Lambton Birding February 8

With colder temps the last couple of days, we finally have some ice in the St. Clair River, albeit slush ice.  It helps to concentrate gulls and ducks, which birders like.  It is good for looking at gulls, as they are lazy creatures that like to ride the floes!

I did a river run early this morning, then went to the east end of Lambton County through the countryside.  There appeared to be more birds today than I have been seeing of late.  Lots of hawks, Snow Buntings and Horned Larks were along the roads.

Back to the river, there were lots of gulls all along the river, but nothing new.

More ducks were at Stag Island, namely Common Goldeneye and Long-tailed.  Seems more Long-tailed have moved in there and off Sarnia on Lake Huron.

While heading upriver, I got word that four Harlequin Ducks were close to shore near the Bluewater Bridges.  I was going to check there anyway, so upon arrival, I found the four ducks were right there!

There was a brief bout of sun when I arrived, so lighting was not the best overall.  But, one has to remember it is the weekend afterall.  Nice to have them in close though!

Smile!

These were found today by Darrell Parsons.  Earlier in the week, Matt Parsons had four fly be Kettle Point.  No doubt these are the very same ducks!

I next headed down to the harbour area and Sarnia Bay.  There was lots to look at!  The ice certainly helps. 
In the harbour, a beauty of an adult Greater Black-backed X Glaucous Gull was swimming.  I spotted it at the last moment while looking through a fence, so no good photo.

Just south of the marina, I spotted the Greater White-fronted Goose on the ice hidden among Canada Geese.  It must have had a hard day yesterday as it slept the whole time.  Find it in this photo!

While there, five Cackling Geese flew in nearby.

Lots of gulls to look at, including one distant Lesser Black-backed.

As I was heading to the south end of downtown Sarnia, I got word that there was lots to look at off Canatara Park, including Black Scoters and Horned Grebes.  So, I did an about-face and headed to that location.

I spent a good hour at the beach coming up with one Black Scoter (FOY), one Horned Grebe (FOY), four White-winged Scoters, and hundreds of Long-tailed Ducks and Redhead among a few incidentals.

Next mission was to go through the countryside. On my way, I spotted a Common Raven along #79.  They are indeed becoming more regular in Lambton.

I ended up at the Middlesex border.  I had hoped to see a Golden Eagle, but my bad luck persisted and I did not find one despite a very thorough search.  Everyone else finds them right away, but not me!  Baffling to say the least.

Consolation prize was a Red-shouldered Hawk, always nice to see in winter.

I did come across a shrike from the north, but the weekend lighting was not good where it was perched.

I saw lots of hawks, including a couple of Rough-legged, which I had not seen all winter believe it or not.

Several harriers were out and about, including one male on the ground that I saw out of the corner of my eye.  I had to turn around to take another look as I had visions of a Gyrfalcon!  I guess I would not be that lucky since I cannot even find a Golden Eagle.

One more day on the weekend.  Who knows what the weather will be....the forecasts continously change.

Goderich Birding and More River Ducks

Sunday, I got away from the usual weekend haunts and headed north as far as Goderich.  It was a nice day for a drive.  I stopped by Naftel's Creek CA south of the village.  It is a neat little place I always stop for a break when I am in that area.  Some decent breeding birds can be seen here in season, but it is a nice place to walk through during winter as well.  It was rather quiet on this visit though!

Ice was packed along the shoreline at Goderich with very few open spots.  The Maitland River was open though and held quite a few ducks, mostly Mallards.

A good place to walk is across the old railway bridge at the north part of the village. You get a fabulous view of the harbour and river.

Once across, there is a trail through the woods on the slope on the west side which leads out to the marina area.  I found a number of birds here yesterday.
Sun was in the wrong direction for taking photos to the south, as I looked at the two Algoma ships in winter layup.  The Algorail and Algosteel are on their last legs and will likely be retired this year.

Algosteel

Algorail

Near home, I swung out to the St. Clair River and checked out Cathcart Park where there was a load of waterfowl.  Lighting conditions were excellent.  The eight Cackling Geese were still present among a good variety of ducks.

The Harlequin Duck has not been seen since early Saturday morning, but one gets the feeling it could still be nearby.
Regarding the hybrid Redhead X Ring-necked, it was still around.  To add to the confusion, Mike Bouman found a second one in the same raft!  It is quite similar, but has some subtle differences.

With all the spring migrant waterfowl showing up along Lake Erie, I was tempted to head down that way today.  However, conditions were far too good to pass up along the St. Clair River today!  The skies were clear and the river was as calm as glass first thing this morning.

Many Ring-billed Gulls have arrived with this warm weather, while many of the Herring Gulls have departed.  Ducks have thinned out and moved to the lakes, but still lots are to be seen.


This has been an excellent winter for White-winged Scoters in many areas.  Today, I saw the most I have ever seen on the river, including a count of 49 off Courtright alone.

