After the storm and before the count

 There is no question that the winter storm of last weekend was not great for traveling, or much of anything else other than sitting tight. Our quiet street was essentially closed for most of three days, but at least the power was only off for a few hours.

Some folks did venture out, and a private snow plow company tried to make it a little easier for locals. That was easier said than done, however, as even the snow plow got stranded!

The snow plow was stuck for the better part of an hour, until he called someone who had better traction to pull him out.

Once the roads were cleared enough for safer travel, I headed out to see what the rest of the local world looked like. Erieau was first on my list. Readers may recall this next photo, showing what it was like on the Christmas Bird Count on Dec 18. No ice visible, and the lake and bay were quite open, although the lake was fairly rough. And for an update on this count, we ended up with 112 species plus 6 other species during the count week (3 days before count day, and 3 days after count day) so quite satisfactory.

This is the south beach looking from Erieau: solid ice and no open water to be seen..

...other than waaay out in the lake. It would have been a completely different bird count, with no shorebirds to be seen I am certain!

I next headed over to Rondeau, where I heard there was some storm damage. The east beach looked fairly calm, although the ice had been building along the shoreline.

Even though the east side did not get the full brunt of the very strong westerly winds during the storm, there were some significant impacts. There were quite a few trees down, or in some cases just major limbs. All of the next few photos were taken from various locations right along Lakeshore Road.

East South Point Trail entrance

Since the ground hadn't been frozen, and tall pine trees catch a lot of wind, there were more pines down than any other species. The park staff had been busy for quite awhile trying to clear away the worst of it and making the roads accessible. Most of the park had been without power for three days, and some for about 4 days.

With the relatively fresh snow still around at this point, tracks were numerous. Wild Turkeys are fairly widespread, although not often seen. Their tracks, however, give evidence of their presence.

I am unsure what caused these tracks in this next photo, but I suspect it was something like a Blue Jay or Northern Cardinal hopping through the snow.

The St. Clair NWA Christmas Bird Count is just a couple of days away. I have been out through the former Dover Twp on occasion to assess the conditions, so as to pass them along to birders coming on this count.

Waterbirds often make up a big part of the species diversity, sometimes with upwards of 75000 or more individuals of 27 or more species. With much of the wetlands frozen over, I am not expecting anywhere near those numbers, but there is still a good variety of things to be seen. Today I was near the NWA and photographed lots of Canada Geese and a few Tundra Swans, but the highlight was to see about 27 Snow Geese, including at least 6 blue phase snows. There was quite a large group of Canada Geese that flew into the NWA, after having been out on surrounding fields earlier.

Almost immediately after they arrived, several small groups of Snow Geese flew in....

...and landing in with the other geese.

A small number of Tundra Swans were in the area.

A few days earlier, I photographed this Cooper's Hawk that was reluctant to leave its perch.

And this Snowy Owl was taking refuge in a natural gas pipeline enclosure, not a typically expected resting place, but it seemed to be satisfied with it on that day. This is the only Snowy I have seen so far this year, a far cry from a year ago when we tallied a record 23 Snowies!

Hopefully there will be some highlights of this bird count to feature in a future post. Stay tuned!

If you would like to subscribe, or unsubscribe, to Nature Nuggets, send an email to: prairietramper@gmail.com