Guthrie Park: The Go-To Place in Mid-Winter

We are in a deep-freeze and most of the St. Clair River is full of ice now.

Port Lambton

 

The past couple of mornings I spent quite a bit of time at Guthrie Park on the St. Clair River.  It is the go-to place this time of year!  Very little open water farther south due to ice build-up, so ducks and gulls and are concentrated here.

Friday morning was fairly good and the highlight was when I spotted a Harlequin Duck.  It was quite distant, so I thought it was another female, since one had been at Cathcart Park the last few days.  Later, other observers thought it was likely a young male, which can look similar to a female at a distance.

Lots of Canvasback and Redhead were in close, among other things.

Many of the ducks have resorted to eating gizzard shad.  Even the Mallards!

Numbers of goldeneye had dropped, but I still had hopes of finding the Barrow's Goldeneye that was found last Sunday.  No dice this day!

Lots of Mute Swans here, but a Trumpeter Swan showed up earlier this week.

An oddball duck has been frequenting the area for the last week or so.  We are not sure what it is, but almost looks like some Ruddy in the mix.  Even scaup seems to be involved, especially in the spread wing.

Drove back roads on the way home and saw lots of Horned Larks and Snow Buntings.

Today I went back to the river since there was not much else to do.  With the price of gas now, I did not want to go too far.

Ducks were in good and close today as ice had built up in the river.

Some goldeneye had congregated in midriver, but I could not pick out a Barrow's early on.

At one point, several goldeneye flew in close due to an Algoma tanker moving downbound.  I watched closely, and sure enough I spotted the Barrow's Goldeneye.  Darrell Parsons saw it simultaneously as well!  We both got out of our vehicles to get a better look.

It came fairly close allowing us to get good looks to make sure it was not a hybrid look-alike.

Eventually it went back out to midriver.  The last Barrow's I saw on the river was back in 2015, so we do not get them every year.  Tufted Duck is long overdue on the river!  Back in 1994 one stayed at Sombra for some time.

Some White-winged Scoters were in the vicinity as well.  I only saw two immatures yesterday, but three adults were here.

We observed a pair of Common Goldeneye getting a head start to the breeding season.  I was a bit late with the camera...lol.

Bald Eagles are always numerous on the river, mixing things up.

Some open water remains at Cathcart Park, but I did not spot a Harlequin Duck there today.   It was a good day though.