I also picked out one male Black Scoter there.  Riding an ice floe was one of the Lesser Black-backed Gulls off Courtright.  There is a public dock which is good for setting up a scope and checking out the river.  This spot used to be the dock for the rail ferry that crossed the river at one point in time.

There was little to be seen farther upriver, so I headed back down river.  Mike Bouman sent a note that one of the hybrids was off Cundick Park, so I checked that out.  Sure enough, hybrid #1 was with a raft of mostly Redhead.  They were sleeping most of the time though!

In this raft was a female Black Scoter, that blended in well with the female Redheads.

I noticed that more scaup were on the river today as well.

After an hour there, it was time to head home as the sun was high.

Spring Things and Weekend Wanderings

This week went by quickly.  I did not see much in the way of birds, but things are on the move and the usual signs of spring were evident.  The Coltsfoot outside the workshop is one of them.

Stewart Wetland has had some of the same ducks (Gadwall) for some time.  The first of year Great Blue Heron showed up this week. Water is high like everywhere this year.

Some burning has been taking place in the south marshes of Walpole this week.

Friday after work I headed out to Mitchell's Bay, so I saw the smoke from the south as well!
As expected, thousands of ducks were on the bay, most of which seemed to be Redhead and Canvasback.  Lots of scaup too.  No Bald Eagles in sight this time!
I walked the shore trail for the first time this year.  Much too windy though.  As usual, the wind switched to the north and increased just in time for the weekend, making it very cool.
Three Sandhill Cranes were near Bass Haven.  They are certainly regular anymore.

Today I felt the urge to go to Point Pelee.  The cool north wind made it somewhat uncomfortable and birds were scarce in the woods.  Lots of ducks were on the lake though, including all 3 scoters.  Three Black Scoters were new for the year, as were a few Surf Scoters.

Lots of Horned Grebes in various states of plumage were around.

A tell-tale sign of a beaver was along De Laurier Trail.

There has been much erosion along the west side this winter and large sections of the trail are gone.

I did a quick walk out to the Hillman shorebird cell as well.  Lots of ducks there, but lighting was bad and I did not carry a scope.  Close by I counted at least 130 Northern Shoveler, 30 Green winged Teal, and a number of Northern Pintail, Gadwall and American Wigeon.
On the way out, I met Kory Renaud who had a pair of Trumpeter Swans fly over about 20 minutes later.

Near Hillman, I spotted this Great Horned Owl on a nest.

Actually Rick Mayos told me about it.  I met Rick earlier in Tilden's Woods.

At Wheatley, I decided to walk Two Creeks CA, something I do not often do.  Not many birds were there (not even a phoebe!).
I walked mainly along the creek which had some interesting features.

Sands of Time

Near Mitchell's Bay, I found some Snowy Owls.  Along Winter Line between Mallard and Marsh, I could see 5.  This particular area always attracts Snowy Owls every year for whatever reason. None were close though.
Along Angler Line, I found another.

Almost missed was yet another very close to the other!  These two I did not see last evening.

Sarnia Lakewatch--Finally!

Today appeared to be the first decent day for lakewatching at Sarnia this fall.  Although I am sure there were decent birds passing through prior to today, the winds were fairly good on this day.
I arrived way too early ( could not sleep anyway!) and waited for it to get light enough to see birds.
Some ships went through early on.

Manitoba

Not much was seen early on, but things picked up a bit after a while.  Lots of Bonaparte's Gulls were going through.  Several Black Scoters were evident today.  In fact there appeared to be around 3 dozen or so throughout the course of the morning.

A couple of fellows (Scott Jennex, David Stimic) from Michigan joined me for the lakewatch.
At one point I spotted an adult Little Gull in a flock of bonies.  Not that unusual, but a kittiwake would have been better!

A little after ten, a jaeger appeared along the shoreline to the east. It put on a show by chasing gulls near the apartments and over the yacht club.  It flew right in front of us and then went up the Michigan side.  I got some record photos which are highly cropped.

Some time later, I spotted a jaeger way out, and it looked like the same bird.  I think this one was a year old bird.

Although the strong wind continued, things dropped off quite a bit.  Likely something of note appeared later, but one can only stand there for so long!  I left after five hours.

I had not done any birding in Sarnia this fall, so I went over to Wawanosh Wetlands.  Lots of waterfowl present and flying over.  It rained while I was there, so I did not pull out the camera.  Trumpeter Swans appeared there about a week ago and were still present.  They were a bit distant anyway.

The only warblers were a few Yellow-rumped and a single Nashville.  Lots of sparrows and kinglets.  Too bad the weather was horrible or I would have looked around more!

Timid White-crowned Sparrow

Down the road, and still raining off and on, I walked around Perch Creek.  A large number of American Robins were present and a few Rusty Blackbirds.  I flushed up an American Woodcock at one point.

Chickadee at Perch Creek

On the way home, I briefly stopped at Moore WMA and found this Great Horned Owl.  It was facing the other way, unaware of my presence at first.  I made some noise so it would turn around.

Horny Owl