River Runs and Signs of Spring?

 Lack of subject matter equals lack of blog posts!  There has been nothing new until today, but I have been out and about.  Last Friday through Sunday I went out to the St. Clair River and spent most time at Guthrie Park.  Saturday I went into Sarnia where there seemed to be more gull activity!  But no Ross's Gull.

The river has been packed with ice until recently, but has opened up quite a bit north of Sombra. especially today.

Things got mixed up today with the wacky weather, as our shop has too much water in it to safely work!  Weather was still OK, so I headed upriver to look for anomalies in the rafts of ducks.  Lots to look at.  I spent most time at Guthrie Park.  There were few gulls, but four Glaucous were OK.  The most interesting duck was one of the Redhead X Ring-necked hybrid males.

Downriver, I did not come across a Harlequin Duck.  A young male was seen at the Sombra dock yesterday though.

The McKeough Outlet across from Fawn Island was interesting where I saw seven American Wigeon and a Gadwall.  No doubt the baldplates were new as a result of yesterday's strong SW wind.  I heard that Shovelers were also seen, as well as a Wood Duck.  The first brisk SW wind after cold winter weather often brings in "spring" migrants.

Sometimes there is a wigeon or two wintering on the river, but there had not been any until today.

The wigeon were in this bunch:  (taken with cell phone since I did not have the camera!)

Also in the vicinity was another Redhead X Ring-necked duck.  I heard that one was at Stoke's Point was well!  So three on the river today.....

This has been a good spot this winter for watching waterfowl.

It was about here that I saw a big dust cloud to the north last Sunday morning.  It was the implosion of the Lambton Generating Station!  Obviously I did not get close enough in time.

I wondered if the cold weather had kept up we would be seeing more dead ducks.  I did see a couple lying on the ice last Sunday.  They are indeed competing for food, and I am seeing so many eating gizzard shad.  

That is not their normal diet!  I even saw Mallards trying to devour some shad.

I recall the winter of 2014 which was extremely harsh.  Hundreds of dead ducks died from malnutrition.  Here is an article I wrote back then:

http://burgbirder.blogspot.com/2014/03/duck-notes.html

"Trumpy" the swan is quite regular at Guthrie Park.

Before going home on Sunday, I swung around to Walpole Island on the hunch that there was some open water south of the bridge.  There usually is during winter!

Indeed there was, and of interest was a Pied-billed Grebe and a Ruddy Duck.