More River Runs!

 The last few days I have been taking advantage of the waterfowl show along the St. Clair River.  There is not much else to do anyway!  As mentioned before, waterfowl has congregated on the St. Clair River like it used to be in the "old days".

Redhead is the most common of course, but this year we have had more Canvasback than usual.

Tundra Swans are regular wintering creatures anymore.  Never used to see them when I first started birding!

at Fawn Island

A young Bald Eagle stirred things up at one point beside Fawn Island.

Despite much effort, we have not found any real rarities!  Although, there are a number of hybrids hiding among the various rafts.  There has been Redhead X Canvasback, Ring-necked X Redhead, Redhead X Lesser Scaup and Ring-necked X Lesser Scaup.  Who knows what else, since there are so many ducks out there of late.  I guess some ducks get desperate and mate with whatever comes along!

There are hardly any gulls on the main part of the river, strangely, but lots are at Sarnia.  I had to go to Sarnia later on Wednesday, so I checked out that area.  The Lambton Wildlife meeting was in the evening, with a member's showcase night.  I presented show on Odonate highlights of 2024.  Since 2024 was an excellent year for odonates, it was a no-brainer!  I had incredible luck with odonates this past summer.

There was upwards of 1000 gulls around Sarnia, but most were Herring.  Oddly, there have been no rarities, yet!

I only carried the point and shoot camera this trip.

Manitoulin in winter layup

The Manitoulin just arrived from Buffalo where it was stuck in the ice for a couple of days.

I did see a likely American Herring X Glaucous Gull on the Bay.  At least six Glaucous Gulls (one would think there would be more by now!)

I recall some winters where we have had thousands of gulls on the river.  One day I counted 60+ Glaucous Gulls from Port Lambton to south of Sarnia 3 February 2013!

That morning, I was on the lower part of the river looking for things.  Just the "usuals' were seen.

Of interest, I noticed a White-tailed Deer in mid-river at Port Lambton.  I guess it tried to cross the river at some point.  It was still in place when I returned.

The Coast Guard ice breaker Mackinac was escorting the Iver Bright downbound at Fawn Island.

Thursday, I was out but only went to Cathcart Park.  There was one casualty there.

Common Goldeneye

Possibly an eagle dropped it.  I once saw a Bald Eagle take a Common Goldeneye, but it dropped the creature still alive.

Friday was a horrible weather day with rain, then snow and high winds.  I stayed in most of the day, but took a short visit to Port Lambton in mid afternoon.  Lots of Canvasback were there.

Half a dozen Ring-necked Ducks were in the mix here.  There are quite a few of this species on the river this winter.

Today, I went all the way up to Guthrie Park, Corunna.  It was ducks galore all along.  No way to look at all of the ducks.  There were not as many Canvasback today though.

I did not take much in the way of photos today.  At Cundick Park, a number of ducks were close.  I picked out what I think was a Ring-necked X Lesser Scaup hybrid.  We saw this type of hybrid on the river many years ago.

Lots of Common Goldeneye, among others species were at Stag Island.  Still could not pick out a Barrow's Goldeneye though!  Still lots of time....

There are a number of Trumpeter Swans on the river this winter, but they still come up rare on eBird.  It is probably time to get this off the "rare" list, since they are not so in Chatham-Kent or Essex anymore.

This swan I thought was a Trumpeter at Guthrie Park.  I am on the fence with this one though, as the head shape seems more like a Tundra.  

A small Cooper's Hawk visited the yard this afternoon.

View from the past at Stokes Point.

Gullerama on Lake St. Clair

Monday morning I checked out the south shore of Lake St. Clair where thousands of gulls have congregated.  Most were Herring, of course, but it is an impressive sight.
Starting at Lighthouse Cove, I noted over 4000 Herring Gulls plus others. Gulls were out as far as one could see.

Also of note were many Bald Eagles on the ice.  It is not unusual to have a large number of Bald Eagles around this area in winter.  On my final scan, I counted 30.

Not too many ducks were evident on my visit, and certainly nothing of note.

Lighthouse Cove, at the mouth of the Thames River, is often an excellent place for waterbirds in winter.  I have had good times there in the past.

I next moved on to Belle River where we have the next big concentration of gulls.  There were not quite as many as Lighthouse Cove, but still an impressive number of several thousand.

This is a nice public area jutting out into the lake with parkland and lots of parking available.  I have been here in the summer, as there is a nice marina as well.

Here, I noted at least seven Lesser Black-backed Gulls fairly close.  Lighting was very harse with the bright sunshine (I am not used to it around weekends!).  There could have been some immature Lessers, but none stood out in the bright sun.

That was far enough along the shoreline for me, as I was fairly close to Windsor/Detroit, as seen in the distance.

On the way back, I stopped at Tremblay Beach CA at Stoney Point.  It is at a dead-end road east of the village.  I used to go there often back in the "old" days as it was a decent birding spot.
There is a wetland there, but it is now entirely phragmites.  A viewing tower stands at the parking lot for some unknown reason!  All you can see is phragmites.  The wetland was once good, but quickly filled in with phrag early on.  Kind of useless now!

It used to be a good spot as the sewage lagoon are adjacent too.  Good birds here in the past included Purple Gallinule (1984) and Black-necked Stilt (1989) and Swainson's Warbler (1993).  I first went here way back in June 1989 when the Stilt was present for a couple of weeks.  Good grief, how time flies!
Yellow-headed Blackbird used to nest here as well!  I recall seeing those too.

I used to walk along the shoreline, then along the dike over to the railroad tracks.  The tracks paralleled the lagoons so one could see into the lagoons.

Eroded Shoreline trail

On my visit yesterday there were lots of gulls on the lake, including a Glaucous fairly close.

I did not do much the rest of the day, so nothing to add!

Lake St. Clair at Tremblay Beach CA

Ducks and Gulls - River St. Clair

On this frigid morning, I went out to the St. Clair River.  There was a lot to look at as birds were spread out all along.  There was a terrific wind overnight and ice blew into our side of the river.  Spots that were open yesterday, were not today.  However, there was much to see.

Risley at Port Lambton

I stopped briefly at the Sombra dock, but with the change in demographics there, things are not concentrated south of the missing causeway as much as they were before.

Lots of gulls were spread along the way on the ice floes.  The first good spot was off OCF north of Stanley Line.

At the outflow, I was surprised to see about 8 Northern Pintail.  I could not get in a position for a really good look.  I did not want to get out of the car as they would probably flush.

I suspect these appeared with the recent mild spell.  Northern Pintail are well known for showing up during an unseasonably mild spell in early January.

Lots of ducks were at the brine barge near Seager Park.

Next stop was Guthrie Park at Corunna.  The bulk of the ducks were Long-tailed (many thousands) in midriver.

Unfortunately, there was too much shimmer with the bright sun today.  Cloudy days are actually better for scoping!

Recently, a Barrow's-type goldeneye was seen in the area, but I could not find it today.  Perhaps Bago was in midriver, but even scoping was difficult today.
There was not a large concentration of gulls here today.  Maybe later in the day?

Several Glaucous Gulls were present, but no Iceland.

Some of those Glaucous Gulls blend in quite well!

Glaucous Gull in this photo!

Note ice on gull (above and below base of bill)!

Gull with ice on face!

Some ducks were fairly close for inspection.

I went into Sarnia as well.  Some open water was along the marina in Sarnia Bay. Lots of ducks and gulls were there, but nothing special.  At least five Glaucous Gulls were present there.

After grabbing lunch, I went back to Guthrie Park, but nothing had really changed.