A Gray Weekend

Not an earth-shattering day of birding but we tried on this Grey Cup weekend!  As usual for most weekends, the skies were gray, the wind was strong and it was cold.  I birded the Rondeau area today starting with Steve and Jim.
The lake was quite interesting with activity and we spent considerable time off south point trail watching it.
The thousands of Red-breasted Mergansers that went by topped the list.  Other ducks included scaup, Bufflehead (lots of those lately), Mallard, White-winged Scoter (a fair number), Surf Scoter and a single Long-tailed Duck.  Common Merganser too.
Lots of Bonaparte's Gulls today.

Only a few loons today, some appearing high overhead from farther north.  One distant loon left us wondering....
On the walk back, some Eastern Bluebirds made an appearance and flyover Pine Siskins and Common Redpolls.
The VC feeders were not too active, but two Tufted Titmouse birds put on a show.

As we walked the campground, thoughts of exactly four years ago were running through our minds.  November 23, 2008 and Jim Burk and I discovered a Black-throated Gray Warbler at the north end of the park.  A first for Rondeau that stayed a few days.

No such luck today, and in fact only one Yellow-rumped Warbler made an appearance.
A few American Robins were around wondering why they were still here.  Not much food out there!
There were lots of ducks off the Rondeau dock, but it was too unbearable in the cold wind to scope them out.
As we left the park, two Sandhill Cranes flew overhead.  Those are the first I have seen in several weeks!  They seem to be scarce this fall compared to last.

I birded various places outside the park and at Erieau but found nothing of note.  Redpolls were flying over in various locations.
After a quick lunch, I went back to the park for lack of anything else to do and walked the campground again.  I turned up a Fox Sparrow and another Yellow-rumped Warbler.
A Winter Wren was another find, and a couple more were near the pony barn.
At the north end of the grounds, I heard a warbler chip not in the exact same location as the Black-throated Gray was four years ago.  I could not see it until it flew off towards the Bay.  It could have been just a Yellow-rumped, but I will never know.  (the chip of the Black-throated Gray was similar as I recall!).