Loons, eagles, sandhills and trail damage

I'll try not to jinx things, but I think it is evident that spring is here. At least for the next 10 days or so.

A bit of excitement was the discovery by Jim Burk, a few days ago, of a Red-throated Loon in a flooded field across the road from McGeachy Pond, just outside of Erieau. Not exactly the place you would normally expect to see such a bird. They have been seen in small numbers flying out over Lake Erie. But the extensive rain of last weekend caused many low lying fields to look like small lakes, and this bird decided to settle down in one. I saw it on Wednesday morning just after daybreak....well it was a very gloomy daybreak, and the light conditions weren't great. I had to use up to 3200 ISO to get some photos. The bird looked a little dishevelled and clearly is not in prime breeding plumage.

Later that day, Steve and Pilar were able to capture the bird and release it into McGeachy Pond, and it seemed to prefer that spot. It has not been seen since, so hopefully it has moved on towards its northern haunts.

I checked the water front at Erieau, and didn't see anything new, but I did notice that the high water and wave action had played havoc with the south beach of Rondeau. Instead of the occasional narrow breach of the sand barrier, which happens occasionally, it looked like there were extensive stretches of the beach that were being completely washed over. It will be interesting to see the condition of the beach when it eventually goes down

Wednesday was an excellent day for loon movement. While lake watching off the east side of Rondeau, there were easily over 125 Common Loons and 6-8 Red-throated Loons noted flying through in a space of a couple of hours. There were almost 500 Horned Grebes on the move as well. No doubt if we had the fortitude to watch all day, the numbers would have doubled or tripled.

Some Common Loons ran into problems as well. At least three birds were found grounded in various locations near Ridgetown, and were captured and then released at the Ridgetown Sewage Lagoons. Two of them didn't stay long, but one bird was still seen there this morning by several of us. This bird was in very nice breeding plumage.

After the stop at the Ridgetown lagoons, I headed for Rondeau and the South Point Trail. The previous time I tried that, I was clearly not prepared.

Entrance to the trail

 Much of the trail looked like this, with up to 15 cm of water over it in places. I brought my boots this time and everything was fine. Others who attempted without rubber boots, decided to turn back before getting too wet.

It wasn't just water over the road one had to contend with. There were several medium sized ash trees that had come down over the road.

There were lots of kinglets, mostly Golden-crowned of course this early in the season, but a few Ruby-crowns.

 Eastern Phoebes are common and widespread in the park.

 Rusty Blackbirds are a declining species in Ontario, so it was nice to see several dozen of them in various wet spots.

I got some excellent looks at sub adult Bald Eagles, including this one that came by a couple of times.

The very south end of the trail has been hammered by the wave action. The 'Trail Washed Out' sign is gone, and the end of the trail has moved inland several metres.

There is no way to get out along the shoreline to hook up with the western side of the trail at this point. Probably hacking ones way inland might work, but I didn't try it.

I had heard Sandhill Cranes on several occasions while on the trail, mostly from the direction of the Rondeau Marsh. However at one point I heard their voice coming from over the lake. Looking up....way up...I eventually saw two birds coming my way. I could barely see them even with the binoculars for awhile, but eventually they came within a photographic distance. Even at that, these photos were taken at a magnification of about 13X, and then cropped heavily so that it would be the equivalent of at least 25X.

It is nice to see the beginning of wildflowers. I saw a few pussy willows.....

....as well as Coltsfoot, which is not a native species.

The oak savanna is attractive at this time of year, in its simple colour scheme.

A lone Black Oak growing well out on the open dunes has very open branching since it has no competition for sunlight.

 The White-winged Dove is still around. It isn't as predictable as it has been in previous years. This time it was found almost to the Beach Access #11 (Dog Beach) but it moved north and continued calling. I also had an Eastern Bluebird in the area, but it did not cooperate for the camera today.

I got my first Eastern Comma of the season, but no photos to show for it as it was very much on the move. The weather for the next few days looks promising for bird movement as well as butterflies, and even emerging snakes! And just in time for the weekend!