Waterbird photo ops

One of the highlights of this time of year is the photographic opportunities for water birds. The bird migration is just getting underway in late winter, and where there are bits of open water water birds, and in particular water fowl, are sure to show up. If those bits of open water can be approached easily, the photo ops can be tremendous. But with the rain and warmer weather (finally!) in the immediate forecast, those photo opportunities will be diminishing as quickly as the open water increases. Waterfowl are in their most colourful breeding plumage right now, and sometimes the males can be seen going through their impressive displays in their attempts to attract the attention of a potential mate.

The Thames River just downstream from Chatham has been very worthwhile lately, as the water treatment plant pours water into the river, maintaining at least some open water in even the coldest weather.

There are always a few of the most common species, such as Canada Goose and Mallard.

 Mallards are usually one of the most common ducks here in southwestern Ontario most of the year. Birders don't have to seek them out, as if any ducks are around, Mallards are most likely to be found; although birders have been known to say "Oh, it's just a Mallard" before looking for something less common, a male in breeding plumage is really quite an attractive duck.

Far less common at the Thames River location is American Black Duck, although at places like the Erieau harbour area, they can outnumber Mallards in the winter.

Some of the highlights found at the Thames River location in recent days are the following:

Common Goldeneye

Gadwall

Green-winged Teal pair

Hooded Merganser

 Most of the time the crest is down, but when it is trying to impress a female, it will raise it up.

Northern Pintail pair

Northern Shoveler

Sewage lagoons can be a good location to check. The Ridgetown lagoons on the north side of the road were still frozen over yesterday with no waterfowl except for two Canada Geese on the bank, but the ones on the south side had an open stretch of water with a variety of waterfowl. The light is never all that great looking into the sun, so the cloudy day made it a little more satisfying even though the birds were not very close. There were a couple of less common birds there, including these two Snow Geese, with both a snow and a blue phase.

 Much less expected was this Long-tailed Duck! It is much more likely to be seen on large bodies of water such as the nearby Great Lakes and the St. Clair and Detroit Rivers. I'm not sure if one has ever been seen at these lagoons before.

Other spots with a bit of open water will attract other water birds. The creek along Stefina Line southeast of Blenheim has been reasonably reliable for Wilson's Snipe yet again this winter, but in the last few days there have sometimes been two seen. It is entirely possible that they have both been winter residents, as this species doesn't normally arrive on migration quite yet, and there has been a good stretch of open water in this creek for most of the winter. Lately a Killdeer has been seen along with them. This next photo show all three birds sort of together, with the Killdeer on the left and the two snipe on the right. The far one is not in focus, however.

Earlier in this post I mentioned that waterfowl can sometimes be seen involved their courtship displays. One really needs to have a video to illustrate this, but I haven't achieved that yet. One of the more entertaining species, at least from a birder's perspective, is the Red-breasted Merganser.

Exciting times are ahead!

You can tell spring is on its way...

...because there are more dead mammals along the roadsides!

It is unfortunate, but true. I have seen more dead mammals along the road sides during these last few 'warmer' days than I would normally see.

 This Raccoon was along a road at Rondeau. Raccoons are sometimes out on warm days even in the depths of winter, so in a way to see one out on a warm early spring day is not surprising. However this one was likely sick. Its swollen feet are said to be indicative of distemper. Cloudy eyes may also be noticed, but I couldn't tell with this one. Distemper is a relatively common affliction in Raccoon populations, especially when numbers are fairly high. At any rate, for some reason this one apparently did not have the ability to climb onto the snow piled along the plowed roads and in its weakened state, may just have died. There were no obvious injuries.

This Virginia Opossum, on the other hand, did show signs of injury. One can see a bit of blood on the snow right in front of its nose. It likely got struck by a vehicle. Opossums used to be extremely rare in Ontario. There are various theories as to how they arrived. But it was always believed that the severe winters were particularly hard on them and was a limiting factor in their survival for those that did show up on the southern Ontario landscape. Their tail, ears and nose is exposed skin and very susceptible to extreme cold. Sometimes these extremities show signs of frost bite. Given the severity of this current winter (locally it was said to be the coldest February on record), as well as the previous winter, I expect many Opossums are having a tough time. Perhaps this individual was in a weakened state as well and not able to avoid the traffic.

I have also seen (and smelled) skunks along the road sides. Probably all of these dead critters will be just what the soon-to-arrive Turkey Vultures will need in order to survive!

While at Rondeau a couple of times this week, I saw Eastern Chipmunks out. They weren't cooperative for photography...when they saw my camera move in their direction, they immediately retreated into a hole in the snow bank! This image below is one from another time.

White-tailed Deer are not numerous, but plentiful enough, and can be seen especially along the eastern side of the park. Their somewhat reduced numbers (compared to last fall) likely enabled them to survive the winter in reasonable health.

There have been reports of Tundra Swans arriving in southern Ontario over the past few days. However they don't seem to be setting down anywhere quite yet.....probably the snow covered fields and ice covered lakes have a lot to do with it!

Lake Erie off of Rondeau

Panoramic view of some southeast beach dunes looking over Lake Erie

As is often the case, bird feeders are where the action is. Along with the more abundant regulars, I noted these individuals at the Rondeau Visitor Centre.

Eastern Towhee male, present since mid January

Northern Cardinal

White-breasted Nuthatch

Where there is any open water, a few ducks are likely to occur. I hadn't been to the warm water outlet along the Thames River at the west side of Chatham lately, so yesterday I included a short side-trip to see what was there. The number of birds overall had declined considerably from earlier visits, with only about 35 Mallards, and a handful of other species present.

One of the first things that caught my eye was this Merlin, getting a drink of water from a puddle in the parking lot! 

