Another CBC: Skunk's

Saturday December 21 we participated in another Christmas Bird Count--Skunk's Misery.  This relatively new count has some great areas (Moraviantown, Skunk's Misery complex, Thames River etc.).

My area encompasses the SW corner of the circle including the metropolis of Thamesville.  I was accompanied by Janet Fraser this year.
We started under overcast skies, but eventually the sun came out for one of the nicest days we have had recently.  Was it really the weekend?
As expected, birds were scarce compared to previous years.  We started our day in the park at the east side of the village, then moved along the river to the Tecumseh Monument park.

That area was the quietest I have ever seen it.  Usually we find a number of birds at the monument.

Thames River

We then started zig-zagging up and down the "Zone" roads.  Birds were here and there.  Dark-eyed Juncos were fairly plentiful, but they always are on this count.  Other areas recorded good numbers.

At one point, I spotted two Eastern Bluebirds, which were nice to see.  We regularly get them on this count.

On Zone Road 2, we spotted an 'eagle' in the distance as we were looking into the bright sun.  It quickly disappeared into a woodlot, but I got a good enough look to know it was a Golden Eagle.  It was a first for my area!
Golden Eagles are regularly found on this count as they 'winter' in the Skunk's Misery area and to the north.
Less than a half hour later on Zone Road 1, we had another Golden Eagle sighting.  Better looks were obtained this time to see it was a young bird.  I assumed it was the same bird (but you never know) as it was the same latitude, only one road west.  I  only had my small camera on hand this day, but I did attempt a (useless) photo.

Our area goes up to the south edge of the village of Florence.  We stopped by the bridge and walked down to the river.  As many of you blog readers may recall, this spot is good early in the summer for odonates, especially the rare Dusky Dancer.  It was  bit cold today for them though!

Sydenham River

A couple kilometres south of the village, we encountered our only Northern Shrike.

A bit later we stopped by the bridge on the Thames south of Thamesville.  This area has changed drastically over the last while.  A new bridge has been built in the past year, and the old cantilever-truss bridge is totally gone!  Too bad, as it was one of the only ones of its type left.

This is actually a historic place, as several bridges have been on this site since the early 1800's.

They have done a nice job of cleaning up the site and planting trees.  One can still get to the riverbank to see the rare Smokey Rubyspots, along with American Rubyspots and others later in the summer... if one so desires.

Site of previous bridge

'Tother side

An old cemetery is here as well, and we walked to the back of it.  Not many birds again, though.
Lots of big trees here, including many Hackberry, Black Walnut, Sycamore, etc.

Hackberry

Our last walk was just west of the village at one of Janet's friends.  They have feeders (and cats!), but we did add a few birds here--not as many as usual.


We parted ways from here.  We added very little after this, but it was indeed a nice day to be out and about.

I do not have results of the count at the time of this writing, but I thought I would write about my day.  More on the results later.

Thamesville Area Birding

Today was the Skunk's Misery CBC and I checked out my usual area from Thamesville up to Lambton Line and east to Zone Road 5.
We received significant snowfall overnight (much more than expected!) which made roads slick first thing.
My first stop was a park at the east end of Thamesville.  From there I next went to the Tecumseh Memorial display along the Thames River. 

Usually quite a few birds are found here, but with the deepfreeze and deep snow this winter, few were to be found.  However, there was quite a gathering of Mourning Doves (at least 75) from the farm across the river.
Normally there is open water on the river with some geese and ducks, but not this year!

Interpretive Signs

I went up and down the snow-covered roads.  Zone Road 2 had a number of birds including a couple of American Robins.
Around the corner, I found the nicest birds of the day.  Three Eastern Bluebirds were alongside Base Line.
Later, I found some chickadees, but I only got this in the photo (LOL!):

Nice Sumac

A couple of Bald Eagles were along the river in the distance south of Florence. Golden Eagles are often found around Skunk's Misery in winter, but these were Bald.

One of my last stops (which in the past was always the first stop!) was at the Thamesville Bridge.  Unfortunately things are messed up here as they are building a new bridge just west of the present structure.  The present structure will eventually disappear.  As I mentioned in the past, it is an unusual type in the form of cantilever truss.

Photo from last year (note lack of snow!!)

