Trumpeting Along the St. Clair River and Recent Rambles

 This past week was quite mild.....and windy!  I spent more time along the St. Clair River than anything.  Not sure why because there is not much out there!  Unless we get cold weather and some ice, there never will be.

Tuesday, a couple of Trumpeter Swans were at Cathcart Park.  Likely the same ones from earlier in teh winter

More Tundra Swans were around as well, probably due to the incoming mild weather.

Wednesday I went to Rondeau Park.  I started with a lakewatch at dog beach.  Over 500 White-winged Scoters were counted during my short stay.  A couple of Horned Grebes were new for the year for me.

As always, I checked the campground.  There were puddles due to the rain and melting ice.  At one point I heard some swishing behind me.  I had walked right by a bathing Cooper's Hawk!  It showed no fear.

Thursday was actually a very nice day.  I went for a walk at Wilkesport first thing.  Three or four Northern Flickers were working the area.  I only managed to get a photo of one from a distance.

I then went for a walk at Reid C. L.  It was just too nice of a day not to!  There were lots of Blue Jays feeding on acorns.  Another member of the corvids was a Common Raven that flew by  in the distance.

Some scenes:

Back Field

An adult Sharp-shinned Hawk stopped by the neighbourhood later in the morning.  It spent some time preening.

Friday there was very little in the way of birds, and I did not even do a bird list!

Saturday, it was back to Rondeau.  I did a lakewatch at dog beach with Steve.  It was not an ideal wind, but White-winged Scoters were the talk of the day.

Over 1500 were tallied.  No doubt conservative because many were way out.  At least three Surf Scoters were mixed in.

Today, I checked out the entire St. Clair River.  Not much to see.  Been too mild.  More hunters and decoys than birds!

This afternoon, I finally went to see some of the Sandhill Cranes east of Port Lambton.  Up to 144 were seen on the Wallaceburg CBC January 4, but every day sees different numbers.  I counted 42.

These creatures come over from Michigan each day.

The Fox Sparrow shows up occasionally here at home.  I have never had one spend the winter here, so it is nice to have!