Recent Rambles

As one would expect, I am not going too far and staying at home quite a bit.  I have not worked in almost two weeks so it has been quite boring.  Life is quite depressing right now, but we have to try and make the best of it day by day.
I have been birding by car, or going to places where there are no people.  I have even been giving my big camera a rest lately!

Today I  ventured down to Hillman Marsh.  Surprisingly, public access is still open despite almost every other park, wildlife area or conservation area being closed to the public. 
The marsh was quite full of  waterfowl.  I did not even drag out the scope, but did well in sorting through the ducks.
Northern Shoveler was very plentiful in the shorebird cell.  I counted over 200.

There were very few Green-winged Teal.  One needs to sort through those carefully in case a Eurasian (or Common Teal) is amongst them!
In the last couple of days, one has been in north Lambton near Northville.  I have not bothered to go and see it, as I saw one at Hillman two years ago.

March 2018 Hillman shorebird cell

Shorebirds have started to arrive.  At Hillman, I found some Dunlin (19) and Greater Yellowlegs (3) as first of year birds.  Could not find a Pec today!

The last week or so I have stayed fairly local.  On Tuesday, I ventured up the St. Clair River to Corunna.  There are still hundreds of gulls on the river, which is nice.  The odd Iceland or Glaucous can still be found, as well as Lesser Black-backed.
Some bonies are here and there, and one should keep an eye out for Black-headed or at least a Little Gull.  It is even a good time of year for Mew Gull!

We had some very heavy rain recently (absolutely not needed!) and water levels are way too high once again.  The McKeough Dam had to be activated for the second time this year already!

Scene off Bickford Line

It will be interesting what we can turn up this spring with limited resources, as I can say with almost certainty we will not be visiting Point Pelee/ Rondeau etc. this May.😢