Snowy Owl, Geese and more

Early December has settled in, bringing a bit of snow with it. And that means snowy creatures as well as the white stuff.

A few days ago I roamed around part of the former Dover Township north of home and eventually came across my first of season Snowy Owl.

At first it wasn't very close to the road, and I had a hard time determining it was an owl. But after stopping and looking more closely, and then having the owl chase a small group of Snow Buntings, it at least got close enough for a distant photo that turned out okay even after being heavily cropped. The light was good, so that helped with the result. What intrigued me was the blood patch on its lower belly. As the bird had not seemed to have trouble flying, and always appeared quite alert, I concluded that it was left over from a meal it had recently fed on. Perhaps a rabbit that drenched the owl with its blood as it was in its dying throes?

Later that day, as the sky was clear, I managed to get some photos of the almost full moon. The forecast for the actual full moon was to be cloudy, so this one a day earlier was about 99% full.

A day or so later, I headed to Ridgetown, as there are always lots of geese and swans. A few Snow Geese had been reported regularly. The light was good, but waterfowl are particularly leery about getting too close to humans during the hunting season, and these birds were always on the far side of the far pond. There were 9 Snow Geese, including one blue phase. This first image shows 3 of the adult Snows and the one blue to the right.

This next image shows a juvenile Snow Goose, still featuring its grayish young feathers

This next photo shows 7 Snow Geese. The one white goose a bit towards the right of centre and a bit closer is a much rarer Ross's Goose. It is definitely smaller than the Snow Geese.

Aside from its smaller size, a close look shows a bit more of a rounded top of the head, a bluish patch at the base of the bill and it doesn't have the classic 'grin' patch that Snows have.

Among other waterfowl were lots of Mallards.....

...and Tundra Swans, although most of the swans were either flying over or already feeding in a harvested corn field about half a kilometre away. There were only half a dozen in the lagoons.

Later that day I went to Rondeau. I had thought about going to Erieau, as it was quite windy and I was thinking about trying for some wave photos overshooting the pier, such as this one that I got a few years ago.

However the wind was more due south, and for photos like this, it is better if they are east or southeast. So I contented myself with a hike down the east side of the park's South Point Trail. There was lots of wave action, which results in erosion.

When the lake gets riled up, lake freighters sometimes come in relatively close. One hardly ever sees them from the park unless the conditions are tough. No one wants to end up like the Edmund Fitzgerald, although Lake Erie never seems to get that riled up, fortunately. This one is the Algoma Enterprise.

While watching this freighter, I also saw lots of ducks flying, and remarkably they were flying straight into the strong winds. Most were Red-breasted Mergansers, hundreds of them...

Some groups had other species mixed in, such as this group of scaup which are in the middle front of this next photo. From the looks, there were both Lesser and Greater Scaup.

A check of the campground can be worthwhile, as the extensive open but shrubby habitat is great for attracting, and observing birds. There wasn't a huge diversity on this day, and not many wanted to be photographed, but I did manage to get these next two species. American Tree Sparrows, shown first, are starting to arrive in larger numbers in the last few days.

It seems to have been a good year for this ongoing resident species, Carolina Wren, as they can be seen or heard regularly in the more open parts of the park.

A quite late Blue-gray Gnatcatcher has been seen in the campground occasionally, but not by all who have been looking for it. Maybe tomorrow, or.....