Some Red-necked Birding and Mussel-Hunting

 'Tis the season various birds will be showing up each day on their way north. Today, I did some wandering in hopes of coming across something of interest.  The skies were gloomy, but it is normal on a weekend.

I started at Dow Wetlands south of Sarnia.  No Northern Bobwhite, like back in the day!

Where to go next?  I usually do not go to north Lambton this time of year, but I thought I would this day.  I by-passed Forest lagoons and went straight to L-Lake trail at Port Franks.  Nothing of note, but eight Fox Sparrows were nice to see, as two Sandhill Cranes flew overhead.

I passed through Ipperwash Beach fairly quickly as there was not much to see.  Kettle Point had lots of ducks along the west side, but I did not find anything of note.  I had hoped to come across a Red-necked Grebe on this trip...it was one of my target birds.

Earlier, I had heard that there was an unprecedented number of Red-necked Grebes at Komoka Pits near London.  50+ is unheard of there!  As well, four were reported at Blenheim Lagoons this morning.  Somewhat unusual for there as well.

I also looked at Highland Glen earlier, but only saw five Horned Grebes.  

I thought I might as well stop at Forest Lagoons, coming up empty for Red-necked Grebe along Lake Huron.

There were lots of ducks at the Forest.  In the big deepwater pond, I saw two suspicious creatures swimming in the distance.  Red-necked Grebes!!  They were in breeding plumage.

It was nice to find these on a gloomy day.  We do not get many in this neck of the woods lagoon.

Seems there was a fallout of Red-necked Grebes today.  With the London and Blenheim locations already mentioned, there were 10ish at West Perth Wetland as well!

Yesterday I did quite a bit of walking.  (about 20 km in total!)  I started at Rondeau and walked out marsh trail to Long Pond, a 10 km round trip.  Nothing much of note, but lots of ducks are still around.

Coot Parade

Later I checked out the rest of the park.

It was such a nice day, not common on a weekend, I went up to Reid CA for a walk.  Boots are needed this time of year!

As I walked in towards the river (a long walk), I got the idea of looking along the river bank for mussels.  Reid has about 3km of Sydenham River edge, but I only checked out about half a km.  Quite a bit is too difficult to get at.

I actually found some mussels.  Nothing new to me, but there were several Fragile Papershell.  I found a Giant Floater in good shape.

I also found two Mapleleaf.

And two Deertoe.  These two were fresh and side by side when I found them.

Reid is not the best place for birds, but while there I heard the resident Pileated Woodpecker.  Highlight was when I heard a Common Raven!  I was deep in the woods, so could not see it as it flew by.  New for there!