Looking For Wintering Birds

Friday was one of the nicer days of this month with clear skies and warmer temps.  I took advantage of that in the afternoon and went for a long drive.  However, there were not many birds to see!  My main objective was to see a Golden Eagle at the east edge of Lambton County.

I went to the usual area west of Watterworth Road and did quite a bit of driving.  It took a while, but I did finally see a Golden Eagle on Mosside Line.  I had good views, but was unable to get a photo due to the trees in the way.  Here is a photo from the past of a similarly-aged bird, on a similar day.

There are seemingly lots of wintering Golden Eagles, but they are hit and miss.  Sometimes one can see several right away, but other times it takes forever to see one, if at all.

I then headed towards Sarnia, as I wanted to see some Short-eared Owls in the evening.  Along the way, I got word that the roaming Ross's Goose was seen at the Bluewater Bridges.  That would certainly be a bonus if I could see that one!

Heading towards Sarnia, I did see a Common Raven, an increasingly common species in Lambton.

Upon arrival at the Bluewater Bridges, there was a mass of Canada Geese on the lawns.  It took a while to spot the tiny white goose.

I had difficulty getting a clear view with all the Canada's moving about!

This goose is widely-travelled!  We would assume it was the one first seen up Port Franks way, then Bright's Grove, then the Blackwell Landfill area.  It was still present at the mouth of Lake Huron this morning.

After grabbing a bite to eat, I headed towards the solar farm area.  It is well-known that we get Short-eared Owls here every winter.  

It was extremely windy that evening, so I think some owls were kept down.  I saw probably four, one of which perched on a solar panel for the whole time.

While there, lots of Canada Geese were flying about.  In fact, coming down Blackwell Road, I saw a flock of close to 500 heading in a westerly direction.  Many were flying over, or nearby while I was along Blackwell Road.

To my surprise, a little white goose was obvious in the distance.  Seems that little Ross's Goose spends the night in this area!

Saturday, I spent some of the morning along the St. Clair River.  We finally have a good number of ducks, especially Redhead.  Nothing like the "old days", but they were in the thousands.  Lots of Canvasbacks too, although most of those spend the winter on the Detroit River.

I did scope through some of the rafts, but did not find anything of note.

There was nothing special that I could see along the river, but four Trumpeter Swans have been hanging around south of Seager Park.

Today, I went back out to the river for lack of anything else to do.  Most Redhead were at Sombra.  

I did not spend much time scanning the big raft, so hopefully I did not miss anything cool.

There were lots of ducks all along the river up to Corunna, but I did not spend much time looking closely.  We are certainly due for a Tufted Duck along the river!  Last one I saw on the river was at Sombra in the winter of 1994.  Good grief, that was a long time ago!

I did however, find a Red-necked Grebe at Willow Park.

Possibly the same one I found at Cathcart Park a couple of days ago, but I suspect there is more than one on the river.  This species is always rare in area at any time, but good to see in mid January.

The four Trumpeter Swans were still at the mouth of Bowen Creek south of Seager Park.

Inland, it was virtually birdless.  I walked Nicholl's at Wilkesport and did not find a single bird!  This is certainly a first!

Sunset along Blackwell Road