On the way, I passed along Brick Yard Line in hopes of seeing the Gyrfalcon. Of course I did not. Some have seen it right away, but usually some patience is required.
Later, I arrived at the flooded field near Port Franks and found a bonanza of puddle ducks. It was chucked full of Wood Ducks, Northern Pintail, American Wigeon, Green-winged Teal and some Mallard and Black.
After some scanning, I spotted the Eurasian Wigeon. It got up with some other ducks and I saw it in flight.
I did not take photos since they were distant and lighting was poor.
With Pinery Provincial Park just up the road, I went in for a few hours. Nothing special was seen, but nice to walk around. I used to go to Pinery quite often and have seen some good birds there.
It is one of the best spots in Ontario to find a large number of Tufted Titmouse.
I did not notice until later that the above had a band, as well as the one below.
I did quite a bit of walking there in hopes of finding some good birds. Pinery has had quite a few Townsend's Solitaires over the years (at least 7) and I was even co-finder of one once. Nothing like that yesterday!
Some interesting scenery along the shoreline:
I checked out the old Lake Smith area for swans, but most have already gone through and virtually none were to be seen.
Since I was up in the area, I continued on to Dashwood for the visitation for Maris Apse.
On the way home I again passed on Brick Yard Line with no luck.
Just north of Wallaceburg, I stopped to look at some swans. A couple stood out which appeared to be young Trumpeter Swans.
Trumpeter Swans are certainly becoming more common in recent times with the numerous sightings in Essex County and the pair at Shrewsbury last month.
Today I took off work to attend the funeral of Maris Apse, so Brick Yard Line got in the way again! On the way back I should have scanned a corn field, as I am sure the gyr was sitting there. Paul Pratt saw it there less than a half hour before...
Some Tundra Swans were still in the field north of Wallaceburg, as well as a Snowy Owl.
Blake, is that sand at the Pinery naturally deposited like that or is that the result of some shoreline work?
ReplyDeleteDwayne, It is actually dirty ice. With the wave/wind action over the winter, ice builds up in mounds and of course collects dirt. When the snow and ice melts, the dirt remains. Very interesting though.
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