Yesterday I arrived at 8am in Southampton to meet the BBC for an outing (led by Norah Toth & Judy Duncan) around the southern part of the county. The day started out at -7°C with sun and nonexistent wind, not bad birding weather! Our first stop was the Southampton Harbour, this turned out to be our best stop of the day. As I was scanning a flock of Common Goldeneyes, something popped up among them... a King Eider! For the next 20 minutes we watched it swimming/occasionally diving right offshore.
 |
| - King Eider |
 |
| - King Eider and Common Goldeneye |
Getting a great view of a county lifer was pretty exciting way to start the day! King Eider is a rare visitor to Bruce County, with only 8 accepted records on eBird. Bob and Anne-marie had a male 1st winter KIEI at their place last week, so it's likely the same one
(This bird).
Some other things that were kicking around the harbour needed me to take their photos...
 |
| - Common Goldeneye showing off to the eider |
 |
| - Bufflehead |
 |
| - Red-breasted Merganser |
 |
| - Long-tailed Ducks |
Our next stop was a house with a feeder, which I wasn't expecting to be very productive because feederbird numbers have been really down this winter in Bruce. I was pleasantly surprised though! Just after we got out of our cars Bruce Edmunds spotted a Red-headed Woodpecker on the roof of a barn. This is a good bird for the county in the winter, Red-heads normally migrate south by November. The usual suspects were around the yard too, including 3 other woodpecker species (HAWO DOWO RBWO).
 |
| - Red-headed Woodpecker |
Unfortunately a House Sparrow decided to photobomb one of my shots..
For me, seeing Horned Larks on the shoulders of country roads is a sign that spring is around the corner, so it was fun seeing my first ones of the year fly up in front of our car.
 |
| - Horned Lark |
We spent the rest of the morning meandering around county roads and stopping at feeders from time to time. Highlights included; Red-tailed & Rough-legged Hawk, Snowy Owl, American Kestral, Northern Shrike, A Common Raven building a nest and Red-winged Blackbird.
 |
| - Rough-legged Hawk |
 |
| - Red-winged Blackbird |
After we had lunch in Paisley we made our way towards the Lake Huron shore, ending up at Baie Du Dore, which was our last stop for the day. During years when the lake freezes, Baie Du Dore can be excellent for waterfowl and gulls (becuase it's basically the only open water in the area). Most of Lake Huron is still open at the moment, so the bay is fairly quiet. Bald Eagles and Great Black-backed Gulls were still present in decent numbers and of course the resident Mute Swans were swimming around😞. Probably the highlight bird there was a distant Horned Grebe (yucky photo of it below).
Some gulls & goldeneyes flew close for pictures as well..
 |
| - Herring Gull |
 |
| - Herring Gull |
 |
| - Common Goldeneye |
 |
| - Horned Grebe |
The ice looked pretty cool too
We ended up at 39 species (5 FOY for me), not bad for early February. We really lucked out with the weather, sunny and relatively warm all day, which is all you can ask for in the winter.
Some other recent Bruce sightings below
- first Barred Owl of the year calling behind my place last weekend.
- On January 22nd a juv Gyrfalcon flew over my yard! Unfortunately I didn't have time to get my camera, so no pictures this time. (2 year yard-gyr streak!😱)
- a Northern Flicker that I saw flying South along the Huron shoreline.
 |
| - Northern Flicker |
- 6 Trumpeter Swans at the Rankin River Portage
- My big Purple Finch flock is still around, varying in numbers day to day (20-70 birds).
No comments:
Post a Comment