I have always done the St. Clair River and it has varied from year to year. This past Saturday I did the count under optimum weather conditions. I was not sure until the morning, but the weather was so good, I had to take advantage. Counting was not too difficult as there had yet to be an influx of birds into the river. Perhaps the most notable bird was the Black Scoter I alluded to in a previous blog post. There were also two White-winged Scoters seen by another party.
This year there were more Canada Geese than usual, but that seems to be a trend. More and more seem to stay around!
What is this goose pointing to??
The most numerous duck was Redhead, where a raft of about 500 was in the Courtright area. Strangely, not a single Canvasback! None were seen on the Wallaceburg CBC either. Redhead is usually the most common duck every year.
Early January is also the time to watch for sudden mild spells. In the past few years, usually around New Year's, a warm front with strong SW winds will bring in puddle ducks and perhaps some other geese from points south of here. Northern Pintail seems to lead the way!
Two years ago it was around New Year's day, and last year it was January 22.
These are actually early spring migrants! Other ducks such as Gadwall and American Wigeon may be involved as well as divers such as Ring-necked. Sometimes Greater White-fronted Geese are participants in this event as well.
The end of this week looks like a similar scenario. There will be strong SW winds and extremely mild temperatures. I would suspect there will be an influx of ducks from south of here!
Usually points along Lake Erie such as Point Pelee/Hillman Marsh, Rondeau, Long Point will see some of these ducks. I have even seen some (Northern Pintail) on the St. Clair River during these unique events.
We shall see.....
Northern Mockingbird @ Kent St. Shrewsbury 9am Thurs. morning.
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