Green-winged Teal

 One of the several dozen Mallards coming and going from the opening.

A hybrid between a Mallard and a domestic type of duck

Redhead

Common Merganser

One of the things I often wonder about when viewing ducks in such situations is just what kind of water quality is being returned to the river. I know that water treatment plants are designed to remove serious organic material from human waste and such, but what about all the inorganic things? There are likely many hundreds of chemicals, perhaps some of which are quite nasty (e.g. pharmaceutical prescriptions, including antibiotics and hormonal pills, fertilizers, chemical cleansers, etc), that are sent through our municipal plumbing systems and to the water treatment plant. Even though they are watered down, a lot of them aren't removed, and so anything that uses the water to live in or drink from downstream will be ingesting those nasty things. Do we want to really know all of the impacts of such things accumulating in our bodies, or those of the wildlife? It is a scary thought.....but something to consider as we dispose of expired prescriptions, etc.

On the way home, I noticed some White-tailed Deer feeding in the lowland along a riparian area.

And some good news for those who have not appreciated the presence of so many American Crows these past few months. It is now mid-March and as the days lengthen, the crows will be wandering farther and farther from the Chatham roost, and won't feel as compelled to return to it at the end of the day. So Chathamites take heart....there will now be some respite from the crow masses until mid October!

Open water is where the action is....

The trouble is, with so much snow and cold, there is very little open water anywhere. But thanks to some warm water outlets strategically located, there are some areas worth visiting.

A couple of days ago I had to be in London, so I decided to look for the Harlequin Duck which had been reported along the Thames River on several occasions recently. The good news was that it was seen the day before I was to be in London. So I struck out along the river at Springbank Park, hiking upstream and downstream for a total of at least 5 kilometres looking through all sorts of waterfowl. Unfortunately I struck out on seeing the Harlequin, too.

These first two photos show how open part of the Thames River is, and there are lots of ducks and geese scattered along. This open water is primarily the result of a warmwater outlet just around this corner of the Greenway water treatment plant. The river immediately upstream of this outlet is frozen solid as far as one can see. There are some other open sections closer to the Fanshawe Dam.

In spite of not seeing the Harlequin, there were lots of other species to search through.

Mallards and Redhead

Canvasback

Common Merganser

Hooded Merganser

Long-tailed Duck

I noted 12 species of waterfowl altogether.....not bad considering the time of year and on an inland water way!

I also had an immature Bald Eagle soar over a couple of times, not very close, however.

And along the path were places where people had scattered peanuts and other goodies for landbirds, so Black-capped Chickadees and Northern Cardinals were quite noticeable.

The next day I decided to go up along the St. Clair River, since I hadn't been there for well over a month. As has been reported regularly on Blake's Blog, much of the river is packed with ice, especially along the Ontario side. There were the usual ducks scattered in the open patches around the Sombra ferry dock, and a few open patches along the shoreline in the Branton Cundick park area. Elsewhere I was surprised at how much open water there was north of Bickford Line to the Mooretown area, but was clogged with ice north of Guthrie Park.  A warmwater outlet north of Bickford Line was helping keep some of the area open, and due to the very cold weather, caused steam to come off the water.

There were small groups of waterfowl, including Mute and Tundra Swans mixed in with Canvasback, Common Goldeneye and others.

Mute Swan

Tundra Swan

One species I hadn't expected was Ring-necked Duck, but there were two males resting in a quiet place along the river edge at one point.

On the return home, I drove through parts of the former Dover Township where up until recently, as many as 10 or more Snowy Owls could be found within view of the roads. But either it was too cold or too breezy or a poor combination of both conditions...I didn't see a single one. In fact the only raptor I saw of any kind was this adult Bald Eagle immediately across from the St. Clair NWA, feasting on some unrecognizable torn apart critter.

A few crows were nearby, presumably hoping for some scraps, but staying a safe distance so they didn't end up as dessert after the main course!

Yesterday I decided to check the warm water outlet along the Thames River a bit downstream from the Keil Drive bridge here in Chatham. It is about the only open water for miles, and the following image shows just how small it has become. Earlier in the winter it was up to 10 times this size, extending for at least a couple of hundred metres downstream.

If you look closely to the left of the ducks, you may be able to see an abundance of snowmobile tracks.

Apparently the ducks have become nonchalant about snowmobiles.....at one point while I was watching, three machines came roaring by, one which was no more than 3-4 metres from the edge of the resting birds.

The good thing about the open water area being this small is that the ducks that remain are much more concentrated. There were about 350 Mallards here, mostly resting on the ice but also vigorously chasing one another in the water or taking short flights around the area. Someone brings corn to the nearby parking lot from time to time, which has provided much-needed sustenance to these birds which I am sure has helped their energy levels.

Some of the Mallards even had time and energy to do some duck yoga :-).

I noted eight species of ducks here altogether.....not bad for such a tiny opening.

Common Merganser

Common Goldeneye

 At one point I watched this Common Goldeneye practice its neck-stretching and head bobbing in preparation for courtship. But he was a loner.....there were no females to be wooed.

Green-winged Teal

Lesser Scaup

Redhead

Canvasback

A trip through parts of rural Chatham-Kent shortly after enabled me to see several loose flocks of Wild Turkey. They are quite bold, and presumably quite hungry, seeking out the shallower areas of snow in the hopes of finding something to eat. There were at least 30 birds in 5 flocks altogether.

Interestingly the raptors seem to have almost vanished. In driving about 500 kilometres across mostly rural parts of Middlesex, Lambton and Chatham-Kent in the last three days, I saw a grand total of the two Bald Eagles noted above, and only two Red-tailed Hawks! And the latter two birds were in a dead tree adjacent to a weedy pasture. I guess most raptors have left for warmer places, or at least better meal time options.