe s., with a SnowyEgret at La Mar- ßRouyn Tadoussac•.:9' ,• -- tinique28 May+ (E Shaffer)and an imm. Ville- ß CaeTeurmented'%.%. ß iles-ae-• LittleBlue Heron at Grosse-lle1-30 May Made Merit-© Ou•bec Citye• %•'0• Madeleine (DGG).A singleGlossy Ibis showed up at LaurierBerthiervillee / • Montr•alm-.,'eVictor•aville Sainte-Angele-de-Laval19-21 May (L. Gatineaue • • •She_•rooke Chiricota,m.ob.). Still rare in the Region, singleBlack Vultures turned up at Saint- L Ctm•pt•in•a•e'du-Febvre Bernard-de-Lacolle18 Apr (G. Pauze,M. Lebel) and at La Pocati•re30 Apr (C. Auchu, C. Girard). A concentrationof 48 Pierre Bannon Samuel Denault TurkeyVultures at OtterburnPark 12 Apr wasnoteworthy (M. Larramee,C. COte). 1517Leprohon 75 Beauchemin As usual, several Greater White-fronted Geesewere detectedamong goose flocks, Montreal,Quebec H4E 1P1 Saint-Basile-le-Grand,QuebecJ3N 1J6 but a gatheringof 9 individualsat Baie-du- Febvre10 Apr was quite a surprise(M. ([email protected]) ([email protected])Bourrassa, J. Gelinas).A BarnacleGoose at Baie-du-Febvre6-9 Apr wasaccompanied by a presumedCanada Goose x Barnacle Goosehybrid (R. & E Dion,JE Rousseau, Olivier Barden YvesAubry m.ob.). Another BarnacleGoose was found at Saint-Stanislas-de-Kostka9 Apr (BB, CanadianWildlife Service •652Rue de Bruybres MM). The previouslynoted Mute Swanat P.O.Box 10100 Lacollecontinued through 5 Apr,while the Sainte-Foy,Quebec G1W 3H1 Bouchervillebird waslast spotted 18 Apr. ([email protected]) Sainte-Foy,Quebec GIV 4HS Anotherappeared at Saint-l•tienne-de- Beauharnois25 May+ (E Hilton, A. Quen- ([email protected] neville). A first-yearswan discoveredat Rouyn-Noranda14 Apr+was later identified Normand David asa TrumpeterSwan from photographs 0- Lapointe,ph. C. Robichaud).The most no- 347Donegani table sightingof TundraSwan involved a tacularcompared to spring2004, flock of about20 birdsseen flying north- Pointe-Claire,Quebec H9R 5M4 igrationalthoughappearedthere was mucha notablelessspec- fall- ward over Iberville30 Apr (M. Gauthier). outon 12May, mainly in theeastern part of Only 2 Canvasbackswere encountered, one ([email protected]) the Region.Sustained easterly winds and at Verdun 13 Mar (DD) and one at Saint- cooltemperatures in the second half of May, Jean-surRichelieu 14 Mar (E Boulet). associatedwith a stationarylow-pressure The dark ad. calurus Red-tailed Hawk that 400 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS iforniaGull at Gatineau30 Mar-2 Apr (GS, Red-belliedcousin, Red-headed Woodpeck- C. Rimmer).The sustainedeasterly wind er wasrepresented by a singleindividual at latein Mayresulted in manyArctic Terns be- Saint-Alphonse-de-Granby16 May (J. ingshifted inland, e.g., 300 at Sainte-Petron- L•vesque).Following an unprecedentedin- ille 22 May (GL et al.), 28 at Metabetchouan vasionstarting in lateOct 2004,Red-bellied 23 May(S. Boivin), 16 at ReservoirBeaudet, Woodpeckernumbers remained strong early Victoriaville23-24 May (DG et al.), 9 at in the seasonand graduallyplummeted, Princeville23 May (DG et al.), 7 at LaSalle leavingus oncemore with no knownsigns 25 May (E Grenonet al.), and12 at Sainte- of breeding.One individualnot known to Catherine28 May(PB). A well-describedad. havewintered in the areawas sighted at Ta- Thick-billedMurre was way out of rangeat donssac19 May (RP). Saint-Irenee28 May (AC et al.). SingleYel- Two EasternPhoebes in mid-Aprin the low-billedCuckoos at lie Sainte-Marguerite, MagdalenIs. representedthe 4th and 5th Boucherville12 May (Y. GauLbier)and at recordsfor the archipelago(fide DGG). An Sainte-Aune-de-Bellevue31 May-1 Jun (M. extremelyearly Great CrestedFlycatcher Thisfirst-year swan discovered at Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec Gahbauer)were worthy of mention. was documentedin GatineauPark 9 Apr, 14April (here 25 June) 2005 was identified asa Trumpeter providinga record-earlydate for the Region 5wanby Jean Lapointe later in the summer, thanks to this OWLSTHROUGH THRUSHES (J. LavaliCe).A White-eyedVireo made an photograph.This bird provided the fifth modern record of Northern Hawk Owl numbers swelled after appearanceat SummitPark, Montreal11 thespecies