An End of January Update

 Been sticking close to home lately, but with lots of time on my hands.  I am not working now, but will only go in for work if the shop needs an extra hand.  It is the slow time of year, so there is not much to see, especially on this "slow" winter for birds.

This past week, a couple of Greater White-fronted Geese showed up at Ridgetown lagoons, so I went there on a rare, clear and sunny day.  This species is not a "problem" anymore for listing, but there was not much else to do this day.  One had to take advantage of this clear sunny day!

When I first started birding, Greater White-fronted Goose was a very rare bird and indeed a write-up for the OBRC.  I recall going to see my first ones near Grande Pointe in the old Dover Township 2 January 1993.  They had been reported on the St. Clair NWA CBC a couple of days previous.

After visiting Ridgetown, I drove through the countryside and ended up taking a walk at Clear Creek Nature Reserve.  There are never many birds here, but it is a beautiful place to walk on a sunny winter day.  Clear Creek meanders through the woods creating a scenic view.  "Old growth" trees enhance the scenery.

I have made a couple of trips to Rondeau Park, just to do some walking.  Birds are sparse, but you never know what may show when one is out and about.

An Eastern Screech-owl in its cumfy hole, is almost always a guarantee along Bennett.  It has used this hole for years!

I started out in freezing rain this morning.  I looked around Wilkesport.  Three Eastern Bluebirds are still being seen, and the Long-eared Owl was still content in its favourite tree.

The St. Clair River is very disappointing this year, and as mentioned previously, probably the quietest I have ever seen it for ducks and gulls.

The male Ring-necked X Redhead duck seems to be hanging around Sombra consistently.  I saw it again today in some less-desirable weather.  At least there is something of interest.

I had hoped to spend more time out there this morning, but the weather got nasty.  I went out the door with freezing rain falling, but it later turned to snow.  Roads got worse the farther north I went, so I turned back at Bickford Line and highway 40. A lone Common Grackle was at this corner.  I did not stop to take a photo though.  It comes up rare on eBird in Lambton, but that should be changed since there are always some to be found in winter at some point.

The last few days, Horned Larks and Snow Buntings have made a big appearance in southern Ontario.  Hundreds everywhere!  Some Lapland Longspur are mixed in as well, and you never know, a Smith's Longspur could be out there!

The Chenal Ecarte along Walpole Island north has held some waterfowl.  Yesterday I noticed three American Coots among them, which seemed to just have appeared from somewhere.  I tried some "distant" photos, but I am not at all proud of them.

The usual birds are coming to the feeder.  More than the last couple of winters, but nothing new.  

The other day, I noticed a female Cardinal with a bad leg.  Seems to be useless, but the leg is not well seen in this photo.  Taken at distance through a window.

Today I managed a better photo and noticed its right eye is no good. Obviously it had some kind of mishap.

With mild spells, more waterfowl is around and we have to keep looking out for oddities.  A Ross's Goose was at Sarnia yesterday.  Perhaps I would have gone that far today, but the weather turned me back.

Soon, things will pick up I am sure!

Windsor Waterfowl and Inland Birding

Looking towards Lake St. Clair

A change in scenery was in order today, so I went down to Lakeview Marina Park at Windsor.  There are not many places to go walking right now with all the snow (unless you strap on some snowshoes!), so this was a nice change.
It is located at the mouth of Little River and you can just stand in one spot to view all the birds.

I could see at least 11 species of ducks with a large number of scaup and goldeneye.

Swans were pretty thick in numbers here with mostly Mute.  One Mute Swan came in close that had a neck collar and leg band (with same number). I have never seen one sporting hardware like this.

There were well over 200 Mute Swans, but there were quite a few Tundra in the distance as well, perhaps close to 200.  One group was way out on the Lake St. Clair ice.  Pretty sure I had the 3 Trumpeter Swans were out there as well, but not close.

The Mallards/Blacks were packed in close waiting for local people to put out food.  There were no other puddle ducks that I could see!

Mooching Mallard

Over on Peche Island, I could only see two Great Blue Herons.

(Great Blue Heron atop the sign)

Some Bald Eagles were around as well, and a Sharp-shinned Hawk was sitting in a tree on the island.
During the course of my stay I heard a Belted Kingfisher chattering (one has been along Little River), a Pine Siskin flying over and a couple of Snow Buntings.
At one point, a fellow blogger came along.. Dwayne Murphy!  So that was nice for chatting about birds!

After over an hour there, I headed back towards home along the lakeshore.  Nothing much of note was seen on the way back, but lots of Horned Larks/Snow Buntings were here and there.

I also saw a couple of Northern Flickers closer to home as I drove around.

Inland, not far from St. Clair NWA and nowhere near open water, I found this group of Mallards/Blacks feeding on grain.

It continues to be a gull-less winter.  I think I only saw five gulls in total today!

Bluebirds in Winter

Today was the first chance I had to go and view the Mountain Bluebird near Shetland.  Upon arrival at the scene, I saw two birds flying around.  Obviously they were bluebirds--one a female Mountain and the other a female Eastern!  They perched right beside the road at times, and dove into a couple of red cedars there.  For long periods of time, they perched on corn stubble in the field.  Lighting was no good first thing this morning, so photos are very poor.

