Windsor Waterfowl and Inland Birding

Looking towards Lake St. Clair

A change in scenery was in order today, so I went down to Lakeview Marina Park at Windsor.  There are not many places to go walking right now with all the snow (unless you strap on some snowshoes!), so this was a nice change.
It is located at the mouth of Little River and you can just stand in one spot to view all the birds.

I could see at least 11 species of ducks with a large number of scaup and goldeneye.

Swans were pretty thick in numbers here with mostly Mute.  One Mute Swan came in close that had a neck collar and leg band (with same number). I have never seen one sporting hardware like this.

There were well over 200 Mute Swans, but there were quite a few Tundra in the distance as well, perhaps close to 200.  One group was way out on the Lake St. Clair ice.  Pretty sure I had the 3 Trumpeter Swans were out there as well, but not close.

The Mallards/Blacks were packed in close waiting for local people to put out food.  There were no other puddle ducks that I could see!

Mooching Mallard

Over on Peche Island, I could only see two Great Blue Herons.

(Great Blue Heron atop the sign)

Some Bald Eagles were around as well, and a Sharp-shinned Hawk was sitting in a tree on the island.
During the course of my stay I heard a Belted Kingfisher chattering (one has been along Little River), a Pine Siskin flying over and a couple of Snow Buntings.
At one point, a fellow blogger came along.. Dwayne Murphy!  So that was nice for chatting about birds!

After over an hour there, I headed back towards home along the lakeshore.  Nothing much of note was seen on the way back, but lots of Horned Larks/Snow Buntings were here and there.

I also saw a couple of Northern Flickers closer to home as I drove around.

Inland, not far from St. Clair NWA and nowhere near open water, I found this group of Mallards/Blacks feeding on grain.

It continues to be a gull-less winter.  I think I only saw five gulls in total today!