Scenes Along the River St. Clair

 On this gloomy day, I had plans to check out the St. Clair River up to Corunna.  The river has always been an attraction for many reasons, and has been a big part of my life since I can remember.

The Good 'Ole Days!

I stopped by Roberta Stewart Wetland first thing.  With the low water levels, it is mostly mud!  Goes to show that the dike is not completely sealed from the Chenal Ecarte!

Next stop was Baby Point, aka Brander Park.  This is a very historic spot dating back to the earliest settlement in the area.

I have done extensive birding here since it was close to my old workplace.  Even an interpretive sign has my name on it!

The above photo is from many years ago, but unfortunately this sign is almost toast now!

Along the river there are other interpretive signs, one of which I wrote about before.

Here is a scene from low water times looking downriver, similar to today.

I always search the sand and have found some interesting things over the years.  Today, I found this mussel shell.  It appears to be a Spike, which is not often found along the river.  Or, at least it is the first one I have seen here.  We do not often find mussel shells along the river's edge.

Further upriver, I stopped at Cath's Cart Cathcart Park, always a good birding spot (at least in the past!).  We already have a big number of Common Mergansers hanging around here this winter.

Gulls tend to congregate here as well.

Larry, Curly and Moe?

A little farther upriver, I stopped at the outlet of Bowen Creek.  I had never checked out this outlet before, but I was alerted by a friend that there were mussels along the creek.  Since I am quite interested in mussels, I had to go and look!

There were oodles of Giant Floaters.

But, the highlight was an Eastern Pondmussel.  It is a species of concern in Canada, and listed as critically imperiled in Ontario.  I have found several at Rondeau Park, but it is rare along the St. Clair River.

Since water level is so low, one can walk along the shoreline.  There are lots of beaches along the river right now!  Beaches were common when I was little, as I remember swimming in the river at Port Lambton off the end of Gibson Lane.

Here are views at the outlet of Bowen Creek.

north

south

I stopped by Willow Park as well, which is in front of where the old Lambton Generating Station used to stand.

Common anymore, are alien species of clams and mussels, with thousands of shells littering the shoreline.  Here is an Asian Clam.

Most numerous are Quagga Mussels and Zebra Mussels.

The river was a bit quiet for birds today, not surprisingly.  By now in the past, we would be having colder weather and some ice forming.  Ducks and gulls would be congregating in the river.  But with climate change, that is a thing of the past.

I went as far as Guthrie Park, but there was hardly anything up that way.  The north parking lot, our favourite spot for gull watching, is closed off for some kind of construction.  Not sure for what, but it will be disappointing if it lasts all winter.

After stocking up in Corunna, I headed towards home and went for a walk at my old standby place of Nicholl's Memorial Forest and Wetland.  There were a few birds there, including a couple of Red-tailed Hawks.

Cold weather tomorrow, before the weather goes for a crap on the weekend....again.

Thamesville Area Birding: The Last CBC of 2016-17

Yesterday January 2, I was in the Thamesville to Florence area to check out my section of the Skunk's Misery CBC.  This is a relatively new CBC in an excellent area that started a couple of years ago.  My area was basically bounded by the Thames River, Zone Road 5, Lambton Line and Florence Road.
Starting at the old bridge south of Thamesville, I was joined by Janet Fraser and Patrick Cleeve.

I find this an interesting place to start as the old cemetery, cantilever truss bridge, and historical happenings dating back to the War of 1812 are here.
There has been a river crossing here dating back to the early 1800's with a ferry, then a wooden covered bridge, an iron bridge (1874), then the current bridge built in 1936.

This is also the spot we look for the rare Smokey Rubyspots in late August and into September.

We found a number of birds here along the river bank attracted to the old Sycamore, Common Hackberry and Black Walnut trees that commonly grow along the Thames.

Included was a Belted Kingfisher, American Robin and 'dickie' birds such as Black-capped Chickadee, White-breasted Nuthatch, Brown Creeper and Golden-crowned Kinglets.

We then moved on to another historic spot east of the village where one can visit the Tecumseh memorial and learn from interpretive signs about the War Of 1812.

Just before arriving there, we spotted some raptors including a rather dark Red-tailed Hawk.  As far as I thought initially, it was an adult light morph of the calurus subspecies.  On occasion, this type is sometimes found during winter in southern Ontario.  However, there is so much variation in Red-tailed Hawks and different subspecies, it gets to be a nightmare!  UPDATE:  After much research, I decided this was the abieticola type which we often see in winter.

Photo courtesy of Patrick Cleeve

Once again, a good variety of birds was found at the Tecumseh memorial site which is along the river bank.  We found that most "landbirds" were along the river as farther afield there were not many.  It seemed to be the trend this year, as the last couple of years landbirds were numerous along the sideroads.

Thames River

We checked out all the sideroads, heading back to Florence Road, noting especially many Red-tailed Hawks.  We did have one Rough-legged, then at Florence just as we got back into the car, a buteo was soaring overhead.  I got back out and discovered that it was an adult Red-shouldered Hawk!