Dwayne Murphy was also there taking photos.

Several Horned Larks and few Snow Buntings were in the field on the opposite side of the road.  Also one Lapland Longspur.

Snow Buntings

Horned Larks

Afterwards, we went over to Shetland CA.  It is a small CA, but often harbours Long-eared Owls in the spruces.  Last week, White-winged Crossbills were reported there, but it was quiet today.

It is interesting to note that two Mountain Bluebirds are in southern Ontario this winter.  In recent years, this species was almost absent for southern Ontario.  A few have been in Northern Ontario.  Still no record for the Rondeau Birding Area!!
The last Mountain Bluebird I looked at was at Fisher's Glen in the winter of 2000.
This most recent Mountain Bluebird was found by Peter Chapman of Hungry Hollow last Monday.  He said that he never intended to go down that road initially!  Goes to show what may be lurking out there.
Ironically, Pete had a female Mountain Bluebird winter at his place near Arkona in 1989.  I do remember hearing about it, but I was fairly new to birding and never had the chance to go and see it as I was working six days a week at the time.
Allen Woodliffe got an excellent photo of the present bird yesterday, and it will likely be up on the OFO site soon.
On the way home, I wandered through back roads, seeing lots of northbound Horned Larks, some Snow Buntings and hawks.

                                Rough-legged Hawk doing the hovering thing    

On the St. Clair River this afternoon, I noted hundreds of Canada Geese.  I did not sort through all of them, so likely there was a Cackler or two amongst them.  Also, lots of Common Mergansers this winter.  A few small rafts of Redhead were around and a couple of Long-tailed Ducks off Port Lambton.  An American Coot was at LGS today.

Mallard with Tundra Swan at Sombra

Also of note, the hermaphrodite Mallard (female) is still swimming around Port Lambton, although mostly alone.  This bird has been around about four years!

I did come across another Northern Shrike today.  I have seen more shrikes this winter than the last three combined!

Black-capped Chickadee at McKellar (note snowflakes!)

Birds in the Field

American Tree Sparrow

Its the weekend, so out I went birding!  I decided to do some more local birding today.  I usually do that this time of year due to weather and road conditions.  We finally got some snow yesterday and evening, so birds became more visible it seems.  Photos not all that great as the sun did not appear.  As usual, the weather forecast was wrong....all week they predicted sun for Saturday!!

I checked out the St. Clair River to Courtright and found very little.  Usually it is peak time for ducks and other things, but this has been a strange year all around.  A few hundred ducks were off Courtright, mostly Redhead. Only saw one Long-tailed Duck.  A few Common and Red-breasted Mergansers were around.

Common Mergs

I drove through the countryside, stopping at a few spots to walk.  There was a notable presence of Snow Buntings today, as well as Horned Larks and a few Lapland Longspurs.  The spurs were in most of the sizable flocks.  Near the end of the afternoon, I encountered a huge cloud of Snow Buntings.  They were high and flying away, but I estimated about 1500 birds.



A spur and lark....

Snow Buntings, Horned Lark, Lapland Longspur

A Northern Shrike across from Bickford Oak Woods was making fun of a Rough-legged Hawk.  Not able to get a photo though.

At Moore WMA, not a bird to be found!  I could not go far as the river was still running high.  Down the road at McKellar I found a large flock of Tree Sparrow/Juncos, but just as I was getting on them, a Sharp-shinned Hawk did its thing.  Other than that, the Red-breasted Nuthatches were easily found.






A Song and a Swamp Sparrow were at one of the ponds.

Swamp Sparrow

At McKeough, more Tree Sparrows and a couple of Field Sparrows.

No owls today!

Some Wild Turkeys

Uneventful Day

Not much to report today.  I checked out the St. Clair River and Sarnia and some back roads.  Nothing new!  Still TOO much snow and you are limited to where you can stop, park, or walk.  We are just not used to a real winter here in the banana belt.
First thing this morning, dozens of American Goldfinch were at the feeders.  Two Common Redpolls were amongst them.  I think there are only two redpolls here right now.  They stayed till 6 p.m. tonight along with the White-throated Sparrow (it left at 6:15) which showed up after almost a two week absence.
Redpolls are neat birds.  The winter of 2009 was good around here.  Besides Common Redpolls, I believe I had a Greater Common Redpoll at one point.  Then in mid April, I got a surprise one day when a female Hoary showed up at the feeder!  Rather late for it.  Now, it would be nice get one of those Horny ones.

The St. Clair River is more choked with ice than it ever has been this winter.  Lake Huron is ice as far as you can see.  There is a bit of open water at Sombra, then from ICI up to LGS. The only notable was an American Coot off ICI.  It could have been the one wintering on the upper part of the river.
Long-tailed Ducks were in the hundreds off the Aamjiwnaang Territory.

Driving back roads, one could not avoid the thousands of Horned Larks.  Every road has some!  Difficult to approach closely.  I did see a few Snow Buntings as well.

I stopped briefly at Moore WMA but didn't get any birds.  The river was running high.  There is quite a fluctuation in water levels here and they can change quickly.  Note ice attached to trees at head level!