Some Recent December Birding

Sunrise at Rondeau December 8

The last three days I made my usual rounds looking for birds.  Rondeau was on the agenda for Friday, as I had not been there since the previous Saturday.  One the way there, I did see the Red Phalarope in the field at McLean Conservation Lands.  It has been around for some time, and one can only hope it stays another week for the CBC.  Red Phalarope has been recorded on the Rondeau count before.  It is to get quite cold by mid-week coming up though.

I started with a lakewatch at dog beach as usual along with Steve Charbonneau.  There was a good movement of ducks, especially Lesser Scaup.
Loons have thinned out, and the difficult one to find now is the Common!  We did see at least six Red-throated.  Hopefully some will still be around in another week for the Christmas Bird Count.  I will start with a lakewatch.

We checked the north end of the park, and the campground had a nice flock of birds with a good variety of species.  A Yellow-bellied Sapsucker is around, as there always seems to be in the winter there.

The flock had a couple each of Fox Sparrow and Field Sparrow, a Chipping Sparrow and several White-throated.  In fact, there are quite a few White-throated around the park right now.

Yellow-rumped Warblers, Black-capped Chickades, both kinglets, creepers and others rounded out the flock.

Saturday, I headed up the St Clair River, since Rondeau was closed for the deer cull.  There are certainly not many ducks on the river yet, as one would expect.  Times (and weather) have changed!
There are lots of gulls though.  99% are Herring.
The best concentration is at the north end of Corunna at Guthrie Park and the Shell docks.  I checked it out on Saturday and there were around 1000.  There was only a handful of Great Black-backed and certainly no white-winged gulls.
Reports today made it obvious that more gulls had moved in with a few white-winged involved, as well as a Lesser Black-backed.  Time will tell, but something of interest may show soon!  An Ivory Gull would certainly stir things up.  It has been 24 years (wow!) since I found the one north of Sombra.

I checked out various spots inland, but there were few birds.  As I mentioned earlier, birds are very scarce this winter.  There are some 'good' birds out there and some keep popping up, but generally it will be a very quiet winter.

A Long-eared Owl at McKeough CA was in its usual spot, but I could not get a proper look at it.  It was certainly well-hidden and never flushed.  This is the best I could do for a photo (!):

Speaking of owls, early Wednesday morning I awoke about 2 a.m. for some reason.  Not five minutes later, a Great Horned Owl started calling outside the house.  A few minutes later, another called.  They kept calling back and forth for a half hour!  It was the first time I have had this species in the yard here in town.

Although cold yesterday, I did see a 'lep'.  It was one of those Bruce Spanworm moths which are quite hardy.

Today, I went back to Rondeau and started with the usual lakewatch.  It was a far cry from Friday, if that is possible.  I did get another 5 or 6 Red-throated Loons, but there were fewer ducks.  Gulls have been scarce on this side of the park lately.
A walk on south point trail was very quiet.  I could count the birds on one hand!

A check of the campground was just as quiet.  There was no sign of the 'flock' of birds from Friday.  They must be somewhere though!
A few White-throated Sparrows popped up, and this one appeared to be yawning!

I stopped by Keith McLean C.L. and a Dunlin was keeping the Red Phalarope company on the ice patch.  Shallow water will be frozen by the end of the week, so they may disappear.
I walked up to the viewing stand as well.  A number of geese and ducks were in the back.
A Northern Flicker was near the house, species I have not seen in a while.

One last stop was Ridgetown lagoons.  Some ducks were sitting on the ice.  Besides Mallards and Blacks, there were some Northern Shovelers, and Mallard X Black Duck and a wigeon.

The Christmas Bird Counts start next week already!  Some of the local counts:  Kettle Point is December 14, Blenheim/ Rondeau December 15.  Skunk's Misery is December 21 this year and Wallaceburg is December 28.  St. Clair will likely be January 1 as it traditionally is.

Depths of Winter Birding at Rondeau

Under cloudless skies (whaaat?) I headed down to Rondeau Park this morning.  Roads were icy but I got there in good time.  I talked to Trena at the gate and she reminded me that park passes and entrance fees are going up considerably this year.  However, you can purchase a 2015-16 annual pass (for all Ontario Provincial Parks) at the current rate for $150.57 (inc. tax).  After April 1 it goes up to a painful $175.  Summer only passes are going from $107 to $125. They are now available.



Needless to say, one could not do much walking.  Snowshoes or skis would be beneficial in current conditions.  As well, it was unbearably cold!

I headed straight to the visitor centre to look at the feeders.

The male towhee was still present, but too shy to come to the feeder.  An unhappy Song Sparrow was looking for grub though.

The White-throated Sparrow was still present, but has long since given up trying to sing.

A female Red-winged Blackbird stood out among the crowd.

Other birds present were the usuals.

I slowly drove along the entire Lakeshore Road, but did not come across much.  I did walk a short distance into the campground and came across quite a few Golden-crowned Kinglets.  However, none of the Ruby type were found.

Hawks included 2 Red-tailed, 1 dark morph Rough-legged and a Northern Harrier.

And, you never know what you will find in Rondeau.....

I did not venture far into the countryside today.  At home, a third Common Redpoll showed up and 5 Pine Siskins which were not present yesterday.

Arkona Birds

Scene along the Ausable north of Rock Glen

Just got back from a nice day of birding around Arkona.  It snowed all morning!  Something about Arkona as it always gets snow.  Anyplace else can be dry and/or clear!
As expected numbers of birds were low.  Best bird was an adult Golden Eagle over the Ausable River at Rock Glen (told you so yesterday!).  For some reason it is reliable almost every year.
I like Rock Glen and used to specifically do the whole place first thing in the morning for the count.  The above photo shows an outcropping at a scenic spot quite a ways downriver from the falls.  Lots of Hemlock trees there.
When I was young, we went up there to hunt for fossils.  The area is well picked over now, but some still are found.  Today I found a brachiopod and a couple other types.


The Ausable River was running high and very turbid, so nothing on it.  We did find 3 Common Mergansers at a gravel pit pond at the end of the day.
Up near Joany's Woods, we found a 'flock' of Yellow-rumped Warblers.  Nice to see at least 15.  I think that is the most I have seen in one spot in winter, and certainly on a Christmas Count.  I've had up to ten or so at my secret winter spot north of Wilkesport one winter.
Sparrows were virtually absent, but usually are scarce on this count.  Steve and I managed to find a White-throated under some Norway Spruce on a property we look at.  We had a few Song Sparrows and only a few Tree Sparrows.
Juncos were around and we managed to find a nice male 'Oregon' at a feeder.  We quite often find one on this count (I mentioned that one also yesterday!).  A male Eastern Towhee was a nice find near the north end.  Pete Chapman found this one yesterday while scouting.

A Northern Shrike along Arkona Rd. N. was a nice



find too.
Harriers were numerous, which was unusual for this count.  We had five or six which is a new high for our area.
Owls were scarce, but Pete had 8 Screech while checking early this morning.



We had all the usual 5 species of woodpecker, including two Pileated in a reliable spot.
Finches were scarce but we had a few Pine Siskins.

I will try and find out tomorrow final total for this count.
Just got word of a nice winter bird near Cedar Beach (west of Kingsville).  Jim Burk found a White-eyed Vireo on the Cedar Creek CBC today.

NOTE:  photos here do not apply to today!
More later.