Recent Observations and a Trek Out Rondeau South Beach

 I have been checking out the St. Clair River lately, but very little is out there!  Certainly a far cry from what it used to be.  With climate change, it is just too warm with no ice, and no concentration of birds.  Very discouraging!  Last winter was the worst I have ever seen for birds.

Lately, a Northern Pintail male has been hanging out with the Mallards at the old Sombra ferry dock.  Always nice to see in winter, but hopefully it will be seen on the 27th during the Wallaceburg CBC.

Just outside of town, Bald Eagles are busy making a new nest.  I guess they gave up on last year's nest!

Today, there was light rain, so with nothing else to do I drove up to Corunna along the river.  Very little to see, needless to say.  The pintail was still present at Sombra though.

Lots of gulls have been off Guthrie Park at Corunna, but not today!  I think I saw four gulls, lol.  Some Hooded Mergansers were swimming offshore.

A couple of days ago, there was a window of opportunity to walk out Rondeau's south beach.  I was hoping to come across the Purple Sandpiper that was discovered on the CBC last Sunday.  Despite a thorough look, it was not to be found.  There is excellent habitat for it on the Bay side for more than a kilometre.

A few years ago, there was a rare spring record Purple Sandpiper in this same location.

Here is another view looking at the terminus of the marsh trail.  I remember one autumn it was dry enough to walk across!

I do not go out there as often as I used to, but it is forever changing.  There used to be quite a bit of wooded area, but that is all gone due to the high water a few years ago.  There were even times, there was no sand to walk on.  It was quite narrow a couple of years ago, as seen in the following photos.

As always, I look for mussel shells to photograph.  There were lots, but most seemed to be Fatmucket.

One was an Eastern Pondmussel, which is now an imperiled species.

Another I found on the Bayside, remains unidentified.  Not the best specimen, but it is suggested that it is a Plain Pocket-book (or Pocketbook).

After that long walk, I was too tired to check the campground.  Along the way, the trusty Eastern Screech-owl was showing in its usual cavity.

In other notes, the Limpkin was still being seen on December 22 at Wheatley Provincial Park.  Apparently it was looking well.

The Limpkin is truly a unique bird.  Something like a large rail, it is in a class of its own.  It is not all that common to begin with, but several records in Ontario this year, it is amazing.

Today in the history department, the sandsucker Charles Dick was scrapped in 1976.  It was  frequent visitor to Wallaceburg back in the day.

1949

Waterfowl Watching and More

 Friday was sunny but very blustery after the snowstorm so I stuck to main roads.  In the afternoon I parked myself opposite Fawn Island to watch waterfowl.

Some Northern Shovelers had recently arrived and were showing well.

There was nothing else of note, but it was interesting just to watch the waterfowl.

Saturday was still blustery, but I stopped by the Fawn Island area again.

The Redhead X Ring-necked Duck was there, but asleep.

Up to 15 Bald Eagles were in the area.

I ventured up as far a Guthrie Park, but there was not much to see except some eagle action.

Today I needed a change in scenery and headed down to Rondeau Park at dawn.

Not too much of note, but I needed to get a good walk in. 

Walking through the campground, I came across a Brown Thrasher which has been wintering in the area.  I thought I saw two at one point, but was not sure.  It was very skittish and I was not able to get a photo.

A bit later, I came across another Brown Thrasher near maintenance which I considered a different bird.  I had one there earlier in the winter.  It too was not very co-operative!

A few Fox Sparrows were around and I came across only three Yellow-rumped Warblers in the campground.

This afternoon was too nice to sit around so I went back out to Fawn Island area.  The hybrid duck was showing well, but not too close.  It is an attractive duck.

I saw my first chipmunk of the year today!

Ducks and Grebes on Saturday

As this depressing winter weather continues, there was little to do today.  Road conditions were terrible, but I still headed up along the St. Clair as far as Corunna.  There was virtually no place to pull off even though there were lots of ducks and gulls to look at.  Luckily, the Shell parking lot at the mouth of Talfourd Creek had just been ploughed out.  I parked there to look at the birds.

Glaucous Gull

Many ducks were taking advantage of the warm water.

There was much waterfowl to sort through.

Lots of goldeneye, but no Barrow's or their hybrids.

I did find a hybrid though!  Although the duck never woke up the whole time, it was obviously a Redhead X Ring-necked. Visibility was not good, as usual.

I have seen this type of hybrid before and a couple had been seen at Sombra earlier in the winter.  They ducks do wander around, but one wonders how many are really out there.

There were many Bald Eagles along the river today.  Six were off Cundick Park at Sombra, and several others along the way.  I probably saw close to 20 even without stopping to look.

I was home well before noon, but went back out in mid afternoon to look around the Walpole Island bridge.  There has been open water south of the bridge all winter.  I expected to find the continuing Pied-billed Grebe (which I did), but as a bonus, a Horned Grebe was also present!  Once in a while, a Horned will show up around mid February somewhere in these parts.   We have also had Red-necked Grebes show up, but not yet this year.

I wanted to drive some backroads today, but that was completely out of the question.  Who knows what tomorrow will bring since the forecast now calls for freezing rain which not on the radar early this morning.  (I need to stop looking at these useless forecasts!).

Rondeau Round 2

Lots of Ice!

I decided to go to Rondeau again today for lack of anything else to do.  It was certainly a little warmer, but far from what it should be.  Probably fewer birds today, but most of the same birds were seen.

A walk along south point trail yielded the same sapsucker.

There were many more blackbirds today, including several Rusty.

Out on the lake ice I counted 5 Bald Eagles. They eventually got up to fly around.

On my way up Lakeshore Road, the first Eastern Phoebe made an appearance.  Normally it would not be unusual to see ten in the park at this time of year.  I think the earliest spring migrant for me is around March 10.  I took the photo through the car windshield, so it is lousy!

I walked around the visitor centre area for a bit.  The only birds of note were the few Common Redpolls.

Once again today, I walked around the campground again but saw little.  There were quite a few Tree and Song Sparrows though.  I did not come across the Fox Sparrows.
The only different bird from yesterday was a male Eastern Bluebird.

Later, I drove down Erieau Road and noted a some waterfowl sitting on the ice in field.  They were probably wondering when is this ice going to go away!

I checked out Blenheim Lagoons again and the same birds as yesterday were present.  A male Wood Duck was a nice addition.

An interesting plane went over Blenheim.

Gashawk over Blenheim