Some River Runs and a Rondeau Ramble

 We are back in the mild stuff now, but even with the cold weather last week, little ice has accumulated on the St. Clair River.  Not like the old days!

The following photo, which I have shown before, was taken in mid winter off Port Lambton.  The rail ferry Sainte Marie was on its maiden voyage from Ohio.  It was launched 111 years ago yesterday (22 January 1913).  Photo was taken by Mabel Smith, Port Lambton's grocer of the day.

The many rail ferries on the lakes were known as good ice breakers.  Not often we see ice like that anymore!

I have not done much the last few days, but have checked out the St. Clair River from time to time.

There have been more ducks on the St. Clair River the last couple of days.  The Sombra waterfront was quite busy today with a variety of ducks.  

The trusty Northern Pintail has certainly found a home around the old ferry dock causeway this winter.

There were more mergansers, goldeneye and Redhead on the river today, or so it seemed.

Not many scaup are on the river this winter.  At Sombra, I found this Greater Scaup which appears to missing its lower mandible.  Looks like it is panting!

It looks much like the Redhead at Erieau last year which was in the same predicament.

A number of Tundra Swans are wintering on the river as usual.  We never used to see them in mid winter!

A few days ago when we had cold, crisp and clear weather, I ventured down Rondeau way.  I first checked out Stefina Line where we always find Wilson's Snipe in the unfrozen creek.  I could not see them from the car, but when I got out to take a closer look, they flushed from behind some shrubbery.  Up to four (unusual number) have been seen here of late.

This is a traditional wintering site for snipe.  I remember not long after starting birding, I saw one here on the Christmas Bird Count.

I then worked my way down to Rondeau Park.  It was too cold for much of a walk, so I mainly drove the roads.  Lots of Fox Sparrows were seen (as previously mentioned), as well as a couple of Hermit Thrushes.

There seems to be a number of Purple Finches around right now, as I saw a few.

Afterwards, I drove several back roads.  Snow Buntings, Horned Larks, and Lapland Longspurs are giving a good showing this winter.  We have probably missed Smith's Longspur at some point!

One of these days, I would hope something would show up at the backyard feeders.  Mainly the same stuff everyday, but once in a while I see a Robin, extra goldfinches, or the odd Brown-headed Cowbird.

I doubt we will get any crossbills down this way, but there is a good cone crop just waiting! Native or non-native spruce.

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

Autumn Splendour

The day started out rather cloudy, but eventually the sun came out for a fine day of birding.  Yesterday I decided I would hit Rondeau Park on Saturday, as things were looking up for a large number of birds to be around.  I was not disappointed.
As I drove into Rondeau Park early this morning, hundreds of sparrows (mainly White-throated) and many Hermit Thrushes lined the roads.  As I started walking south point trail, birds greeted me right off, and they were all the way along.  I spent 4.5 hours on SPT alone if that tells you anything!  No rarities, but the sheer number of birds was nice to experience.

Needless to say, White-throated Sparrows were the most numerous and dozens of Dark-eyed Juncos were present as well.  I had all the usual sparrow types plus Vesper.  Even towhees were present in a respectable number.

Warblers totalled nine species.  I saw 2 Tennessee (getting late-Nov. 1 is the latest I think), 1 Black-throated Blue male, 1 Pine plus other expected species.  I had perhaps 9 Orange-crowned Warblers and just as many Nashvilles.






Three vireo species, including 1 Red-eyed (latest is 7 Nov last year), 1 Philadelphia (rather late-not sure latest date!), and perhaps 9 Blue-headed.

Red-eyed Vireo

Philadelphia Vireo that did not co-operate!









There were a few Purple Finches eating ash seeds, and a few Pine Siskins flying around.
At one point I heard an early Snow Bunting flying over.  I looked up and saw a flock of birds which were likely American Pipits as I heard them at the same time as well.
Also I briefly saw a Northern Mockingbird along the dune area of SPT.
Hawks were moving as were TV's (lots!).  At one point I saw a nice Red-shouldered and a rather light young Red-tailed.

Eastern Bluebirds were around--been quite a while since I have seen any.
And, Eastern Phoebes were plentiful--up to 15 on SPT?

Several Common Loons few over this morning but no Red-throated.  I have only seen 2 Reds ever at Rondeau!

Over at Blenheim Lagoon, a huge number of birds were present.  Right away I noticed a phalarope in lagoon 1, but it's bill told me it was a Red-necked.  Not sure of the late date for that one here.  A latish Barn Swallow was flying around with Tree Swallows.  Three Horned Grebes were in pond 3.

Over in the sprinkler cells, 22 shorebirds were warily feeding.  Included were a Long-billed Dowitcher, 1 Semipalmated Sandpiper, 1 Pectoral, 2 Dunlin, 1 Lesser Yellowlegs and the rest being big yellowlegs.
Ruddy ducks have dominated the lagoons recently.  Perhaps 800 today?

A few butterflies were out including a couple of the rosa form of Buckeye at the lagoons.

Birds were quite skittish today and it was difficult to get any photos.

Ice and Snow

A fair bit of snow overnight so the roads were terrible this morning.  I went out anyway!  I first went along a concession road where I had observed Snow Buntings and Horned Larks several times during the week.

 They seem to like this spot and were there again this morning.  Most of what I observed were Horned Larks with a few Snow Buntings.  Earlier in the week I had seen dozens of Snow Buntings, but they still could be around.

Out on the St. Clair River, ice is very heavy at Port Lambton, and Coast Guard cutters are assisting ships through the St. Clair Flats.  Four CG vessels were assisting the Cason J. Callaway downbound. It was quite cold all week, so ice has built up.

Any small open pool of water attracted ducks, as seen in the one photo.
At the Sombra ferry dock, the usual open spot on the downstream side of the causeway attracted lots of waterfowl.  One Long-tailed Duck stood out. 

Nothing unusual here though.  I remember one winter a Harlequin Duck hung around here.

Off ICI across from Detroit Edison things opened up a bit and hundreds of Canada Geese and other duck were here.  Some Black Ducks and a couple of Common Mergansers were here--scarce this winter.
Earlier I had seen one adult Bald Eagle.  They have not been too plentiful this winter.
I headed inland hoping to come across something of interest, like redpolls.  No such luck.  Redpolls are just not in our area to any degree (yet).
I wanted to check out Moore WMA as this is always a good spot for a winter walk.  Several species of birds greeted me from the start including Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, Golden-crowned Kinglet, White-breasted Nuthatch, Downy Woodpecker.

titmouse in the weeds

Down along the river were more titmice, but I did not detect any Yellow-rumped Warblers.  The Yellow-rumped Warblers are always in this valley every winter.  Lots of poison ivy berries here.  I will have to check again later.  I have had them here since I started checking this spot almost twenty years ago!

Ice from high water last week

A Northern Flicker was working its way through the trees here as well.

Not much else to report.  I went for a bit of a walk at Reid CA and checked Wood Duck boxes.  No Screech this time!

No Southern (NorthernOak) Hairstreaks Today!