Sunday Stuff!

I thought perhaps it would be a good day to go to Point Pelee with a SW wind blowing.  It was not a real strong wind though, and it turned out that not many birds were moving today.  Several birders were at the Tip today, so it was more of a social event!

Lots of scaup etc. but nothing of note with them!

There were no real highlights though.  The only thing of interest I observed was a Savannah Sparrow on a rock at the very Tip.  I noticed a sparrow-like bird zip behind me at one point, so I moved to get a look.  It quickly disappeared so I was not able to get a photo, although it would have been neat.

A couple of American Pipits were seen including this one in front of us.

Dozens of American Robins were at the De Laurier area where we stopped for a brief look-see.

The winter is coming on too quickly now!  Many spots are frozen, including this area of Hillman Marsh.

I decided to head over to Wheatley to eat my lunch.  It was a similar scene to last week with many grebes in the harbour and lots of gulls.

I found the Eared Grebe without much difficulty.

While looking at the gulls, I noticed this close Herring Gull.  It had a dark left eye.  Then it turned around to show it more normal-looking right eye!

There were just four species of gulls that I could see.  Where are those Franklin's??

It has been quite a while since I went for a walk in Wheatley Provincial Park.  Earlier, Richard Carr mentioned a Green Heron that he saw there yesterday.  That was my target for the day plus whatever else I could find.

I walked the main road towards the beach area.  I found a number of birds near the maintenance yard including some Yellow-rumped Warblers.

At the walkway bridge, I found the Green Heron with ease.

There is some open water here and there, but with the forecast this week, it will likely all freeze over.
The Green Heron is record late for the Point Pelee birding area at this point!

I continued on and walked across the larger bridge into the campground.  From the bridge I noticed some ducks in the creek.  I thought there was only a few Mallards and Blacks, but later I found out otherwise.

At the north end I walked back along the creek and kept seeing more and more ducks.  Turns out there were over 60 ducks there!  Mallards, Blacks, American Wigeon, Gadwall, Wood Ducks and a Redhead with 2 American Coots.  I could never get a good look at these due to the phragmites, and just as I thought I saw all the ducks, a flock of 14 Wood Ducks got up.
I am sure this spot will be frozen by mid week if not sooner.

On the way home I did not check any spots (gas getting low!), but did find at least 800 Tundra Swan in the fields of Dover.