Point Pelee to Guthrie Gulls

On Saturday I headed down to Point Pelee.  I thought perhaps if the Ivory Gull was found again, I would be rather close!  Not to be.  In fact Point Pelee was rather dead for birds.
I first stopped at Wheatley Harbour and looked at some gulls.  Certainly no little white one there!

I did finally see 4 Bonaparte's Gulls--first for the year.  They have certainly been scarce this year so far.

With the unwelcome return of winter (not that we had one!), everything was frozen again.  I walked the usual spots in the park finding rather few birds.  The Tip was tipless and dead and icy!

West Beach trail has been altered from the Tip tram loop to the serengeti tree.  Many Red Cedars have been taken out, so I am not sure what to make of this.  Are they putting in a road?

De Laurier had a singing Fox Sparrow which was likely a wintering bird. A couple of Red-bellied Woodpeckers were making their rounds.

Just before leaving the park, I met up with Jeremy Bensette and we had a nice chat about various things, including the absence of an Ivory Gull!

I stopped at Hillman Marsh which was a far cry from the previous week.  The shorebird cell was completely frozen, as was much of the marsh.  Some waterfowl was on the far south side of the marsh, but I was not heading that way.

As the day was still young, I simply headed home and continued out to the St. Clair River.  At least there was something to look out there!  I met up with Mike Bouman at Cath's Cart Park where there were lots of gulls.  Same old, same old, nothing rare!

We then headed up to Guthrie Park off the Shell Oil where the multitude of gulls continued.  We spent some time there sitting along the shoreline.

There were at least 4 Iceland Gulls and a couple of Glaucous as well as a couple of Lesser Black-backed.