Ducks Abound! + Yardbirds

raft of Canvasback and Redhead

On this Christmas Day, I had some time to take advantage of the rare nice weather. I checked out the St. Clair River. Finally, thousands of ducks have arrived! Most are Canvasback and Redhead of course, with the other usuals.

Unusual were Long-tailed Ducks. They are normally seen at Sarnia and Point Edward, but not in the main part of the river. I saw four off Cundick Park just north of the Sombra village. Later I met Steve Charbonneau and Jim Burk south of Sombra and they had already seen about 40! There were quite a few at Sarnia this past Sunday, so some must have come down. Also, they had seen a White-winged Scoter off Port Lambton. One or two quite often winter on the river.

Speaking of scoters, I saw a female Black Scoter near Seager Park at the Monsanto barge. The Black Scoter is the least common of the three species and always nice to see. It is highly unusual to have one on the St. Clair River, but we have had them a couple of times before.

I did see a couple of Ring-necked Ducks in my travels. Maybe more will show later. Usually upwards of 50 winter on the river each year.

On immature Bald Eagle was on the ice off Terra Industries.

Lots of Mute Swans are on the river, not surprisingly, and likely a few Tundra are around as well. Tundras have been wintering on the river the last few years.

Hawks seem to be scarce in the countryside. I have both Sharp-shinned and Cooper's patrolling the neighbourhood here at home keeping feeder birds on their guard. The Sharpie paid a visit this morning.

Song Sparow at Sombra

Weather looks crappy again for the next couple of days unfrotunately, but I will be out tomorrow scouting around for the Wallaceburg CBC.

I thought I was done posting for today, but relaxing beside the window this afternoon, I watched for yardbirds. To my delight, I saw a male White-winged Crossbill fly in and alight on the spruce tree. It then flew over to the Colorado Blue Spruce and began feeding on the cones. I then saw a female. Later, I saw two males and a female perched in the Bur Oak tree. They soon took off flying high to the west. Probably gone for good! This is only the third time ever that I have had this species in the yard. Not surprising for this year since they are all over Southern Ontario. It is a rare treat to see these here since there is little food for them in this area.

White-winged Crossbills in Wallaceburg: male top, female bottom