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!

Late January Along the River

Yesterday I went on the Nature London trip to Sarnia and the St. Clair River.

We headed out in the morning, and saw the Snowy Owls in the usual location.

Not too long after, we faced heavy snow squalls. The decision was made to cancel the trip and turn back. I of course, was determined to continue and see what we could see, so we my vehicle continued on towards Sarnia. Turned out to be a good decision because only five minutes later things cleared and it was blue skies and sun!

A highlight of the day was this beautiful Rough-legged Hawk on Michigan Line. 

Also saw another Snowy Owl further down the road.

We stopped briefly into Wawanosh Wetlands, though as usual not too much was there.

Next up was Canatara Park in Sarnia. There was a calling Carolina Wren, but not much else. I found this little fungi, Hysterobrevium mori, on the fence in the children's farm.

We went to eat lunch and watch the lake at the Point Edward Lighthouse afterwards, which proved fruitful. We found many Long-tailed Ducks, Common Goldeneye, mergansers, and a couple White-winged Scoters.

Long-tailed Ducks

The ice was quite impressive!

The Sarnia Bay was completely frozen, so no gulls or ducks there! After that we began the trek down the St. Clair River. Our first stop was Guthrie Park, which was productive.

Canvasbacks

Great Black-backed Gull

Canvasback

Common Merganser

Just as we were leaving, I noticed two Coyotes out on the ice. One wonders what they were doing. Perhaps they were trying to cross from the island (Stag Island) to the mainland, or maybe they were trying to hunt waterfowl.

One last stop was Cathcart Park near Sombra, where there is often an assortment of waterfowl and other things.

Bald Eagle

Three species of swans were present. Mute, Tundra, and a single Trumpeter.

Mute Swan

Trumpeter Swan

Overall, a fun, but cold, day along the river. It is amazing how the accumulation of ice can make or break a day. Gulls were very limited today. I only saw Herring and a few Great Black-backs!

London CBC 2017

Today was the London Christmas Bird Count (CBC).

My Route!!! (Pathway from Wellington to Highbury)

My dad and I set out to start our route at 7:00 am, hoping to maybe get an owl. It was not to be, however, but we were rewarded with a Marsh Wren early on in the game. Marsh Wrens are scarce in Middlesex, so a good record indeed. [edit: This would be the second record in 108 years on a London CBC, so this is a very rare find. Due to that, and the fact that it was low light when we saw it, I will be removing it from the list unless proven otherwise]

The camera wasn't much help for the first couple hours, as there wasn't much light, so I let my dad carry it :-) He managed to get this very flattering shot of me.

Wintering ducks are always the main attraction along the Thames river, and today was no exception. I was actually surprised that we found more than 3 species! We found a total of 6 species, including some Canada Geese (432), Mallard (369), American Black Duck (6), Common Goldeneye (16), Hooded Merganser (13), and Common Merganser (3).

Hooded Merganser (female)

Hooded Mergansers (male)

Common Goldeneye

Common Merganser (male)

Canada Geese

Mallards

There were a couple species of raptors as well, represented by some Cooper's Hawks (2), and a Red-tailed Hawk (1). No Bald Eagles today!

Red-tailed Hawk

Cooper's Hawk

Woodpeckers were present, with 3 species seen. Downies were the most abundant (6), followed by Red-bellied (4), and Hairy (3).

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Sparrows were well represented, with 4 species. American Tree Sparrows were not surprisingly the most common (23), Dark-eyed Juncos had the second highest total (17), but it took over two and a half hours to find the first one! Song Sparrows (4) and White-throated Sparrows (3) were found as well.

White-throated Sparrow

Dark-eyed 

American Tree Sparrow

Although we just had two species of finch, they tallied an impressive 87 individuals. American Goldfinches made up the bulk of it (50), but House Finches were around in numbers as well (37). At one point, a pure flock of about 30 flew overhead.

American Goldfinch

Small woodlands birds made their presence known. We had many species throughout the morning such as Black-capped Chickadee (26), Brown Creeper (11), White-breasted Nuthatch (3), Golden-crowned Kinglet (4), Mourning Dove (10), American Robin (6), and Northern Cardinal (26). The London CBC is regarded as the "Cardinal Capital of Canada" because we often report the highest numbers of cardinals. Quite fitting that the Nature London logo is of a cardinal!

Brown Creeper

Brown Creeper

Golden-crowned Kinglet

Black-capped Chickadee

Northern Cardinal

Five hours and 9.6 kilometers later, we had a total of 35 bird species, including a few non-bird species such as the ever present Grey Squirrel, and a Mink!

Grey Squirrel

It was a great count, and we did a lot better than I expected. I will definitely be requesting this route again next year!

Today's eBird checklist.

Tomorrow is the Rondeau CBC, so I will be off to there early tomorrow morning...it will be hard to distract myself from the Tufted Duck in Peel though! I'm sure that we will find something great tomorrow...I'll be sure to check every single scaup!

Highlights from the 108th Annual London Christmas Bird Count:

Northern Goshawk

Cackling Goose

Northern Pintail

Snow Goose

Vesper Sparrow

Wilson's Snipe

POSSIBLE Marsh Wren