forthe province. Photo9raph byClaire Robiebaud. a surprisinglysilent winter provincewide, May (R. & G. Boule0.Overshooting Blue- wintered at Gatineau for the 2nd consecu- consideringthe massive influx in GreatGray gray Gnatcatchersare seen almostevery tiveyear was last seen 17 Apr (C. Grattonet and Boreal Owls. The Lower North Shore springbut rarelystay for morethan a few al.), while another dark bird of this sub- wasparticularly affected by thisunusual in- hours;among the 3 notedin the Quebec specieswas noted in flightover Lery 6 May vasion, with 80+ hawk owls counted be- Cityarea, one cooperative female at Neuville (PB).A seasonalcount of 80 GoldenEagles tweenPort-Cartier and Minganin the 2nd waspresent 12-26 May (CN, m.ob.).In ad- was reached at the Saint-Stanislas•e-Kostka halfof Mar (YR,CB). Six individuals present dition to 2 overwinteringTownsend• Soli- hawkwatch,a new high for this s•te (BB, at Rimouski1 Aprrepresented a record high tairesrecorded into Apr, 3 new individuals MM). for the LowerSt. Lawrence(L. Messelyet werefound in Mar and5 morein Apr (most- al.). Thebulk of GreatGray Owls apparent- ly one-daywonders), bringing the total CRANESTHROUGH CUCKOOS ly didnot retreatuntil the last days of Mar, numberof thishighly dispersive bird in win- Sandhill Cranes were well in evidence asevidenced by 51 individualsstill at ile- terto a staggering18 acrossthe Region since throughthe spring, but the star of theseason aux-Coudres 20 Mar (JP. Ouellet, M. lastfall (Table1). TheVaried Thrush present was a WhoopingCrane photographedin Lafleur),but many individualswere easily last winter at Laval continued at least until flightat MapleGrove 3 May,providing the observableuntil at leastlate May, especially 17 Mar (GL), whereasanother was discov- firstfully documented record for the Region in the Lower St. Lawrence. At least 6 were eredat Aylmer2 Apr (GS). (PB);probably the same bird was seen flying foundin the GaspePen. this spring, where overthe MountRoyal, Montreal 23 May (E. onlytwo previous records were known (fide WARBLERSTHROUGH FINCHES Samson).This bird mostprobably At least3 male Blue-wingedWar- originatedfrom the new Wisconsin TableL ReportsofTownsend sSofttakes inQuibec,•spring 2005 blers, 2 of which were seen trans• breedingarea and was also probably Location Date Observer. portingfood, were reported in May oneof a groupof 3 locatedin e. On- Alma ,HJan-lOApr 6,Scullion, M.Bourgeois etaL at Lac-Brome,where the species tarioearlier in springand the same nestedin the pasttwo years(fide Beauport.. :12Feb-2 Apr ]U,Giroux that showedup in Vermontlater JPS). A male Lawrence'sWarbler VaI-David 5 Mar B.R0•/: in Jun. wasfound 17 May+at thesame lo- A Willetof thew. raceprovided a :Tadoussac 10-I•t RP cation(L. Brown)as last year (G. Regionalrecord-early date at Beau- Mont4di 24 Mar G.Fortin Poirier), and a female Brewster's port 29 Apr (M. Raymond).The Laval~Ouest 1Apr GL Warblerwas also reported from the onlyMarbled Godwit of the season Maniwa• .2Apr S.Lefebwe, N.I)allaire same municipality 11 May (fide wasdetected at Saint-Barthelemy13 Saint-Augustin-de•Oesmaures:••pr BOtis,l• Lathante JPS). SingleBrewster's Warblers May (E Franche,A. Gossdinet al.). were alsoseen at Frelighsburg13 Montmagny 10Apr ¾•Bemiet, L Lamontagne A record-highcount of 400 Purple May 0G. Papineau)and FitchBay Saint-Jean-des-Hies 19Apr Y.Ledut Sandpipersat Tadoussac27 May 18-19 May(S. Rioux, A. Cyret al.). was outstanding(RP). Alwaysrare No fewer than 3 Prairie Warblers in spring,a StiltSandpiper stopped at Pabos PP). BorealOwls seemeduniformly scat- were detected in Montreal this season: a fe- 17May (PP et al.).Single Ruffs visited Saint- teredacross s. Quebec,with many reports malein the Mount-RoyalCemetery 14 May Colomban29 Apr-3 May(N. TailIon,m. ob.) sadly--butnot surprisingly--pertainingto (E. Milot), a malein the Mount-RoyalPark and Saint-Barthelemy 12-14 May (L. injuredor deadindividuals. A censusthat 17-18 May (SD, DD), and a femalein the Simard,m. ob.). took placebetween 22 Apr and 15 May in MontrealBotanical Gardens 28 May (M. ThreeParasitic Jaegers at Sainte-Petronille the Rouyn-Noranda,Abitibi