Frigid Friday Frolicks

 I had not been down to the Rondeau area for a while, so I headed there today.  We finally got some "winter" weather with cold temps and a northerly wind with a bit of snow.  I braved the elements, ecstatic to see the sun!

Birds will be more concentrated, and perhaps some more will come from the north.

I started with a brief look at the lake at dog beach with Steve Charbonneau, then we moved up to the campground and spent quite a bit of time there.  There was a good number of birds, but one has to keep walking around looking for the "flocks".

The usual Yellow-rumped Warblers were quite co-operative at one point, numbering about 15.

Perhaps some other warbler will come out of the woodwork with this cold weather one of these days.  We did see a Kentucky Warbler coming to a feeder...nice to get that one out of the way early!

Some of the other usual campground creatures were in the mix.

Brown Creeper

I wanted to check into Keith McLean C. L., despite the cold wind.  It was not too bad actually, and we did see lots of sparrows.

At least eight Savannah Sparrows are wintering there, and we saw those.

The star of the show was the wintering Nelson's Sparrow, which we did see on several occasions, but it was not co-operative for a photo today.  Good to get that one on the year list early!

Another stop later on revealed a Northern Saw-whet Owl which was hiding quite well.

I moved on to Erieau, but things had frozen up quite a bit, so I did not look too hard.  The House Wren was still along the trail, attempting to winter.  Not too much else!

Roaming around today, there were lots of Northern Harriers.  Closer to home, some Pied-billed Grebes were still on the Chenal Ecarte, but will soon leave if the frozen weather continues.

Nothing new at my feeders.  I never seem to get anything decent anymore!  However, one must keep looking.