Recent Rambles and a Soggy Solitaire

 Prior to today, we had a couple of nice, but cool days.  Tuesday afternoon I went for a walk at Reid CA.  

With the cool weather lately, things are a bit behind.  However, some spring plants are attempting to pop up.

Cut-leaved Toothwort is a common forest floor plant, but there is not a lot at Reid.

Cut-leaved Toothwort

Mayapple

Some hardy insects were out, including this Greater Bee Fly.

Some birds included those that cling to sides of trees!

Hairy Woodpecker

Brown Creeper

Wednesday, was a clear but cool day, and I wanted to go for a long walk.  I opted for Rondeau's marsh trail and went all the way out to Long Pond.  Yes, it is a "long" walk to that pond! (11 km return).

I expected more bird life, but some areas still had a crust of ice from overnight.

One of the local Bald Eagles

Greater Yellowlegs

This Belted Kingfisher was too impatient to be photographed properly.

After the long walk, it was time to go home.  Should have stayed in the area because in early afternoon, a Crested Caracara was found SE of Blenheim!  I had things to do, so did not go for it much to my dismay.

Today was a rather soggy day with light rain or drizzle all day.  I headed down Rondeau way, as another good bird was in the area.  The day before, a birder looking for the caracara found a Townsend's Solitaire along New Scotland Line.

It was still present today in drizzly weather.

my first spotting today

It eventually moved a little closer.

A decent bird indeed, for this time of year!  Been a few years since one was in the Rondeau area.

The other thing of interest today, was a large flock of Lapland Longspur along Bisnett Line.  There were was well over 200 in my estimation.  Weather was dismal at the time, and they were constantly moving, so I did not get a good chance to look the flock over for oddities.

In the history department, the canaller Troisdoc was a frequent visitor to Wallaceburg.

Troisdoc in Wallaceburg (1977)

After its usefulness was up, it was sold off-lakes and was last working in the Gulf of MEXICO. On this day in 1989, it sank.