I was able to check out the east side of the bridge beside the water plant.  I found quite a few birds here actually.

Lots of Hackberry here

At home, I watched the feeders for a while later in the afternoon.  Finally some Pine Siskins showed up!  It has been over a year since I have seen them here.

Note goldfinch suspended in mid-air!

Also, a Red-breasted Nuthatch which I had earlier in December, suddenly made an appearance after an absence of more than two weeks.  It did not show for the CBC (I also know of another on count day, after the fact!).

One more CBC locally on Monday--the St. Clair NWA. It will be COLD!

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.

Misery Birding and Tecumseh

The weather seemed fitting for today's event as it was miserable first thing this morning with fog and rain. The first Skunk's Misery CBC was held today.  The area is good in the breeding season with lots of uncommon birds but it has not been thoroughly covered this time of year.  It has some great potential.

The circle is centred about Bothwell and includes the Crown Lands of Mosa Forest plus a couple of conservation areas and lots of private woodlots.  There are many large woodlots, several creeks and endless cedar hedge rows.

I covered the western part of the circle north of the Thames River and and up to Lambton Line.

I thought a good starting point was the bridge on hwy 21 south of Thamesville.  Here we have an old cemetery dating back to at least the mid 1800's. It stretches back a fair distance and is good for a walk.

There are lots of large trees along the valley of  the Thames River.  I noticed in my travels today, many of Common Hackberry.

At the bridge site, the abutments of the old bridge dating back to the 1870's still remain.

stone abutments from 1874

The current bridge, built in 1936, is actually a rather rare structure.  It is of the cantilever truss system of which very few were built in this small size.  I read somewhere it was the only such one built by the Department of Transport.  Currently it is due for some rehabilitation, so hopefully it will be retained.

I must also mention that this is the site we find the American Rubyspots and Smokey Rubyspots in the summer.  I stopped here last summer and mentioned it in one of my blog posts.

Farther east on hwy 2, there is a pull-off situated along the river on old highway right-of-way.  It is a good spot to see some birds, and I was not disappointed today.  It would have been much better if it was a nice day!

Thames River at Tecumseh Memorial

The main attraction here is the Chief Tecumseh memorial.  Tecumseh played a pivotal role in the War of 1812, but was killed not far from here in 1813.  His body was buried near the battle site, but the remains were later moved due to fear of desecration.  

As the story goes, the bones were secretly moved to St. Anne's Island west of Wallaceburg, almost directly across the west end of Baseline Road.  If you look on a map, Baseline Road's east end is right near the Tecumseh memorial east of Thamesville!

Interpretive Panels

In 1910, a delegation from Wallaceburg located the burial site and examined the bones.  As the story continues, it was concluded the bones were those of Tecumseh. When Tecumseh was young, he sustained a leg injury which broke a bone.  Wallaceburg's Dr. Mitchell (third from left in photo) examined the bones and noted a scar on one of the leg bones.  

My grandfather, only 13 years old at the time, was with this group and recounted the story to me when I was younger.

At some point, the bones were divided up among 3 elders of Walpole Island and the whereabouts were kept secret.

There is a monument on Walpole that allegedly contains the bones of Tecumseh, but my grandfather always insisted that they were not.  It remains up to speculation to this day.

Back to today's events and just before I got to the Tecumseh site, I spotted a large bird flying away in the mist.  Turned out to be a Great Blue Heron.  I had to pull off the road to get binos on it in order to figure out what it was!

Dark-eyed Juncos were the bird of the day.  They seemed to be everywhere, as I tallied over 200 in my area alone.  The first flock I encountered had over 60, and it was a pure flock.

Lots of little creeks crossed the road which looked intriguing.  A more normal winter (for number of birds) would likely produce more birds in those areas.

There are several woodlots that will need to be investigated in the future.  I noticed a good variety of trees in some of them.  As I mentioned, lots of hackberry was present.

Black Cherry

Lots of large Sycamores

Along one back road, I came across an interesting ravine near Florence

The top corner of my area ended at Florence.  Not far from the edge of the circle is where Lambton Line crosses the Sydenham.  It is a good place to look for dragonflies in the summer.

The results should be interesting. so far, I heard that a Gray Catbird was found as well as an Evening Grosbeak.