Woodland Wanderings and Historic Day on the St. Clair

 Birding continues to be painfully slow this spring.  While wandering through local woodlands, I kept an eye out for plants.  This week, my target was Twinleaf, one of my favourite.  For some reason, I could not find the ones in Reid CA, so later I checked out W. Darcy McKeough CA where I knew of a spot with several plants,  These were almost ready to bloom.

At Reid, the first Jack-the-Pulpits are popping up.

Over at Port Lambton, I checked out my birding hotspot, Brander Park.  There are a few Red Trilliums there.

While there, an odd crow got my attention.  It did not move much, but going by the sounds it made, I concluded it was a Fish Crow!  It was high in a tree, and a photo would do no good anyway.  It was just a couple of days earlier that James Holdsworth confirmed one at his end of the county, constituting Lambton's first record.  Probably overdue.

Today, I went down to Rondeau.  There was heavy ice fog all the way, making me wonder what I was doing!  However, it mostly cleared at Rondeau.  With few birds yet in the park, I opted to go out marsh trail where one could find a variety of birds.

female Eastern Towhee from the other day

Some first-of-year included Common Gallinule, Common Yellowthroat, Marsh Wren and Sora.  Nothing else special, but better days are ahead no doubt.

On the agenda today, was to see the historic ship tow (for many reasons) of the last Edwardian passenger ship in the world, Keewatin.  After Rondeau, I made a beeline for the St. Clair River. I was worried, as the fog returned north of the park, and all the way home.  However, it cleared by the time I got to Sombra.  The tow was not as far as I thought, so I ended up at Corunna to wait.

Here is the first view off the north end of Shell Refinery:

My next position was Mooretown, where I got some good photos.  Many people were out to see the event.

Readers of this blog know that I have visited the Keewatin when it was on display at Port McNicoll.  

in the wheelhouse

Not the Titanic!

This ship was built in Scotland in 1907 and came to the upper Great Lakes.  In 1967 it was a museum ship in Saugatuck, Michigan, then in 2012 it was moved to Port McNicoll. It had to move, as plans changed there.  The museum in Kingston bought it, and that is where it will end up this summer.

Two of these identical ships came to the lakes.  The sister ship, Assiniboia, met its demise in 1969.  I was on it too (August 1968) in Sarnia!

Today's tow was the first time the ship was in the St. Clair River since 1907!  It is quite remarkable this ship still exists.   It will get good exposure in Kingston, and hopefully will last for many more decades.