Waterfowl and Windpower

No, this is not about wind turbines and the effect on waterfowl!  Pretty soon though, there will be more wind turbines than trees in Chatham-Kent with all the proposals!

With the gale force winds today, one could only drive around unless you could find a deep wooded ravine.  I decided to check waterfowl.  Lots of waterfowl moving yesterday ahead of the storm, as well as gulls.

So, I went down to Lake St. Clair first thing.  No shortage of things to look at especially in the corn fields.  As well, Mitchell's Bay was loaded with ducks. It was too windy and choppy to do much with those, but likely there were 10,000 Canvasback alone to be seen.
I checked many spots and fields.  Among the geese and swans were loads of Northern Pintail.  It seemed to be the most common dabbling duck around.

Mix of Waterfowl

I went as far as Lighthouse Cove.  As expected, there was not much there since the ice has moved out and the onshore winds were brutal.  I did see one Iceland Gull among other gulls and ducks.  I had always hoped to find a rarity here, but I have no luck with that sort of stuff anymore.  So it seems.

Speaking of rarities, the Heerman's Gull at Ottawa is interesting news.  I did go after the one in Toronto in 1999 though.  I went one weekday morning but had no idea where to find it.  I drove around a bit, then saw some people going into a dump.  We went in, but got kicked out.  Down the road we went into a dock area and found it right away.  I do not think we were supposed to be in there either, but there it was.  Up close too! (no photo)






One field NW of Grande Pointe had a bunch of Bald Eagles.  I counted 9, but some were moving around so there could have been more.  I saw two or three others in my travels, so it was a day for eagles.

Six Bald Eagles in this photo!

Lots of Tundra Swans were SW of Wallaceburg in their usual fields near Swan Line (coincidence?).

Not done for the morning, I headed up the St. Clair River.  I did not find much, as expected, but the best spot (lately) is the outlet of the McKeough Floodway.  Today, a nice male Pintail stood out.

I drove inland a bit, but things were hunkered down and not very visible.

Hooded Mergansers likely to nest at McKellar again