Cans and a Speckle Belly

Yesterday I made a quick visit to a nearby pond to check out a couple birds.

I was pleased to see ten Canvasbacks.

Also present was a Greater White-fronted Goose (Speckle Belly), which had been around for a few days.

That's it for now. Geese seem to be advancing into Ontario, surely the blackbirds and other spring migrants will be right behind them!

Early Spring(ish) Birding

This past week has been quite something in Ontario!

Last Sunday I visited the Rondeau area to have a look around. I stopped into Ridgetown on the way, and was rewarded with some Snow Geese and Greater White-fronted Geese.

Snow Geese

Greater White-fronted Geese

Rondeau itself was pretty quiet, but I was able to find a few things here and there, including my first of year (FOY) Eastern Phoebes and Rusty Blackbirds of the year.

Horned Grebe

Lesser Scaup

Red-winged Blackbird

Downy Woodpecker

There was a flooded field just north of Shrewsbury which was quite productive. I managed to find my FOY Dunlin and Lesser Yellowlegs.

Gadwall

Green-winged Teal and American Robin

Dunlin

Lesser Yellowlegs

Last stop was the Blenheim Sewage Lagoons.

Plenty of ducks and Bonaparte's Gulls!

Ruddy Duck

Bonaparte's Gull

Just before I left, this Eastern Meadowlark popped up.

Fast forward to yesterday. I managed to get out to the landfill before the ice storm hit to look for some of the reported gulls. Although I missed the Glaucous Gull, I did see my FOY Lesser Black-backed Gull. I managed some far off record photos.

I also came across my FOY Greater Yellowlegs, as well as a Lesser Yellowlegs.

Greater Yellowlegs

Lesser Yellowlegs

Hopefully this weird weather clears out soon!

Some Aylmer Things

Today I went to the Aylmer Wildlife Management Area and Aylmer Sewage Lagoons with my local nature club, Nature London. We saw quite the variety, including Eastern Bluebirds, Snow Geese, Tundra Swans, Cackling Geese, and Greater White-fronted Geese.

Snow Goose (blue morph)

Tundra Swans

Canada Goose

Cackling Geese

Eastern Bluebird (male)

Eastern Bluebird (female)

Greater White-fronted Geese

Cackling Geese

Gaggles of Geese and a Bevy of Swans

Yesterday afternoon I went to Aylmer Wildlife Management Area with my mom and aunt.

Tundra Swans are always the main attraction in Aylmer in March, as thousands stop in to fuel up before continuing on their migration to the tundra to breed.

Large numbers of geese also congregate here each spring, mostly Canada Geese.

Often these large flocks of Canada Geese will be joined by more uncommon geese. That was the case yesterday, as there were four Snow Geese to be seen. I was quite happy, as I got to see my first ever "blue morphs"

Another treat was a single Greater White-fronted Goose. One could say I've been "spoiled" this year when it comes to Greater White-fronts ;-)

Not too many ducks were around, but we were able to find a few American Wigeons and Northern Pintails.

Northern Pintail

It seemed that the swans took a liking to a field right outside the wildlife management area, as there seemed to be more in that field than the pond!

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Fast forward to today. When I was out this morning, birding my neighborhood, I came across a Coyote! Definitely an unexpected find in broad daylight in a subdivision! 

"Record shot" :-)

St. Clair Sightings

Today I went down to Wallaceburg with family to run some errands. Afterwards we went to check out the St. Clair National Wildlife Area and the surrounding fields for migrating waterfowl. 

Heron Line proved to be most productive. I managed to see my first Killdeer of the year pretty quickly in a flooded field.

We soon came across a huge flooded field, filled with waterfowl, including my first Tundra Swans of 2018. There were well over a hundred!

As I was scoping out the field, I quickly got on a Greater White-fronted Goose! These geese have been showing up all over the place as of late. In all I counted 14, but there were no doubt more hiding in among the corn stubble.

I was also pleased to find two Sandhill Cranes, another first for the year, in the field.

Ducks, including Mallard, Northern Pintail, Redhead, and Ring-necked Duck, were quite numerous. At one point they all got up and flew around a bit.

After scanning the field until nothing new could be found, we went and checked out the St. Clair NWA. I didn't walk the whole thing, in interest of time, but I did walk the first portion of the trail. I found things such as Northern Shoveler, American Coot, Hooded Merganser, Bufflehead, Cackling Goose, and some more Canada Geese.

Hooded Merganser

Canada Goose (apparent "Giant" subspecies)

Red-winged Blackbirds were singing throughout.

On our way home, we found a cooperative Sandhill Crane on Town Line Road.

As we were driving down Belle Rose Line, my grandma said "was that an owl?"

Sure enough, it was a Snowy Owl, my first for Chatham-Kent (finally!)

I was very happy with the outing! Spring is coming!