Waterfowl Wanderings on the St. Clair River

 Now that "spring has sprung" we are seeing a change with expected arrivals.  Waterfowl watching on the St. Clair River has been interesting of late and I checked that out.

However, Friday morning I decided to head up to Pinery since I had not been up there at all this winter.  There were no spring migrants there, and the snow was still quite deep.  Walking was limited due to the snow depth.  It was a nice day at least.  No finches evident except a single redpoll flyover.

Tufted Titmouse is found in abundance here and they were quite numerous on my visit.

Some White-breasted Nuthatches were co-operative.

Working my way back towards home, I veered out to the St. Clair River and started at Guthrie Park.  I walked a bit along the riverbank and found a pair of Ruddy Ducks.

While there, I thought I was hearing a Killdeer, and sure enough one flew over as the first migrant of the year.  Certainly expected by this date!  I just caught the tail end of it.

Farther down river, some American Wigeon were evident in the distance, as well as more Ruddy Ducks.

The Sombra area is currently a hotbed of activity for ducks, especially Redhead and kin.

Gull activity has subsided a bit on the river.

I found one of the hybrid Redhead X Ring-necked Ducks south of Sombra.  There has been more than one.

Today, I decided to head back out to see what I could find.  Once again, thousands of ducks were in the Sombra area, especially "Sombra Bay".

I managed to pick out two of the hybrids together in the Bay.  

M.B. was also out duck hunting with a camera and saw the hybrids as well.  There was also an apparent Redhead X Greater Scaup amongst the mass of ducks.

South of Sombra, there were two other Redhead X Ring-necked ducks, so there are at least four out there!

Some White-winged Scoters were evident at Sombra.

More wigeon and gadwall were also noted today.  

I was hoping to find Greater White-fronted Geese, but perhaps we will see some soon out there.

We are finally off to the races of spring birding!

River Run February 2

On Sunday I decided to just check out the St. Clair River.  There was quite a bit along the river.  Ducks were rather scarce of course, but gulls have been the story this winter.  We are overdue for a rarity!!
I started at Port Lambton.  Here is a scene from a couple of years ago:

At Sombra, lots of ducks were at the ferry(less) dock area.  The hybrid Ring-necked X Redhead was easily visible.  There was an American Wigeon reported later in the day which I missed.  Perhaps it was under a dock when I was there!  I did see it on Monday though, as I headed to Corunna.

Monday was one of the nicest days, but as usual, the skies cleared Sunday night for a cloudless Monday.  The vicious cycle continues.
There were hundreds of gulls and geese all along the river late Monday, but I did not look too closely.  Something of interest muct be there!

The Sombra waterfront is always a good place to see waterbirds.

Above photo shows the old cheese factory at Sombra on pilings.  I wrote about this building before since it was later owned by my Great Grandfather for his Thistle Rubber Type Works.  He died young, and my great Grandmother had it moved off the pilings and further inland in 1914.  The building still exists along St. Clair Parkway and South Street.

The Move, 1914

Back to Sunday, almost 1000 Canada Geese were at Cath's Cart park.  Do you think I could find any other goose type?  Of course not!

Cathcart Park is much better when we have a "cold" winter and lots of ice.  Clay Creek spills out here.

At Guthrie Park, Corunna I spent over two hours looking at the gulls and what ever else was around.
Well over 2000 Herring Gulls were present plus the less common types. Even a couple of Ring-billed Gulls made their presence known, which are usually scarce in winter.

Lighting was not the best, but afterall, it was still the weekend.

I came up with at least eight Glaucous Gulls, three Iceland (Kumlien's), one Lesser Black-backed.

Hybrids were also in the mix including two Herring X Great Black-backed and Glaucous X Great Black-backed.  I did not see any of the Herring X Glaucous ("Nelson's) Gulls that have been around though.

Other birds included several hundred Redhead, some Canvasback and other incidentals.  The wintering Snow Goose also made a brief appearance as most of the geese came from behind Stag Island.

Note:  The old postcards above are photos taken by Louis Pesha, a famous photographer of the day.  There was no copyright restriction on his work!

Eagles to Ducks Family Day Weekend

Sunday, I ventured into SW Middlesex County to look around.  I was interested in seeing a Golden Eagle.  They regularly winter around Skunk's Misery and near the county line north of there and west of Glencoe.  For whatever reason, they have been hanging out there for many years!
I did not have as much luck as other birders seem to be having (nothing new there) as I drove around endlessly for some time.

Scene from the old bridge on Cameron Road

Eventually I did finally see an immature bird soaring around, albeit from a distance.

I was likely there too early in the day as they were roosting somewhere.  Some observers have seen up to four birds.  I have seen them before during winter, but I wanted to check them out now.

Ninebark

During my time in Middlesex, I got out for a walk off Sassafras Road on my favourite trail.  A few birds were seen/heard including one of the Hermit Thrushes I saw a couple of weeks ago.

After seeing the Golden Eagle, I headed straight west on Oil Springs Line out to the St. Clair River.  From there to the north end of Port Lambton, there was an astounding number of ducks.  Most I have seen in a while!  Perhaps 25,000+ ducks were visible and it was impossible to look at them all.

Scene from McKeough Outlet

During the week, there were lots of ducks early morning off Port Lambton.  An indication many more had shown up.

"Cans"

There was an impressive concentration of ducks around Fawn Island and Sombra, many of which were Long-tailed.  It would be interesting to know how many Long-tailed are around, but certainly at least 10,000.  A number of years ago, during a cold winter, I calculated around 36,000 of these attractive creatures in the Sarnia area alone.  Unprecedented!

I did not find any rarities, but I am sure something of interest is out there.  A Harlequin, or even a King Eider may be lurking around.  Stretching it, there may even be a Tufted Duck!

Today, we had to deal with a dumping of snow.  The farther north one went, there was more snow.  The parks (parking areas) along the St. Clair River are glare ice, so some were inaccessible due to the wacky weather of the past week.  We certainly got way more snow last night than was predicted (nothing new there) and that compounded with the ice, that made certain places impossible to access.  I did try one park, but barely got myself out!  I only went as far as Courtright and decided to turn around due to the conditions. (And it was not even a weekend day!)

I did stop to look at the ducks at Fawn Island.  An impressive raft of Long-tailed floated by at one point.

Around 30 Tundra Swans were at the head of Fawn Island, mixed in with Mutes.  I could not pick out a Trumpeter, but a couple of those have been around this winter.

Some White-winged Scoters have been around--I saw four at Sombra yesterday.

"Scooters"

I stopped by the Sombra ferry(less) dock area as well.  I managed to pick out one of the Redhead X Ring-necked male hybrid.  This bird returns to the area every winter.  Other hybrids have been seen as well.

I continued up to Courtright when I decided to turn around due to the snow and ice.  There was no place to safely pull off the road up that way anyway.

Around noon, I went out to Mitchell's Bay to walk the south shore trail.  A few birds were around including some American Robins feeding on roses.

The redpolls are still hanging out near the park area, but they did not co-operate today!

Here at home, the feeders were busier than they have been the last five weeks.  I have had virtually nothing coming to the feeders this winter, something I have not seen in the 30+ years I have been feeding the birds.  It is a mystery!

Red Nut