Winter's Grip

Rondeau's South Shoreline

Little to report recently as winter is still with us!  I headed down to Rondeau this morning and not much has changed.  Normally I would see a phoebe and a woodcock by now, but not a single one!  Others have seen them though.  Everything is still mostly frozen and the lake has little open water near shore.

Things were looking better this past week, but as the Saturday approached, the weather went downhill as usual.  It seems hopeless!  Monday looks nice though, so hopefully the forecast is right for a change.

Coyote on the Loose!

The only highlight this week, and not unusual, was a Red-necked Grebe at Port Lambton first thing on Thursday.  The past few weeks has proven to be the best showing of grebes on the river that I have ever seen.

Steve Charbonneau and I did quite a bit of birding this morning but no real highlights.  Some Snow Geese were along New Scotland Line and a Pied-billed Grebe, that has been around a while, was at Erieau.

Bufflehead and Coot at Erieau

(look at those feet!)

Lots of diving ducks were on the lake south of Morpeth including 7 Long-tailed Ducks that flew by.  A Horned Grebe, mostly in winter plumage, was the only one of that family.  A few Bonaparte's Gulls are finally showing up.

McGeachy Dike

When will this disappear?

The one field to the east of McGeachy Pond had a good number of puddle ducks.  A group of shovelers was in the field to the north where I had all those ducks last weekend.  That pond froze the next day, so those ducks dispersed to other spots.  It is starting to open up again.

A couple of open spots on Rondeau Bay held waterfowl, but too far out to discern anything.  Certainly there must be a Eurasian Wigeon around!

sawbill

The park had a few singing Eastern Towhees and Fox Sparrows to enlighten the day.  We checked flocks of Song and Tree Sparrows for other species, but only a Field Sparrow was among them.  Chipping should be around by now.

American Tree Sparrow at Rondeau

Ridgetown is still completely frozen, but a few Canada Geese and Tundra Swans were present wondering where the water was.

I saw quite a few Turkey Vultures today so they are coming through in good numbers.  A Black Vulture would be more interesting!

I know this a boring post, but as the saying goes, you cannot get blood out of a stone!

Too much of this!