Snowy Owl, Geese and more

Early December has settled in, bringing a bit of snow with it. And that means snowy creatures as well as the white stuff.

A few days ago I roamed around part of the former Dover Township north of home and eventually came across my first of season Snowy Owl.

At first it wasn't very close to the road, and I had a hard time determining it was an owl. But after stopping and looking more closely, and then having the owl chase a small group of Snow Buntings, it at least got close enough for a distant photo that turned out okay even after being heavily cropped. The light was good, so that helped with the result. What intrigued me was the blood patch on its lower belly. As the bird had not seemed to have trouble flying, and always appeared quite alert, I concluded that it was left over from a meal it had recently fed on. Perhaps a rabbit that drenched the owl with its blood as it was in its dying throes?

Later that day, as the sky was clear, I managed to get some photos of the almost full moon. The forecast for the actual full moon was to be cloudy, so this one a day earlier was about 99% full.

A day or so later, I headed to Ridgetown, as there are always lots of geese and swans. A few Snow Geese had been reported regularly. The light was good, but waterfowl are particularly leery about getting too close to humans during the hunting season, and these birds were always on the far side of the far pond. There were 9 Snow Geese, including one blue phase. This first image shows 3 of the adult Snows and the one blue to the right.

This next image shows a juvenile Snow Goose, still featuring its grayish young feathers

This next photo shows 7 Snow Geese. The one white goose a bit towards the right of centre and a bit closer is a much rarer Ross's Goose. It is definitely smaller than the Snow Geese.

Aside from its smaller size, a close look shows a bit more of a rounded top of the head, a bluish patch at the base of the bill and it doesn't have the classic 'grin' patch that Snows have.

Among other waterfowl were lots of Mallards.....

...and Tundra Swans, although most of the swans were either flying over or already feeding in a harvested corn field about half a kilometre away. There were only half a dozen in the lagoons.

Later that day I went to Rondeau. I had thought about going to Erieau, as it was quite windy and I was thinking about trying for some wave photos overshooting the pier, such as this one that I got a few years ago.

However the wind was more due south, and for photos like this, it is better if they are east or southeast. So I contented myself with a hike down the east side of the park's South Point Trail. There was lots of wave action, which results in erosion.

When the lake gets riled up, lake freighters sometimes come in relatively close. One hardly ever sees them from the park unless the conditions are tough. No one wants to end up like the Edmund Fitzgerald, although Lake Erie never seems to get that riled up, fortunately. This one is the Algoma Enterprise.

While watching this freighter, I also saw lots of ducks flying, and remarkably they were flying straight into the strong winds. Most were Red-breasted Mergansers, hundreds of them...

Some groups had other species mixed in, such as this group of scaup which are in the middle front of this next photo. From the looks, there were both Lesser and Greater Scaup.

A check of the campground can be worthwhile, as the extensive open but shrubby habitat is great for attracting, and observing birds. There wasn't a huge diversity on this day, and not many wanted to be photographed, but I did manage to get these next two species. American Tree Sparrows, shown first, are starting to arrive in larger numbers in the last few days.

It seems to have been a good year for this ongoing resident species, Carolina Wren, as they can be seen or heard regularly in the more open parts of the park.

A quite late Blue-gray Gnatcatcher has been seen in the campground occasionally, but not by all who have been looking for it. Maybe tomorrow, or.....

4W weather = Sabine's Gull, etc

The very recent 4W (wild, windy, wacky and weird) weather is a time that birders (and photographers) love to see arrive. One could use a few different synonyms to describe the weather, such as tempestuous, rough, inclement, turbulent, violent, etc. and all would fit. It is unusual for the strong northeast to east winds to be sustained for several days.

It is not a time that is likely appreciated as much by the birds or other types of wildlife, as it can be stressful in finding food and shelter, and migrants are sometimes blown off course from their usual routes. Of course such winds from these directions may hasten the migration of certain types of birds, such as raptors, as evidenced by significant movements observed at the various hawk watches. And when watching some of the gulls and terns over the lake these last few days....well it almost seems as if some of these strong fliers revel in it.

These conditions are instrumental in shaping the landscape, particularly shorelines, as anyone who has waterfront property can attest. Sand spits in particular, being initially formed by water currents and wave action, are also altered by them.

I've shown this first photo previously, but it is relevant to today's post. The pier provides shelter from the prevailing winds and waves, but it also interrupts the shoreline currents and causes long-term deposition of sand on one side. This results in the severe loss and erosion on the other side. Before this pier was constructed in the 1800s, the beach of Erieau on the left more or less aligned with the south beach of Rondeau Provincial Park, on the right. This photo taken in 1989 shows how much a century or more of interference with the normal water currents has modified the shoreline. Erieau is being built up, and anyone who has been to Rondeau is well aware of the major erosion along the shorelines there.

