KP and the Kettles

Visited Kettle Point (KP) yesterday in hopes of seeing the reported Gyrfalcon.  As usual, no luck there!  Alf Rider did get a fuzzy photo of it the other day, which he showed to us.  Quite a few birders stopped by yesterday morning.  Many of those people I had not seen in quite a while, so it was nice to talk to them.
Afterwards, I toured the area stopping at various spots but did not see much.  There was a general lack of birds!  Usually this time of year there are lots of things to see, but yesterday was very disappointing from a birdwatching standpoint.
It is a good spot to view moving waterbirds.  We have had good times there in the past.  Yesterday I counted at least 20 Common Loons moving in ones or twos.  Three Bald Eagle were hunting the point.  One immature had a transmitter on its back.
Snowy Owls usually congregate here in good numbers.  Obviously this winter is not a good year to see them!  Sometimes you can see up to five at once here.

Kettle Point is a unique place, not only for birds, but geology.  "Kettle" comes from the concretions that have been found there where their shape resembles the bottom of large cooking pots.  These are rounded or spheroid stones in various sizes formed mainly of calcite with other minerals included.  They are crystalline structures that have grown outward from a central core.  They grow in softer sedimentary deposits by mineral precipiation around the core.

Kettle Point is the outcrop of black shale that covered much of the eastern United States and parts of central Canada during the Upper Devonian and Early Mississippian period.

View from the Point

I found this old postcard that depicts a photo at Kettle Point.

Back in the 1960's, a "kettle" was dug up in Wallaceburg during sewer work.  It is now in the Wallaceburg Museum.