Directions:

The southern section of the Holland Marsh is just south of Bradford and west of Newmarket,  It is most easily reached by taking Hwy. 400 north from Toronto.  Exit east at Hwy. 9/Davis Drive and travel toward Newmarket.  You will soon see a sign for Jane Street.  Take Jane north and follow it to a T-intersection.  This is Woodchopper's Lane, which runs east-west between Wist Road (a little lane that runs N-S right beside the highway) and Keele Street.  

In an unsuccessful attempt to find the Bohemian Waxwings that have been showing up from time to time in the Bolton and Palgrave area, I received a consolation prize of twelve Wild Turkeys crossing Duffy's Lane about 1 km north of Patterson Road this morning. Heading back to Newmarket, I did a quick check of the Snowy Owls that have been wintering in the "Bradford Marsh" just east of Hwy. 400. I observed three Snowies, all of them female/immature types. Two were sitting in the fields north of Woodchopper's Lane, one of them on the west side of Jane Street, the other on the east side, almost parallel to each other. The third Snowy was sitting on top of a post just north of where Keele Street meets King Street. There were Horned Larks calling and flying around at almost every stop I made in this low-lying agricultural area. Although I did not get Red-bellied Woodpecker today, I have received several recent reports about this species showing up along Dufferin Street in the general vicinity of Miller Sideroad. See below for more detailed directions. Ron Fleming, Newmarket Directions: The southern section of the Holland Marsh is just south of Bradford and west of Newmarket, It is most easily reached by taking Hwy. 400 north from Toronto. Exit east at Hwy. 9/Davis Drive and travel toward Newmarket. You will soon see a sign for Jane Street. Take Jane north and follow it to a T-intersection. This is Woodchopper's Lane, which runs east-west between Wist Road (a little lane that runs N-S right beside the highway) and Keele Street. Jane resumes running northward a bit west of this intersection, so turn left, then right again. The two Snowies I saw today were across from each other only about .3 kms up the northern continuation of Jane. They were both right on the ground; the one on the west was only about 70 metres out and very easy to see; the one on the east was about 150-200 metres out and much harder to pick up. A scope definitely helped. Interestingly, a pure white adult male often hunts in this area, but he was nowhere to be found today or yesterday. He is still worth checking for, though, and - if he is still around - is usually best seen from the western terminus of Edward Ave., so drive a little further north to where Jane meets Edward, then turn left and drive to the dead end. Another Snowy Owl - visible Saturday but not today - often sits on the furthest of 8 wooden posts that run north from Woodchopper's Lane just just east of house #450 (stop at the "Maximum 60 km/h" sign and scope the pole tops), so you can check that bird out by returning to Woodchopper's and travelling east toward Keele. The "most reliable" Snowy continues to be the one at the corner of Keele and King Street. This heavily barred bird is most often seen by looking at the post tops straight north along the Keele road extension (Keele is briefly interrupted by the Holland River just north of King St.), but it occasionally sits right on top of the TV antenna at the last house on Keele (west side). If you don't see him, drive about 500 m further east along King and scan the low horizon north of house #596; the latter bird (or another one?) sometimes sits on top of a little shed by the riverside. King Street ends at Dufferin and, if you turn south toward Hwy. 9, you will cross the southern loop of the frozen canal and eventually go up a little hill. At the top is Miller Sdrd., which runs east into Newmarket and becomes Green Lane. A Pair of Red-bellied Woodpeckers can sometimes be found within the first km east (on Miller) and the first km north (on Dufferin). Parking means pulling over without going in the ditch. Watch for traffic. One last caution: if you choose to drive along these narrow lanes where they follow the frozen canal, be very, very careful to keep your eyes on the road: a mother and her young son hit some ice on the north Canal Road three weeks ago and went into the canal; tragically, both of them drowned. Another Snowy was visible from the northern arc of Canal Road; we saw it sitting on a long greenhouse by scoping southeast from Canal road about 1 km east of Jonkman's Corners (where Canal meets Simcoe Rd.). I believe this is the same bird that often perches way up atop the metal hydro towers that run N-S through the farm fields; it can sometimes be seen by looking west from nearby Dufferin Street. Miller Sdrd. runs east from Dufferin, about 2 kms north of Hwy. 9, but south of the other areas described above.