Saturday Saunterings

Lake Erie off Rondeau

I decided to head down to Rondeau this morning instead of going out to the St. Clair River.  The river will be tomorrow's destination and hopefully the weather will not be too bad.  One can get dizzy looking at the weather forecasts since they continually change!
I checked out south point trail first thing.  I think it is the first time I have been on that part since sometime in December.
Bald Eagles were the most plentiful bird.  I noticed several flying around while on the walk, but eventually all them were on the ice at one point.  I counted nine, but only seven show in this photo.

The lake was mostly ice off south point.

There was more open water off the north end of the park where some Common Mergansers were hanging out.

South of the visitor centre along Lakeshore, there was a mixed flock of birds.  Included was the very elusive Eastern Towhee.  It has only been seen a couple of times since the CBC.
Further up Lakeshore, a mixed group of birds has been hanging around a feeder at a cottage.  Blackbirds have been wintering. Today I counted 16 Red-winged.  I always hope for the Yellow-headed which was seen earlier in the winter.  Not today!

A walk around the campground was rather quiet this weekend.  Sparrows are scarce and only a couple of American Tree Sparrows revealed themselves.
I did see three Yellow-rumped Warblers, a regular each winter in the campground.

I decided to check Stefina Line, which revealed a nice flock of blackbirds.  I almost drove past them!  I was not able to get much in the way of photos.

There were at least 30 Rusty and several Red-winged among Brown-headed Cowbirds which were the most numerous.  It was difficult to see them all in the corn stubble, so perhaps a Brewer's could have been lurking there!

At the never-frozen ditch, the Wilson's Snipe was showing well for a change.

There was only one but you never know if a second one is around. I recall one winter when that was the case.

The Ditch

There are still lots of Snowy Owls around.  The Meadowvale one south of Wallaceburg is still around.  Perhaps it looks for meadowvoles on Meadowvale!

It was right beside the road and blended in so well, I missed it!  I backed up, but of course it flew further out into the field.

Last evening, I saw the one at the Sombra solar farm just before I saw a couple of Short-eared Owls get up.  The Short-eared Owls were quite vocal as they usually are.
Two more Snowy Owls were along Langstaff Line west of  Wallaceburg just before I got home.

Just before dark today, I checked out the open water south of the Walpole Island bridge.  Many ducks have been hanging out here, as well as a Pied-billed Grebe.