March Odds and Ends

I seem to have neglected the blog lately (no fooling!), but as one can imagine I have been bogged down by a lot of school lately (plus with the nicer weather lately...er, before yesterday, I have tried to get out more!)

I have gotten out here and there. Not really to do much birding, but more so focusing on the smaller things on tree trunks, rocks, in the water, and on the ground. I certainly have seen quite a few awesome things!

Starting with near the end of March Break. A friend and I headed out for a few hours of dipnetting in the Sydenham River. Although we were a bit caught off guard by the conditions and high water, we made the most of it. Highlights that day included catching three Brindled Madtoms.

The next weekend I did some exploring in a nearby creek. Cold and wet, but productive!

White Heelsplitter

Northern Clearwater Crayfish

Fantail Darter

Greenside Darter

Fathead Minnow

I of course had to go to Aylmer Wildlife Management Area for the annual stopover of migratory Tundra Swans. Haven't missed a year since 2010! I took notice to a few other things as well ;-)

Tundra Swans

Knieff's Hook-moss (Drepanocladus aduncus)

Calicium tigillare

Apple Fountain-moss (Philonotis fontana)

Elegant Sunburst Lichen (Rusavskia elegans)

Biting Stonecrop (Sedum acre)

Star Moss (Syntrichia ruralis)

And finally, yesterday I went fishing in another creek, and came up with this Creek Chub.

Lots of other cool nature observations in between as well!

Anyways, hopefully the snow clears up soon and Spring can finally get started!

Blast to the Past: A Six Year Old Discovers Migration

Recently I was able to find a SD card from an old Fisher Price toy camera I had when I younger. There were many images to go through, but on set in particular brought back some memories.

Back when I was six, my parents took me to go see the Tundra Swans at the Aylmer Wildlife Management Area. It was my first time seeing such a spectacle of birds, and my first time really seeing bird migration. I have gone back every year since then, making this past year the eighth consecutive year I have gone to see the swans. I would anxiously await the arrival of the swans each year, and I still do. To me, the arrival of Tundra Swans signals spring (we'll just ignore how I now know they overwinter!) It is funny how small things like that can influence how we may turn out later!

My photo skills were sightly lacking, but what do you expect for a cheap piece of plastic (that brought me lots of joy, such a cool thing for a first grader!)

My binoculars have certainly evolved over the years.

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" :-)

Swan and Snow Show

This past Sunday, my dad and I went back to Aylmer to join the Nature London field trip.

Surprisingly, there was a large number of Tundra Swans still around. The recent cold spell most likely has something to do with it.

The immature Snow Goose was still there, but the bird was joined by an adult this time.

Later, they separated and the immature got close to the viewing stands.

The bird was very skittish and was frequently chased by the larger geese and swans.

Within the hundreds of Tundra Swans, we managed to find at least one Trumpeter Swan.

Trumpeter Swans are pretty rare in this part of Ontario, but not unexpected.

The same ducks as last time were around, however this time there were a couple of Gadwall and Hooded Mergansers.

American Wigeon

Hooded Merganser

The group was moving very slowly, so myself and a friend went off on our own...well, that cost us beautiful looks at a NORTHERN SHRIKE! I spent about an hour trying to find it again, but I was only successful in hearing it call twice.

There was a lot moving around in the forest, however not much variety in species.

American Robin

Red-winged Blackbird

Overall, it was an okay day, despite it being slow. I guess I'm just spoiled from Virginia!

Oh, and I finally got my Ontario life list up to 250!!!!!