Sydenham River at Florence

The above photo shows an area where ode fans look for uncommon dragonflies in early summer.

Our last stop in early afternoon was on the west side of Thamesville at a nice property owned by a friend of Janet's.  They have feeders and are along the riverbank as well.  There were quite a few birds here including our only Red-breasted Nuthatch of the day.

With all roads covered, I decided to call it a day and tally up our findings.  We ended up with 30 species.

Weekend Is Here!

young male Common Goldeneye

After a dreary and dismal week weatherwise, the sun came out this afternoon for a pleasant day.  This bizarre weather (this winter) was really getting to me yesterday as the week came to a close.
The interesting thing this week was the "spring" migration of waterfowl, particularly Northern Pintail.  It seems to be an annual event at some point, usually around New Year's when a sudden mild spell spurs ducks from farther south to head north.  Pintails always seem to lead the pack.
Although I was working all week, as usual, I read with interest the numerous and multiple reports of waterfowl scattered throughout southern Ontario.  Certainly over 500 Northern Pintail were reported, and no doubt others were stuffed in between.  Ring-necked Ducks were also in the mix.
Locally I noticed an increase in Mallards, and today after work in the 'nice' weather, there were some plus a couple of Gadwall.  Quite often there is an handful of Gadwall on the St. Clair River each winter, but previous to today I knew of none until I saw two today at Sombra.

two Gadwall

Generally this winter, rather few ducks have been on the St. Clair River.  Most are Redhead (considerably less than 1000) plus a mix of others.  Common Mergansers seem to be the next most numerous species--more than usual compared to an average winter.

After work today, I drove up the river to Sombra then through the back country before the sun set.  As mentioned above, the two Gadwall south of  Sombra were notable.                                              

evening Red-tailed Hawk

I saw several Red-tailed Hawks--it has been a good winter for them around here, and three Northern Harriers in one field.  Down the road from the Harriers, was a group of approximately 20 Tundra Swans in a corn field.  No doubt they were influenced by the warm weather this week, as only a few have been wintering on the big river.


Tomorrow I will likely go to Rondeau.  White-winged Crossbills have been reported regularly there.  There seems to be a good number around the province this winter, and sightings have increased this past week.

The nearby Mountain Bluebird was still being reported yesterday.  Many photos have surfaced and a few are on the OFO photo page.  The bird shows a little more blue than we normally see, and it has brought up some discussion locally.

Quiz Time:  Can you identify this?

Some Recent Observations

Got out today and ended up doing much more driving that I wanted to.  With the lack of birds around, one has to roam around!  I ended up at Rondeau again first thing, checking the campground, then around the visitor centre.  I wanted to go out Marsh Trail, but AS USUAL strong SW winds again today, so it would have been unbearable.  I guess we will have to live them!

I found the Chipping Sparrow again but not most of the other birds from yesterday.  A Purple Finch near maintenance and a Robin were different.  The visitor centre feeders became active after the local Cooper's Hawk had left.  I think there were up to five Tufted Titmouse, so likely a family group.

Outside the park, I stopped south of Morpeth to scope the lake.  Very few ducks still and no scoters.  Usually there are some scoter, but I do not know where they are this fall.  I noticed at least four Horned Grebes as well.  John Lamey came along and the discussion was lack of birds lately. In fact he does not recall things so lack-lustre down this way.

Hey You!

I continued up to Ridgetown lagoons which were mostly frozen like most other still bodies of water this weekend.  Nothing new there from yesterday.

I did some touring north of Wallaceburg and some walking but saw few birds.  I did come across a Field Sparrow at McKeough CA accompanying a Song Sparrow and a couple of Tree Sparrows.  Along the floodway, I noted 8 Red-tailed Hawks while I stood in one spot.  It seems that there are lots of those everywhere right now.  Only one Rough-legged today.  Numerous Kestrels.

Late this afternoon, I again headed north of Wallaceburg, travelling along the St. Clair River first.  Some ducks are in including lots of Bufflehead.  A female Green-winged Teal looked out of place among Mallards at the Sombra ferry dock.
I sat for a while at my favourite park -Seager (Ivory Gull spot!).  A surprise was a Horned Grebe floating downriver with the current.  They are rather uncommon on the river, but it was not one I was expecting while sitting there today.

I wanted to check for Sandhill Cranes, so I timed myself heading south on back roads.  I was delighted to find a young Northern Shrike since it was the first in a year!! Rather distant.

imm. Northern Shrike!

Farther down near Sombra, I was surprised to find what appeared to be a Bald Eagle nest in a woodlot.  Had no idea it was there!  Location will remain a bit fuzzy here.

Still farther down, I saw a white bump in a field which I knew had to be a Snowy Owl.  This looked like a female, but different from the one near Becher.

Snowy Owl

At Stewart Line, I noticed flocks of Sandhill Cranes circling around and it appeared the 70 are still with us.  However, they headed over to Walpole Island just north of the bridge.  I did find half a dozen along Stewart Line though.  It will be interesting to see how long they linger around.  Sixteen days I hope!

Sandhill Cranes in the Sunset