Wintry landscapes, lots of ice, and a few birds

 I managed to get out to the southern part of Chatham-Kent a couple of times, but the birds were not all that plentiful. There was virtually no open water along the east beach, although small open spots well out had a few waterfowl. The ice formations were attractive, however.

 The east beach was attractive to a few Bald Eagles. I think I have seen at least 2-3 on every time I made it out.

 There were some scenic parts of the woodland, even though the birds were almost non-existent.

However at a couple of feeders at the north end of the park, there were often at least some bird activity. A Carolina Wren isn't very common in the winter, but on occasion they can be found visiting a feeder under the current wintry conditions.

Here a Black-capped Chickadee and Downy Woodpecker were putting up with each other on opposite sides of the feeder.

I went over to Erieau, hoping there were two or three open spots in the Lake's ice to appeal to at least a few ducks, but it wasn't to be, at least unless a change in the wind caused some openings.

For something different, I went up along the St. Clair River as there is usually enough movement in the river to create some openings.

There was a small group of swans well out on the ice, and resting so it was hard to tell what species they were. I had some Mute Swans elsewhere. The bit of gray on some of the plumages suggest they were likely Tundra Swans, which isn't surprising, although a few Trumpeter Swans have also been seen. However getting a look at their beak would have been really helpful

One of many Redheads was constantly diving for something. I didn't see that it caught anything for its efforts.

Others seemed to be content to mostly just swim around.

These are a few Mute Swans, easily identified by their bill.

A few Common Mergansers were in the area....

...as were Common Goldeneye...

...and Canvasback.

I also spent a bit of time roaming around the former Dover Twp. There was no shortage of American Crows.

At St. Clair NWA, now that it is open to hikers again, there were a couple of dozen American Tree Sparrow feeding on the open grassier sections of the trail.

This Beaver lodge is, I think, new. I don't recall seeing it along the usual stretch of trail I hike along, but with the NWA being closed from October to the end of December, there was time for them to build one.

 The view of the NWA from the observation tower is rather bleak. Not much interest there for birds at the moment, but come spring....I will be there regularly!

 At a usual spot that has several Wood Duck nesting boxes, Eastern Screech Owls will take up one as a wintering residence, peaking out to capture some of the sun's warming rays.

This next item is what is probably the result of a Poplar Vagabond Aphid causing some deformation on the outer buds of a Poplar tree.

Where there is a bit of open area in a field, you can sometimes find a few Wild Turkeys. There were at least 40 birds gathered in this open space.

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SNOW on the roof, and yodeling from on high

 Readers will note that Snowy Owls have not been very plentiful so far this winter season. That hasn't changed a lot, but a bit. We didn't get any on our St. Clair NWA Christmas Bird Count, quite a change from our record of 23 last year. But I keep going out into their usual territory, hoping to at least see one. And quite unexpectedly, just a few days ago I saw 4! The first two were on the roof of a house.

Clearly one or more had been there off and on for a few days.

Just 100 metres away was this third one, in a fenced off area around some gas line pipes...

...and a fourth was along a laneway just a short distance away. All four were within sight of each other, I am sure.

They were a little unpredictable, as I know of others who had gone out looking in all of these spots, and not seen a single owl. But just a couple of days later I went out hoping that the blue skies would present a better background. I didn't see any with the sky as a background, but I did see two owls, both on the ground. This first one was near the gas fence....

...and this one was on a laneway access right adjacent to the road. I took this one while standing just a few metres from my vehicle, and the image is hardly cropped at all.

Sticking with a bit of a snow theme, I stopped at St. Clair NWA and saw a dozen or so Snow Geese. They weren't very close to the access berm, so the photos are heavily cropped. This first one shows three white phase birds.....

...while this one shows 4 blue phase, along with 2 whites and 3 Canadas.

I've also been out to Rondeau a couple of times, looking for whatever I could find and photograph. Along the Black Oak Trail, I came across a few typical winter birds. This Black-capped Chickadee was quite close to the trail, but constantly on the move.

This Downy Woodpecker was less active and so stayed in one position for more than a millisecond.

