Mid 'Winter' Birding?

 OK technically, early to mid February is mid-winter, but with temperatures sometimes being like late March or even early April, it has felt anything but winter. I don't mind not having to shovel snow, however.

We did have a bit of snow in mid-January, and so the Mourning Dove nest that was occupied in late summer.....

....was now looking like this.

 But since then, I am sure even some of the not-so-regular winter birds are even a bit confused. Things like American Robins have been fairly widespread, even plentiful at times.

Killdeer are beginning to show up in widespread areas. Perhaps some of them never really left southwestern Ontario.

Areas that typically are partly to totally frozen over, such as the Thames River at Jeannette's Creek, just upstream of where it outlets into Lake St. Clair, is mostly wide open.

No Great Egrets here like has happened occasionally in the past, but typically three or more Great Blue Herons are hanging out within sight of the boat launch.

When the river is mostly frozen over, but with some open spots remaining, there can be a concentration of water fowl. And when that happens, there can be a concentration of Bald Eagles perched on trees along the river, keeping and eye open for an available injured bird to swoop down upon. On one occasion when these conditions occurred, I counted at least 28 eagles from this vantage point!

Elsewhere in wetland areas that are sometimes open and sometimes frozen over, there are lots of waterfowl using them. The Ridgetown Sewage Lagoons are productive, but mostly for Canada Geese. However there is often a much rarer goose species mixed in amongst them, such as a Snow Goose. In this case it is a young blue-phase Snow Goose, showing the mostly dark body and blotchy white head....

...as well as a Greater White-fronted Goose, or Speckle-belly, with its orange bill, white at the base, and brownish feathering with black bands across the belly.

Both species are smaller than the average Canada Goose, so sometimes are hard to pick out when they are at a distance or mixed in with a lot of other geese. If the head of the White-front is not visible, sometimes the orange legs are. This next photo shows all three species together.

Canada Geese are by far the most abundant.

In other wetland areas, and sometimes in roadside ditches, one can come across various duck species. I came across these Northern Shovelers near Bear Creek.

The males are quite striking.....

....this one is going through its plumage development, and in a few weeks will likely look as crisp and clean as the other male.

Along another roadside ditch I came across a pair of Wood Ducks. They are often quite skittish, even though the hunting season is over, and the female was a short distance away so I didn't get her photo. But I manages a couple of quick shots of the male from the vehicle as follows.

While I was out roaming around the former Dover Twp, I encountered this Snowy Owl. I had checked this spot on numerous occasions over the past few weeks, as this general area often has one or more Snowies, but this year they have been hard to find. This is my first one of the winter.

It is barely a record shot, as it was several hundred metres from the road. With my telephoto lens combination, and further cropping, it is shown at about 100X magnification!

I've been to Rondeau a couple of times in recent days....no big surprise there. Birds have been quite widely scattered, and not always photograph-able. I managed to get this White-breasted Nuthatch as it scurried around a tree trunk....

 

 The long-staying Red-headed Woodpecker continues in its usual little wooded patch at the corner of C-K Rd 15 an Wildwood Line.

 

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Some early January birding

 First of all, the American Birding Association has just declared what its 2024 Bird of the Year will be. It is the Golden-winged Warbler, a beautiful and uncommon species at least here in Ontario.

Here in the southwest of Ontario, you may see one on occasion furtively rummaging around some shrubby areas, but seldom see more than one on spring migration, and not typically as out in the open as this one, which I photographed at Rondeau a few years ago.

More seasonal, at least given the mild, snow-free conditions that we have been experiencing these first few weeks of winter, are a few birds that have not been forced to migrate to areas farther south. Indeed as most Christmas Bird Counts would indicate, there have been some lingering birds. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, at Rondeau (but which I haven't been able to catch up to) has been seen periodically even after the count, as has this Red-headed Woodpecker.

Sandhill Cranes are still present in greater than usual numbers, such as this partial group of 36 I saw up near Bear Creek Unit of SCNWA a few days ago. Clearly the lack of snow has made it easier for them to remain.

The St. Clair NWA Christmas Bird Count, which I compile and was held as usual, on New Year's Day, resulted in a rather surprising 88 species, and included record numbers of these Sandhill Cranes. We had 25 species of waterfowl, including Trumpeter Swan for only the second time. Waterfowl are one of the more abundant groups of birds that make or break this count. With all of the water remaining open, there were birds everywhere. Unfortunately there were excellent wetland areas that we did not have access to, which undoubtedly caused some species to go unseen and thus uncounted. We did have new high counts for things like Golden Eagle, presumably two different birds, and an amazing 193 American Robins! A Great Egret was seen, for only the second time on this count. A new high for Greater White-fronted Goose, 6 birds, was also recorded, three of which are shown in this next photo. Two birds are quite obvious, but if you look closely, you can see the orangey legs of another bird hidden behind the much larger Canada Goose on the left.

So in spite of the dull, dreary weather with brisk NW winds to contend with, the count was quite successful. We have had 90-93 species on other occasions but our past 10 year average is about 81.

I've been here and there since then, and have seen several Great Blue Herons, such as this one along the Thames River at the Jeanette's Creek boat launch (it was upstream and across the river, so not easy to get a very good photo of).

 In the northern part of the former Dover Twp, I had these Canvasback at Mitchell's Bay. While doing a waterfowl survey a few days after the bird count, I had an amazing number of Canvasback, about 4000, in a raft out on Lake St. Clair.

This Merlin allowed me a couple of photos before deciding to leave....

.....as did this Rough-legged Hawk.

The dull skies were anything but good for this type of photography, as you can tell.

Erieau was the place to be for a good diversity of water birds. Certainly the highlight has been this female Harlequin Duck, which first showed up on New Year's Day and has been seen daily, although not always very close.

There were a few Greater Scaup, shown next.....

...as well as Lesser Scaup, told by it slight crest towards the back of the head as well as a thinner dark blue patch at the tip of the bill.

Red-breasted Mergansers are present by the hundreds, although not always very close.

A couple of Double-crested Cormorants are still present, a bit unusual for the time of year, but not surprising due to the weather and open water.

Gulls are around, also not surprisingly, such as this young Great Black-backed Gull....

...and this smaller Herring Gull, an almost full adult shown next....

....and a full adult shown here.

The smaller yet, Ring-billed Gull adult with its obvious ring bill and yellow legs, are not as plentiful, but there are still a few around.

Many of these gulls will be noticeable by their absence over the next few weeks, if winter actually arrives, before returning later in the winter.

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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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