Sunday, December 13, 2015

Weekend Warrior (?)

White Birch in Rondeau
I checked out Rondeau Park again this weekend.  Next Sunday is the Christmas Bird Count.  We need a change in weather to liven things up!  It was pretty dead yesterday.  Even though it has been very warm, there are not many birds around like you would expect.

The Summer Tanager was not found this weekend, despite much looking.  It may still be around, but it was not in the usual area.

A few pockets of birds are here and there, including a decent one of kinglets (one Ruby with many Golden), creepers, nuthatches, chickadees.  This was in the campground.  Warblers are certainly absent this winter.  We had a good run of late warblers at Rondeau this fall, but they are long gone.  Perhaps more normal winter weather (if we get any!) will concentrate birds.


I checked out Blenheim Lagoons yesterday as well, but nothing new there.  A good variety of ducks though.  There is a lot of mud in the back pond, and one would expect a late shorebird, but none have shown.




Yesterday afternoon I kept going and ended up at Hillman Marsh.  An Eastern Phoebe was nice to see as it constantly sang at the boardwalk area.  I assume it is the bird I had a couple of weeks ago.  A late Turkey Vulture flew over as I was leaving.



Some Double-crested Cormorants are still around, including these 4 at Muddy Creek yesterday.



A couple are at Erieau, and today we saw one fly by south point trail heading towards Erieau.

Today was dark and gloomy, typical of most weekends.  I started in the campground and found the same flock as yesterday.
I then met up with Jim Burk, and we walked south point trail.  A mixed flock of birds was near the old wood-yard lane, including a Tufted Titmouse.  Jim had a House Wren near there yesterday.
A Great Blue Heron flew over at one point.  They certainly have left for the most part as well.

We decided to walk marsh trail and finally found a number of birds, including another Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Carolina Wren (very scarce this year!), White-throated Sparrows, etc.

There is a mudflat south of the viewing tower that held some late Dunlin.  Looked like a total of 14. Too dark and gloomy (again!) for a good photo.



We had a fairly good variety of birds today, some of which will be nice for the CBC next week.
There should be a good variety of waterfowl for the count next week.  Quite often, we have some ice by now, but not this year of course.
The CBC's for most of us start next Saturday.




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