Christmas season is upon us (already!) and so are the Christmas Bird Counts. Some have already taken place, but my first one will be tomorrow (December 18) at Rondeau.
On Friday, I went down to the park to see what was going on (or lack thereof), starting with a lakewatch at dog beach.
Dog beach is where I will start on Sunday to catch anything moving on the lake. Several Red-throated Loons are still around.
Last year we had a crazy number on the count!
I thought I would be alone for the watch, but Steve Charbonneau soon joined me. At one point, I caught sight of a shorebird. A dark one! It could only be a Purple Sandpiper. It was motoring southwest nonstop, so I did not even try to take a record photo. A bit unexpected, but nice to have that tick on the yearlist.
By coincidence, Keith Burk was out south beach and we alerted him to keep watch for a Purple Sandpiper. Sure enough a while later, he found one feeding on the Bay side. Although not guaranteed, this is likely the same bird.
It would be nice to get that one on the CBC. It has happened before! Back on 14 December 2014, Josh Bouman and I found one near dog beach. As often is the case, Purple Sandpipers are quite approachable, and this one was no exception.
Just a few days ago, I changed the header photo of this blog showing a Purple Sandpiper. A premonition of things to come, or just coincidence?
That photo shows a rare spring bird out south beach of Rondeau 8 March 2020.
They are most often found in the fall migration. An exceptionally early one I found was at Mitchell's Bay 21 September 2013. I was actually looking for something else (Marbled Godwits) that had been seen. But, I took the consolation!
I have seen them in a number of places, and this one I found on the Erieau pier 9 November 2008.
One I recall, was the latest I have seen one at Erieau was 31 December 1997.
Birds are certainly few and far between this season, and I did not see much else on my walk. I did check out the campground and actually found quite a few birds. An Eastern Phoebe had been lurking in the area this week, and I managed to stumble upon it.
It should be around somewhere for the count on Sunday.
A stop at Keith McLean C. L. still revealed some lingering Killdeer. Lots of sparrows are there, but nothing unusual. Maybe Sunday's count will turn up something of interest there!
Today, I checked out the St. Clair River and Sarnia. Certainly a far cry from what it used to be this time of year. Climate change has certainly made things different. Not much to see on the river, or even at Sarnia today.
There is a Harlequin Duck south of Marine City, Michigan. One can scope the area from the south end of Sombra if the water is calm. It was a bit choppy today, so I was not able to pick anything out. Maybe it was stick around for the Wallaceburg CBC on December 27.
Stay tuned......
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