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!

A Pelee Outing

I often make a trip to Point Pelee a few days before Christmas to see what is around.  I had originally planned to go yesterday, but with the given weather, today looked better.  It was better and even the sun poked out for a few minutes (a novelty on a weekend).  Birds seemed to be moving around.

Earlier, some distance north of Wheatley, I noticed a Snowy Owl sitting in a field.  It was also there (but further back) when I returned in the afternoon.  Turns out it was the only one I saw during the day.

Owl in the Dawning Light

Strong SW winds were forecast, but the west side was very calm and as I approached the Tip, I could hear the roar of ice in the east side.  Winds were still easterly piling up all the ice on that side.  Not too much was happening at the Tip, so I headed back to the parking lot.
As usual, a bat was clinging to the washroom wall.  I have seen several species at Pelee over the years.

Next stop was Shuster Trail which is usually good in the winter.  Birds were right at the parking lot when I arrived including several Yellow-rumped Warblers.  The trail was very quiet but I could hear birds over by the VC.  Lots of things were there including many American Robins, Cedar Waxwings, Purple Finches and the warblers.  At least two Northern Flickers were working some trees as well. I stood in the parking lot for some time and many robins flew over.  The one flock was 100+!
Josh Vandermeulen was on Shuster as this time, so he missed that flock.  I also saw a Great Blue Heron fly over heading south.

Tobermory boats at Wheatley (two new ones are being built now!)

Not a Great Blue Heron!

I stopped at De Laurier for a bit and the usual White-throated Sparrows were near the SE corner of the parking lot.  Was a bit quiet here except for some noisy robins to the north.

A drive through the Onion Field area revealed very little except for a few Northern Harriers.

I headed home via Tilbury and Jeannette's Creek, but saw little of interest.  Mitchell's Bay is all iced in of course but I did see some ducks flying around and a Bald Eagle in the distance.  Some late migrant Tundra Swans were in the fields.

                                           ************************************

Each Saturday, a nature column is presented in the London Free Press. Written by Paul Nicholson, it is available online as well at:
The World Outdoors
It is actually an offshoot of the column that Tom Hayman wrote for decades in the LFP. I recall reading Tom's column when I first started birding to get the latest news.  Of course those were the days before Internet and cell phones!
This week's column features Paul's top picks of the past year.