April Miscellany

Been wandering around the last couple of days but it has been quiet for new birds.  The balmy weather this week will certainly bring in an influx!

Common Loons seem to have been in every nook and cranny lately.  This one was at Port Lambton.

Always hoping for a "good" grebe, but no luck for me.  This common Pied-billed Grebe was along the St. Clair River.

Spotted this Coyote at Wilkesport a couple of days ago, as it posed nicely.

Butterflies have enjoyed the warm weather.  I have only seen Eastern Comma and Mourning Cloak, as well as a Cabbage White.

A wander through Reid CA yesterday only revealed a couple of Yellow-rumped Warblers so far.  Would be nice to see one with a yellow throat!

Wildflowers are coming along.  I looked at more Harbinger of Spring plants again.

Early Blue Cohosh has popped up.  A somewhat ugly plant!

Another one of my stops, I photographed this "ground cedar" called Fan Clubmoss.

Hardly any birds at Reid again.  This Vesper Sparrow was along the road.  They last few years this species has certainly reduced in numbers.

(highly cropped!)

Today I went down to Rondeau and did quite a bit of walking.  It was a bit quieter for birds than I expected, but managed almost 20 Yellow-rumped Warblers.  The only other warbler was a singing Pine.

Many Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers have already moved through, but some are still working the trees.

Looks good for birds this coming Friday!

This Week's Finds

 Last Wednesday I needed a long walk, so ventured out Rondeau's marsh trail.  Since it is a very quiet winter for birds, I did not expect to see much, but the exercise was needed!

With the unseasonable (or unreasonable?) mild weather there was open water everywhere.  Some ducks were hanging around in the marsh, and even Sandhill Cranes were taking advantage of the unfrozen marsh.

Farther out, a Northern Shrike was working the area.  Seems there is one out there every winter!  It was rather distant though.

There are no Marsh Wrens or Common Yellowthroats around this winter, at least in any numbers like some years.  If there were, they probably died in that storm around Christmas!  There are still lots of thick drifts in some areas, and indeed out marsh trail.

I have been looking at the St. Clair River a bit lately, despite lack of gulls and ducks.  The other day I found a small raft of Redhead at Sombra.  Looking a little closer, I noticed that one of our hybrids is back.  A male Ring-necked X Redhead was trying to hide in the group!  Lighting was horrible due to the crappy weather (again) and it was a bit distant.

We get at least one, and often two or three of these each year on the river.  Here are some photos from the past.  Perhaps  one of these is the same bird as this year's.

Other hybrids have been seen such as Ring-necked X scaup (probably both scaup species).  This one had a greenish sheen to the head.

We have also seen Redhead X Canvasback, and last year that weird one found by Mike Bouman at Corunna, an apparent Canvasback X Ruddy Duck.

Friday was yet another gloomy day (seems like the gloomiest winter on record!), and I roamed around aimlessly.  I managed to come across one of the wintering Golden Eagles at Skunk's Misery.  I failed to get a decent photo though.  Crappy weather did not help.  They probably wander quite a bit, some some are east of Newbury, and north of Newbury, among other places.  Sometimes they can be found right away, while you can wander around for hours and not see one!

Here is photo of one I found along Smith's Falls Road a couple of winters ago.  Somewhat similar to the one I saw the other day.

There has been a Common Loon hanging around Sombra lately.  Yesterday it was in fairly close.

It was there again today, but I did not spend much time out and about as more crappy weather came in.  Snow got fairly heavy at one point.

Maybe one of these days we see some sun, assuming it still exists.....

Waterfowl Watching and Doomed Diver

Today my plan was to check the St. Clair River as I often do this time of year.  This is one of my favourite spots and I have been doing this since I started birding.Late January is prime time to get a good number of ducks, geese and swans on the river.
Unfortunately, we got an unexpected dumping of snow overnight, and the wind picked up.  It was not good early in the morning, but the sun did eventually came out.

I checked the Snye (Chenal Ecarte) as soon as it was light enough, including the Walpole bridge area.
There is not much to see until one gets to Sombra ferry(less) dock where there is a bit of open water.  Nothing of note was there.  On Friday, a Gadwall and Northern Pintail were present (I did not see the pintail myself) among the usual suspects.

The first open water is at Cathcart Park north of Sombra.  The outflow from OC Industries keeps some water from freezing, and waterfowl concentrates along this stretch.  It was jam-packed today.
When I arrived, a snow squall came in with the bitterly cold wind, hampering my efforts to get a good count.

