Lambton Co. Tour

I decided to do some walking and birding inland today.  I started at Moore WMA.  Like most places this winter, it was rather quiet.  Usually this place is hopping with birds and a good place for wintering Yellow-rumped Warblers.  I managed to scrape up a few birds and it looks like the warblers did not stay this year.


Along the river a flock of birds included a Tufted Titmouse, chickadees, White-breasted Nuthatches, Cardinals and juncos.  Also present was a White-throated Sparrow which is decent for the spot at this time.

Cardinal on Ice

junco on ice

Down the road I checked out McKellar Tract.  In past years Long-eared Owls have sometimes been here, but they are just not around this year.  I came across a small flock of birds which included 2 Red-breasted Nuthatches.  The pine plantations here attract them.

One spot I usually do not check in winter is Marthaville Habitat near Petrolia.  There were more dogs than birds here, but I did come across another pair of Red-breasted Nuthatches.

From there, I headed straight west on Lasalle Line.

At Guthrie Park on the St. Clair River, there was a bonanza of birds to look at.  Most of the ducks on the St. Clair seem to be concentrated here, since south of Cathcart Park, the river is jammed with ice.

Three Glaucous Gulls were milling about, but that was it for those white-winged creatures which are scarce this winter.

Lots of ducks to sort through and likely a Harlequin is out there somewhere.

Off Cathcart Park north of Sombra, a bit of open water attracted the wintering Tundra Swans (and a few Mute) and many Canada Geese.  Most of the geese were towards the US side though.

A while after I got home, I got a message from Mike Bouman that he found a male Barrow's Goldeneye just south of Cathcart.  Too late to go back out...... (hope it is refound!).
This is the first Barrow's in the river in many many years (last one late December 1995). I can only recall two in all the years I have been birding there.

'record' photo provided by Mike Bouman