These next few photos show what was happening at Erieau in the last few days. Clearly it was not advisable to be walking out on the pier! Even the gulls, terns, cormorants and shorebirds which are often seen there were not doing so these days. The first three images were taken on Friday.

 The next images were taken on Saturday. Note the difference in the colour of the water....clearly a muddier look to it due to the roiled lake. Needless to say, it was a thrilling (and damp) time to be so close to these forces of nature in action.

The beach is normally connected to the base of the pier at this point. The continuing spilling over of the waves has washed that away.

This next image shows the water pouring into the campground, which is at least 100 metres from the channel.

There were dozens, probably at least 100, Horned Grebes flying back and forth in the troughs formed by the waves. This group of 20+ was taking shelter in the relative quiet on the western side of the pier.

There were hundreds of gulls and terns flying along the lakeshore at times. Occasionally they would be soaring high up and other times they would disappear in the trough between the 3 metre high waves, only to wheel up again. When they got tired of this, they would come to rest on a quiet stretch of the beach. An occasional jaeger would be seen well out, and almost always too far away to conclusively identify it to species, but it was believed that all three species....Parasitic, Long-tailed and Pomarine.....had been seen.

A Black Tern was noted on a few occasions, and at one point came in close enough to attempt a photo.

Ducks of various species were seen, including scaup, mergansers and scoters, but always too far out to photograph. Small numbers of shorebirds were noted, including Black-bellied Plover, Sanderling and White-rumped Sandpiper. At one point a possible Purple Sandpiper flew by mixed in with some Sanderling.

Black-bellied Plover

White-rumped Sandpiper

There are at least a couple of Sanderling in the spilled-over water in foreground of this next image.

One of the main attractions of being at Erieau these last few days was the occurrence of up to four Sabine's Gulls. Given that they moved around a lot, it is impossible to know how many for sure, but this species was first noted on Wednesday and sometimes two or more were seen daily until Saturday. All were juveniles.

I first saw one on Wednesday afternoon. Steve Charbonneau had seen one shortly after day break that day. When I arrived mid-morning, he and I got side-tracked by the sight of a jaeger off in the distance. We are sure it was a Long-tailed, but cannot be conclusive due to the lighting and distance. At any rate, there was no further sign of the Sabine's. However later in the day when I returned to Erieau and started scanning the lake under much better light conditions, I did observe a Sabine's Gull out over the lake, and coming my way. In the few seconds it took to reach for my camera anticipating the bird getting within shooting distance....I lost it and did not see it again.

Fast forward to Saturday, and one or more were reported at various times, but never where I was. I was actually at the Rondeau entrance, in hopes that the sheltered area at the north end of the park would have a few gulls, terns, etc. There were gulls and terns, and rafts of ducks but I never looked through them all. It was then when Steve texted me to say that a Sabine's was on the water between the Erieau marina and the western tip of the Rondeau sand spit. Fifteen minutes later I was there, only to be advised that a Peregrine Falcon had come through moments earlier scattering the gulls. We looked and looked, and eventually noted the Sabine's flying with a few other gulls over the surf near the rocks east of the pier. After awhile, it returned to the relative quiet water along the Rondeau sand spit. It was a distant shot, with the bird bouncing around on the waves so focus was challenging, so most of my images were not kept. Here are a couple of the better ones. (Camera info: Canon 7DII, Canon 500mm II f/4, Canon 1.4X III, ISO 800-1600, 1/800-1/1600 sec, f/5.6 or f/4.5)

In between my times at Erieau, I ventured elsewhere to look around Rondeau Bay. Shrewsbury was a definite stop, as the sheltered area to the southwest of the dock area was good for gulls and terns. Upwards of 500 or more gulls, mostly Bonaparte's were arriving and resting on the water, but I couldn't see anything more unusual with them. A steady stream of Common Terns were passing through the area.

At least 20 Pied-billed Grebes and a few Horned Grebes were nearby. Some of the Pied-billed Grebes were right close to shore in the emergent vegetation.

Several small flocks of Rusty Blackbirds were working their way along the shoreline. These are the first I have seen this autumn.

In some of the larger drainage canals emptying into Rondeau Bay were some species taking shelter from the less favourable conditions on the bay.

Double-crested Cormorant

Redhead and Ruddy Duck

The weather looks like it is settling down for a few days, but who knows what has blown in waiting to be discovered? The occurrence yesterday of a Eurasian Dotterel along the Lake Huron shoreline is tantalizing, to be sure, but what else is out there?