Autumn warmth continues, as does the bird migration

 The unseasonable warmth continues, but birds are migrating nonetheless. Bald Eagles are both resident, and migratory. Here an adult is passing through, visible from the Mitchell's Bay North Shore Trail...

...while this sub-adult is also on the wing.

The water levels of Lake St. Clair are down considerably over the last couple of months. This first photo shows the view from the observation point closest to the lake, in early August.

This next one shows the same area, but on November 2.

Clearly there is a lot more exposed mud, which can be attractive to shorebirds. Normally I wouldn't consider this trail to be especially good for shorebirds, but they are making use of it this year. I've shown a few species seen on previous visits, in previous posts, such as Wilson's Snipe and Lesser Yellowlegs. Killdeer are fairly common, of course, and a few Greater Yellowlegs have been noted.

Great Egrets are usually fairly reliable throughout the season. I had at least a dozen on the last visit, but they were a little way up the shoreline, so not the greatest photo of individual birds....

...unlike the much closer proximity they were earlier in the season.

Turkey Vultures are still going through on their migration out of the province, but in much smaller numbers than even a week or so ago.

A visit to St. Clair NWA is always worth while, although the birds are often a challenge to get good photos of. Northern Harriers dip and dive fairly low to the marsh, so are hard to grab and maintain good focus.

This adult Red-tailed Hawk swooped by, but then hung out in the trees along the edge of the NWA. It was suspicious of me sticking my telephoto lens out the vehicle window.

Swans are building in numbers, such as these Tundra Swans. Soon there will be hundreds, even thousands in the area.

Here are a few things I have 'shot' with my camera in other locations. This first image shows a Black-bellied Plover feeding on the mud at Keith McLean Conservation Area, with a Killdeer for size comparison.

 A lone Ruddy Duck was in the more open water at McLean's. There are lots elsewhere!

 

With the warmth continuing, butterflies are still around feeding on flowers that continue to have blooms. This is a Clouded Sulphur.

Next is a Dunlin I photographed along the Erieau shoreline. I had hoped to see a Purple Sandpiper, but it was too windy and wavy on the pier where it had been seen the day before. It had probably escaped to the more sheltered side of the South Beach of Rondeau, a short distance away.

This Great Blue Heron was nicely posed on a dead tree overlooking the marsh along the Erieau Rail Trail.

I've been hiking in a few places at Rondeau, mainly to enjoy the autumn colours and get some fresh air and exercise, as well as remember times here with Marie . The colours are quickly winding down, as the windy conditions especially of late have blown a lot of the leaves off.

I came across this Northern Brown Snake sunning along the same trail. It is also known as a Dekay's Snake.

And working their way in between cottage lots, were a couple of Wild Turkeys. They seem to have had a productive year this year, as 3-4 are seen fairly regularly

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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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