I ended up with three species of swans!  Over 30 Mutes and the wintering Tundra Swans were mixed in, but I was certain I saw an immature Trumpeter (I also thought there was an adult).  Due to the conditions, I could not get decent photos.
The immature is the grayish swan, not seen well in this photo:

The last couple of days, an immature Trumpeter Swan was at Marysville on the Michigan side.  Perhaps it was the same bird, as it looked identical.

There was lots of stuff in front of OC, but difficult to see due to the trees. I recall (in the Ivory Gull era) when those trees were not there!  I did not try and check those out.

I moved on north and stopped by Guthrie Park where I spent some considerable time.  Most of the time was spent scoping from the car due to the cold wind.  There was lots to see here, but no rarities.

Ring-necked Ducks

Cans

Bluebills

Perhaps in the next little while, something of note will be see here.

I did go into Sarnia, which turned out to be a mistake as the Bay and government dock area was all iced in.  I left in quick order!

There were hardly any gulls on the river today.  I can onlly hope some more come in!

I took a detour inland to Moore Wildlife Management Area.  For a change, there were some birds there.  Usually this is a hotsot in winter, but the last couple winters have been quiet.  Most winters one can find Yellow-rumped Warblers here, but none yet this year.  We have not been able to cross the creek yet due to the high water.
I did have five species of woodpeckers here today.

I got word that a Common Loon was on the Snye near Wallaceburg.  I checked it out and there is a very small piece of open water along Walpole Island.  There were two Mute Swans (sleeping) and the loon partially hidden by reeds.  No wonder I missed it earlier.

Unfortunately, the open patch is extremely small (and will likelly freeze tonight).  Loons (called divers in Europe) need a long stretch of water to take off, so this individual is doomed.  There is no chance of rescue at this location.

River Rambles and Weekend Woes

Although the appearance of winter (finally) was somewhat welcome, the timing was off.  Hopefully we are not starting this nonsense again when the weather goes for a crap each weekend!
Anticipating the approach of a 'typical' weekend, I headed upriver late Friday afternoon as far a Corunna before it got too dark.
Canada Geese were the popular bird this day, as hundreds were all along the river.  I stopped by Cath's Cart park where there were too many to sort through. I did pick out some small ones on the distant grass, but when they got up to fly, their higher-toned honks were obvious.  There were at least three Cackling Geese flying away.
Lots of ducks were in the area as well.

On the way to Corunna, I slid over to Greenway Line where I came across a Northern Shrike.  Just a few minutes earlier, I said to myself that it might be a good time for a shrike!  Sure enough....

Off Guthrie Park, there was enough light to see the wintering wigeon.

Saturday morning, before too much snow came down, I headed to Sarnia.  There was not a much to see as on the previous day.  Little was at the Sombra dock and certainly nothing new.

I did see some Tundra Swans at Cathcart Park which I had missed the previous evening, but I could not pick out any small geese in the poor light.  They were there somewhere.....

Cans

Not much was off Guthrie Park on Saturday.

I spent quite a bit of time at Sarnia Bay, where there was a variety of ducks and hundreds of gulls.

At least four Glaucous Gulls represented the white-winged variety, and there were lots of Great Black-backed.
At one point, I picked out two adult "Great Lakes" Gulls--hybrid of Herring and Great Black-backed.  Too distant and poor visibility prevented any photo attempt.

Note, duck on right is a hybrid

Many geese were at the entrance to the government dock area, but I could not find anything different.  The wintering Common Loon was taking a nap well offshore.

The north slip was mostly frozen, but some gulls were present.  Perhaps I missed a Horned Grebe which was seen there today!

On the way home, I took back roads as all the snow was making things dicey.  There were lots of Horned Larks, Snow Buntings, etc., and at one point I came across a nice flock of Lapland Longspurs.  It was a pure flock of at least 30.

Today, travels were limited with the howling wind and bitter cold.  Roads were dicey with the blowing snow, so my activities were curtailed.  No doubt it will be nice when Monday dawns.

I had been wanting to check the mouth of the Thames River for some time, but things have completely frozen up now.  At the Jeannette's Creek boat launch, one could see a thick mass of waterfowl downriver.

It was too distant to get much detail, but most were Mallards.  I did pick out four Double-crested Cormorants which had been wintering in the area.  Perhaps the Great Blue Herons had the common sense to leave, as I did not see any!

One has to wonder what all was in that mass.

A crazy number of Bald Eagles have been in the area this winter--I could see fifteen from this vantage point.

I wonder what that Common Merganser was thinking?

In the afternoon I watched the yard feeders, but nothing new showed up.  Feeders have been virtually dead so far this winter.  I am going to have lots of seed left at the end of the season I think!
I had three Red-breasted Nuthatches at one point earlier in the winter, but only saw one today.  It was looking a little worse for the wear.