Rondeau Ducks 'n Things

This Sunday morning I headed down to Rondeau Park.  There are not many birds away from the water bodies right now, so I looked at some ducks.  Lighting was excellent first thing this morning, so I stopped behind Rondeau Joe's.  I could not pick out a Eurasian Wigeon from there (although one was seen there later!), so I moved down to the yacht club.

It took a while, but I finally found the annual bird quite some distance out.  Here are a couple of highly cropped photos.

There was a good variety of ducks to sort through, but I only saw one of the two Eurasian Wigeons of today.
No doubt these are likely the same returning birds each spring and fall.

I walked through the campground, but saw few birds.  It was just too windy!
I checked the lake off the VC and added Glaucous Gull and Long-tailed Duck to the day's list.

The day was young, so I headed over to Erieau and walked the rail trail.   It actually was not too bad for wind, but no Orange-crowned Warbler made an appearance.

At the pier area, I saw the two male Harlequin Ducks bouncing in the waves. The one has hung around since sometime in November!  Probably some sort of local record.

(from a few weeks ago)

I checked out McGeachy Pond as well, but still no warbler (lol)!  There were a couple of open spots that held some Mallard, American Wigeon and Gadwall.

Looks like there is some phragmites control taking place there.


Heading up Erieau Road, a very nice Red-shouldered Hawk passed in front of me south of Old Street.
Further up near the landfill, a roaming flock of Lapland Longspurs flew by.  I estimated around 85, but not sure if it was a pure flock.  Perhaps a Smith's was in there!