The latest Blenheim/Rondeau Christmas Bird Count is now history. It was yesterday, December 18. It has been going since 1939, making it one of the longest running counts in Canada.
The weather in some ways was not too bad. That is unless one was expecting to be out in an unsheltered part of the count circle, as I always am. The south beach of Rondeau Provincial Park is one of my favourite places in Rondeau. It can be a very pleasant outing, especially in warmer seasons. On a Christmas Bird Count, it can really test one's resolve! Such was the case yesterday.
After noting the Eastern Screech Owl that regularly roosts in a cavity of an American Beech tree, I met up with Kevin, Morgan and Finn at the beginning of the west South Point Trail. From there we drove to the end of the trail, at the lake edge. At this point, as shown in the following photo, we got our trusty spotting scopes set up and spent an hour or so scanning for waterfowl or anything that was in sight.
Last year I had record numbers of things like Red-throated Loons, and many other species. On this day, however, we didn't see a single loon on the move. There were a few things like two species of scoters as well as numerous scaup, mergansers and such, as well as a sub-adult Bald Eagle.
Since the prospect for loons was not high, we decided to get ready for the next stage of our day. It was walking the south beach all the way to the Erieau channel and back. Except for the first 2-300 metres of this ~8 km trek, we were fully exposed heading face first into the brutal winds, which ranged from about 32-50 km/hour according to local weather stations. Being as exposed as we were along the lakeshore, it might have even been higher. The temperature was just slightly below freezing, and the wind chill was in the -18 to -20C range. Nonetheless, we struck out and went all the way to Erieau and back. After all, there were birds to be seen!
Looking through the 'scopes that we took along, and even looking through binoculars was a challenge to keep steady enough in the wind to get the kind of views we needed for viewing birds at a distance. But there were a few stands of Phragmites that helped give a bit of shelter to make it easier. Even though Phragmites is a highly undesirable invasive species, under these conditions we were glad a bit of it was there.
We had a very good variety of waterfowl, with 19 species observed overall. Even though Mallards and American Black Ducks are typically the most abundant species at this time of year, there were more American Wigeon and Bufflehead than either of those two species, although getting photos of them was not easy. After all, it is the tail end of waterfowl hunting season, and they are used to hunters approaching stealthily or luring them in to get a shot. The birds in the following photo were taking shelter at the edge of Rondeau Bay, but left quickly when they detected our movement through the grasses.
Mute Swans are not used to being shot at, so the few that we saw seemed to care less about our presence.
We did see a single Common Loon, but not flying out over the lake. It was swimming in the relatively sheltered water of Rondeau Bay.
With the relative above freezing temperatures of recent weeks, there was a lot of exposed, unfrozen shoreline, with lots of mudflats and seaweed matter along the edges. That meant there was a high probability of finding shorebirds. A few days ago there were both Purple Sandpiper and Wilson's Snipe seen along the south beach, and we were hopeful in seeing one or both of these species. As it turned out, we didn't see either, but overall had something even better!
We saw 10 Killdeer, which were not unexpected. They were skittish, and did not allow for great photos, so we didn't bother. Killdeer are seen regularly on this count. But the other three species were not expected: one each of Spotted Sandpiper, Dunlin and Western Sandpiper! The Spotty was too skittish to get a photo of. Spotted Sandpiper is rather rare for the season, and has only been observed on two previous counts. Fortunately the other two species were quite cooperative.
On the way out, I saw the Dunlin and called over to the others in the group. We noted it could fly fairly well, at least for short distances, and it never seemed to go far. It had a bad leg, and no doubt the ice that encased its foot added to the weight as well as interfered with any streamlining necessary for efficient longer flight. It hopped on one leg and seemed to be able to forage, but I suspect it will not last long under the current weather conditions.
As mentioned, we got to the Erieau channel, about 4 km from our starting point. Here are a couple of shots from Erieau, looking east towards the Rondeau forest and our return destination. There is a bit of wooded area right at the channel, and this first photo shows that end of the sandspit looking east with Rondeau Bay on the left. With the lower lake levels for a change, it made getting out to the channel much easier, and is the first time I have been able to get to the channel in at least 3-4 years.
It was part way along on our way back when a flock of wigeon took flight, and one of our group noticed a small shorebird in flight as well. Fortunately it returned to the edge of the bay, and we were able to relocate it. It didn't take too long to determine it had all the characteristics of a Western Sandpiper! It had only been recorded on this count on one occasion, back in 2001, when I had two at the very south end of the Marsh Trail. But this one wasn't a total surprise, as one had been seen over a several day period back in early December, although it was along the Erieau Marsh Trail. It is likely, although not for certain, that this bird and the one seen at Erieau are one and the same.
We got quite a few photos from a distance, just for the record. The chunky look with no 'neck', the dark bill with a slight droop at the
tip, and the bit of dark streaking on the crown all fit the
characteristics of Western Sandpiper. But the bird was quite tolerant of us, or at least was more interested in foraging along the shoreline than it felt any threat from us.
Kevin, Morgan and Finn had to depart after we got back to our starting point, and our group ended up with 37 species. I kept on for several hours in different parts of the park and I ended up with 57 species for the day. The final number of species had not been determined for the overall count when I checked in with Keith, the compiler, but last evening the number stood at 108 species as reported by about 23 birders spread out over the count circle. There were a couple of more lists to come in, so that number might change. Nevertheless, it is likely to be the highest number for any bird count in Ontario this year, even though it is a far cry from our record of 124 species of last year. We have averaged about 108 species over the last two decades.
There were a few highlights from other birders on the count in their respective territories, including two or more Golden Eagles (none of the next 4 photos were taken on this count)....
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