Out With the Old, While A New Year Begins

Weather sure has been gloomy this holiday season, but the last few days I have been out roaming around.  This time of year I start spending time along the St. Clair River.  It sure is a far cry from what it used to be!  Usually we have lots of ice with ducks and gulls, but climate change has altered that.  There are more Mute Swans than anything!

The other day, I found this Herring Gull with a Perch dinner.

Until we get lots of ice, there will not be much concentration of ducks and especially gulls.  A Bonaparte's Gull on the St. Clair River in winter is a bit unique.  This one was at Guthrie Park, Corunna.

There has been quite a few waterbirds along the Chenal Ecarte west of Wallaceburg.  Pied-billed Grebes are swimming around.

A couple of days ago, I went down to Rondeau for one last time in 2022.  The aftermath of the big storm was quite evident.  Lots of trees were down, but unfortunately they were mostly White Pine. The wind catches these quite easily, and the fact they are in soft sandy soil, is a recipe for disaster. Some snapped off, but many were simply toppled over, roots and all.

south point trail

I did a bit of a lakewatch at dog beach.  Some Red-throated Loons were still kicking around.

I stopped by Erieau later where there was a good number of geese around.  I caught sight of six Greater White-fronted Geese at the marsh trail.  Unfortunately I was not able to get proper photos.  The crappy weather did not help!

GRWG at centre

Today was a new year.  Locally, we start it off with the St. Clair NWA CBC.  The weather was very poor.  But, it was difficult to know what it would be like, since the forecasts lately have been all over the map.  Every time one looked at the forecast, it changed!  I can only guess they have no idea what is going on.

It was very gloomy today.  I did St. Luke's marsh.  We got in there two years ago, and it was several years previous that we had been allowed access.  It is presently owned by Ducks Unlimited.

The recent mild weather and rain at least eliminated the snow drifts.  Here is a scene along the dike from many years ago when I did this route.  I would imagine there were drifts like this from the recent storm.

Another scene from today in one of the more open spots.  Phragmites is a major problem in this marsh.

Lake St. Clair was frozen of course, and fog rolled in at one point.  It was difficult to see things.  One could hear ducks, but try and spot them!  All were Mallard, but I did see one Northern Pintail.

Overall it was very quiet as one would expect.  Seems that lots of birds left early this year, but the recent storm probably caused many birds to perish  as well.

Skunk's Misery CBC is coming up next.  Hopefully weather will be decent....for a change!