Gulls and Ducks: Lake St. Clair is the Place

I got up early again this morning.  I just have to get out whether there is anything to see or not!  Today was cool, but bright and sunny.  I went as far as Point Pelee.   Little to see with regards to birds in the park, but I checked anyways.  Had a nice chat with Richard Carr at the Tip, who will be doing some birding with his time off this week!  (I know he will read this, so LLB's beware).

Watching TV at the Tip

I walked a bit up West Beach Trail.  More trees cut down!  You can now plainly see the lake.  Also, with lack of ice and lots of wind this winter, there has been extensive erosion on the west side.  So much for the knapweed!

West Beach?

Hundreds of geese were at Hillman, but I could not pick out a rare one.  A few Snow Geese were there, but that is all I could find.

View from Lighthouse Cove

I motored (as Norm M. could say) up to Lighthouse Cove and checked out the gull spectacle.  I think there are even more gulls than last week!  However they were spread out and farther out.  The bright sun did not help, so who knows what is out there.  At least 2500 gulls I suspect.  I picked out a few Glaucous.  Only one cormorant today, and one White-winged Scoter.


White-winged 'Scooter'




The freaky mallard types were hiding somewhere.  Only a few were to be found.

"Cove" Ducks

I decided to make a quick stop at Mitchell's Bay (or Mitchell Bay which is the old, actually correct name). It turned out to be a prolonged visit.  Although most ducks were quite distant, I suspect 20,000 were in view.  So, this is where they are at!  The bulk seemed to Canvasback, but others were mixed in.  Again, who knows what it out there as most were just too far away.

I saw at least four Bald Eagles there.  They seem to be commonplace anymore.
One thing today, blackbirds are back in big numbers now....