A bit later I went to the north end of the park. As I got out of the vehicle, I heard the distinct yodeling of Sandhill Cranes. They can typically be heard from a long distance, so I started scanning the sky, and then noticed not one, not two, but a whole bunch of them almost directly overhead, but way up high. At first they seemed to be in a loosely organized group...

...and spent a bit of time circling, but gradually drifting off to the southwest.

After a few minutes, they seemed to get more organized...

...and eventually got into a more typical migratory formation and continued southwest, rising above the clouds and disappearing. There were 49 birds in this group.

After that bit of excitement, I continued over to the campground, looking around for whatever was around. It was fairly quiet, but a large black bird with white wing patches appeared in the distance and landed on an oak tree. It was intent on digging out something, and allowed me to get fairly close, although it was fairly high up and not at the best angle. At least it was mostly in the sun. It was a male Pileated Woodpecker.

I expect it had been to this tree before, as it seemed to be busily digging into a familiar cavity, and attempting to extract some little creatures.

This final photo is a cropped version of the previous one, showing its tongue in action.

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A little of the north

 Over the last couple of weeks, we have made two trips to North Bay. It wasn't really a birding trip, but I managed to get in a bit, and see some of the more northern landscapes anyway.

One of my go to places while in the area is the La Vase River, at the very south end of the North Bay area, at a place called Champlain Park. 

It includes the mouth of this river, as it empties into Lake Nipissing. It is of historic significance to European settlement, as it was an important link for explorers and members of the courier de bois in their quest for fur trade related travels. Some of the earliest European explorers traveled along this river, including Etienne Brule and Samuel de Champlain, although it was used for many centuries before by Indigenous people, and it was they who introduced it to the European explorers.

It was a fairly good spot for a few birds while I was there, but nothing out of the ordinary. Some of the birds must have been quite used to people, as several Black-capped Chickadees followed us...

...and decided to check out the outstretched hand of Kristin, our daughter, to see if we had any handouts.

Even a White-breasted Nuthatch decided to follow the example of the chickadee.

There were a few Rusty Blackbirds lingering, although I expect most of this clan had already moved further south.

There was even a lingering Red-winged Blackbird.

Mallards, of course, show up almost anywhere there is open water, and there was at least a dozen that came to investigate us as we stood along the edge of the river. Presumably they had been fed by the locals from time to time as well.

 This next view is of the river looking upstream, towards Trout Lake about 14 kilometres away. Along the edge of the cattail marsh off in the distance, was a Great Blue Heron.

I'm sure it was extending its stay this far north due to the unseasonably warm temperatures. While we were watching this heron, a Ruffed Grouse was busily drumming in the forest across the river.

Laurier Woods Trail, a complex of several kilometres of woodland trail at the edge of the city is always on my list of places to go when I am there. Woodland birds, in fact any birds, were almost non-existent on this trip at the time of day we were there. But it has some nice views amongst the rocks, hills, trees and wetlands. If it wasn't for the some general industrial noise from time to time, one would think you were really out in the wilds, and not within the city limits of an urban area of more than 50,000 people and related industry to be expected at this Gateway to the North.

There are a couple of places we often like to stop at along the route, and on this second trip, we checked them out. The first place is Brooks Falls, a few kilometres east of Hwy 11. I have photographed it at all seasons, and each time it is different. The light was a little too bright and contrasty for my photographic preference, as I like to do some slow shutter speed photography to get the silky smooth look to the water. It is a little tricky getting down to the bottom of this river, where the best angles can be had. With the less than ideal lighting conditions, I didn't risk it and had to be satisfied with the upper view.

Here are a few from previous visits, with the first one being one of my favourites, taken in October of 2012, and from the lowest level one could get to.

On one occasion we went north in winter. This shows what it was like in March, 2012.

Another typical stop we make is at this lake, right along Hwy 11, a bit north of Huntsville. Obviously the peak of the colours is past, but the golden Tamaracks are a nice view towards the end of the autumn season, especially when intertwined with the dark green spruce trees.

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