Some late season shorebirds, a few very late moths, and a rare goose

 Persistence paid off. Some readers may recall me lamenting about stopping by the Keith McLean Conservation Lands on several occasions, trying to find and photograph a Hudsonian Godwit that had been seen by quite a few others, but without success. It got to the point of me thinking HUGO (the four-letter birding code for this species), where did YUGO? And even on this day, the 15th, I again stopped in mid-morning and spent well over an hour searching every possible wet spot within sight, hoping to track it down. I gave up, thinking it was finally gone, but planned to stop in a few hours later, before returning home. 

And there it was! I concluded by checking other reports, that it was an afternoon bird. I have no idea where it and the other shorebirds spent the earlier part of the day.

 

 There were some Dunlin around as well.

For a size comparison, here are both HUGO and DUNL.

 This individual was distinct due to some malformation at the tip of the bill. It didn't seem to interfere with its feeding, at least to the eyes of human observers, although the actual bird may have felt a little less efficient at feeding. But it had adapted.

 A Black-bellied Plover was also with them, not a common species at this time of year...

....and was quite cooperative for the camera. These photos were barely cropped.

On my earlier visit that day, I had to satisfy my photographer's urge with a cooperative Great Blue Heron. Not quite the same satisfaction as a HUGO, but....

In between visits to this site, I spent a few hours at Rondeau, not surprisingly, and had the satisfaction of seeing and photographing a few birds. Robins were widespread....

....Northern Cardinals were scattered, but seldom cooperative for a good photo.

Pileated Woodpeckers are more often heard than seen, at least not seen in a position for other than a record photo.

Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers were around here and there, but for the most part seem to have moved on.

A few Yellow-rumped Warblers can still be found, with a little persistence.

On a day with promising WNW type winds, I spent a bit of time in a good location to watch for late season raptors carrying on with their migration. I got a distant Bald Eagle...

....and several Red-tailed Hawks, among other things.

At Erieau, I photographed one of the dozens of Red-breasted Mergansers in the slip...

...as well as a Bonaparte's Gull, of which there were several hundred. I was hoping to see a Little Gull, but it was not to be on this day, or at least not while I was there.

A bit more recently when I was out at Rondeau on a quiet, cool and overcast day, I encountered several late moths fluttering about and coming to rest on some leaf litter. They were Bruce Spanworms.....

A White-breasted Nuthatch came to investigate me, pausing long enough for a photo.

I had been on the lookout for White, or Paper Birch at the park. Someone had inquired about where to find one in the park, and although I knew I had seen a few over the years, I was hard-pressed to find one on the spot. They are much more visible when the leaves are off the trees, as they are not abundant. They have somewhat specific soil requirements, so are best found between Harrison Trail and Lakeshore Road. On my travels along these two roads, I have located more than a dozen individuals, although most are fairly small diameter trees. These next two individuals were about 25-30 cm in diameter.

On yet another short term visit to the park, I spent some time in both the campground as well as the east South Point Trail and photographed a few things I encountered. European Starlings, shown first, are not very popular with anyone, but they are somewhat attractive in the seasonal speckled plumage. This one, along with a dozen others, were feeding on bittersweet fruit.

A couple of House Finches, year-round residents, were noted feeding on red cedar berries.

A close relative, the Purple Finch, is migrating through as of late, and I managed to capture a few photos of this female.....

...and this Ruby-crowned Kinglet flitted about almost non-stop, as they typically do, so getting even one shot like this is tricky and infrequent.

White-throated Sparrow, shown next, is one of the commonest sparrow species around these days.

Just a short time before I was getting ready to post this blog today, a friend and former co-worker alerted me to the presence of a Greater White-fronted Goose along Mud Creek here in Chatham. 

Thanks, Fred!

 I had been on the lookout for this species at various locations where there were concentrations of Canada Geese, as the occasional Greater White-front will show up with them, so I wasn't going to pass up this opportunity so close to home. And there it was, showing its 'speckle' belly, pinkish/orange bill and white frontal area of the head.

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Early November birding travels

 This is the best time of year for me to see one of my favourite sparrow species. Fox Sparrows are fairly large as sparrows go, and are distinctly marked and somewhat colourful. Late October through November are when they seem to be at their most numerous, with typically a dozen or more seen. They are often seen foraging on the ground, in typical sparrow style, but sometimes they will sit up and right in the open.

 

 

If they are in the area, they often respond to 'spishing' and will come quite a bit closer, which is nice for the photographer.

Generally more abundant and a sparrow species that usually sticks around longer, is the White-throated Sparrow.

I have enjoyed tracking down these and other sparrows on my recent forays to places like Rondeau and St. Clair NWA, where the above photos were taken recently.

A few of the other species that I have managed to photograph at either of those areas include Robins enjoying the abundance of red cedar berries.....

...and a shy Black-capped Chickadee. Actually it wasn't shy at all, as it came in quite close in response to spishing, but was so intent on looking for food, I only got this one photo before it moved off.

Downy Woodpecker

Purple Finches, such as this female, are around in better numbers now.

Of course gulls are quite abundant, and when the common Ring-billed Gull gives opportunity for a good photo, as a photographer I will take it.

There are hundreds of Ruddy Ducks out on Rondeau Bay and Lake Erie, although not typically very close to shore.

They are a little easier to get close-up photos at the local sewage lagoons.....

...as are Bonaparte's Gulls. I was looking for a Little Gull that had been there briefly, but none of us there that day saw it, so I satisfied my photographer's itch with this Bonaparte's Gull.

 A juvenile Peregrine Falcon has been hanging around St. Clair NWA on a couple of my visits there...

...as have at least a couple of Sandhill Cranes, although they are more often heard than seen very close by.

The occasional Snow Goose can be found mixed in with the more abundant Canada Geese. This was one of two along the shore of Lake Erie just outside of Rondeau....

...whereas this blue phase Snow Goose was at St. Clair NWA.

On one sunny but cool day, I came across this Midland Painted Turtle catching some late season sun.

Given that it is right in the middle of hunting season, ducks aren't always so cooperative when things are aimed at them. This Mallard didn't seem to mind.

Shorebirds are becoming much more scarce. There had been many dozens of Dunlin at most mudflats along a wetland, but those numbers have dropped considerably. When I was out at the Keith McLean Conservation Lands, I was actually hoping to see a Hudsonian Godwit that had been seen there from time to time. But each time I was there, it was not in view. And even the Dunlin were harder to find. In just a few days, their numbers went from at least a couple of hundred, to only three on my most recent visit. This one was scared up by a Northern Harrier on the prowl, but it came back to this pile of rocks.

It seemed like it wanted to play hide-and-seek as it never came out in full view. Two others flew by but didn't stop.

This Greater Yellowlegs continued along a mudflat at the Mitchell's Bay North Shore Trail.

On another time at Rondeau, a few Hermit Thrush were noted, but seldom gave a decent photo op. This was one of the better ones, and only for a brief time as they preferred to rustle around in the bushes searching for berries.

When the sun was out, the occasional Green Darner dragonfly was seen buzzing around. There weren't many flying insects like midges for it to feed on.

Raptors are continuing to migrate through the area, and it has been a great time to see Golden Eagles. Some of the hawkwatch sites are reporting 30 or more in a day! I stopped by the Morpeth Cliffs area for a couple of hours on a promising day, and had two young birds fly by. One flew right overhead, and not that high up. Unfortunately it was heavy overcast, so the following two photos had to undergo some serious processing to get the critical characteristics somewhat visible.

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