Eagles, Buntings and Larks, Oh my!

We drove to South-east Lambton in hopes of finding some Eagles. We found both Golden and Bald Eagles, as well as a number of other species!

A grumpy looking Horned Lark!!

As we approached a 'T' intersection, 43 Horned Larks flew in circles around our car. I suggested that perhaps we were stopped where they wanted to land. Sure enough, after turning the corner and parking a bit down the road, the Horned Larks landed right at the stop sign! Horned Larks are social birds, sometimes found in huge flocks outside the breeding season. They creep along bare ground searching for small seeds and insects. They are more likely to be found on gravel roads when snow covers the fields.

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Horned_Lark/id

Bald Eagle, adult and juvenile: Adult Bald Eagles have white heads and tails with dark brown bodies and wings. Their legs and bills are bright yellow. Immature birds have mostly dark heads and tails; their brown wings and bodies are mottled with white in varying amounts. Young birds attain adult plumage in about 5 years.

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/bald_eagle/id

Immature Golden Eagle: We had some good looks at both adult and juvenile Golden Eagles through our binoculars, but they didn't want to pose for the camera! The Golden Eagle is one of Ontario's largest and most powerful birds of prey. The species is named for the golden-brown feathers on the back of its neck, head and upper wings, but the rest of the body is mostly dark brown. Young birds have lots of white visible on the base of the tail and in the interior of the wing, but the white colour will largely disappear by their fifth year.

https://www.ontario.ca/page/golden-eagle

Snow Buntings have sometimes been called 'Snowflakes' because they swirl through the air and then settle on fields. They spend the summer in the arctic tundra, nesting in rocky areas and foraging in patches of sedges and other vegetation. In the winter, they can be found in Southern Ontario in open fields, croplands with grain stubble, shorelines and roadsides. We found 2 flocks, each with 200+ birds!

https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/snow-bunting

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Snow_Bunting/lifehistory

23 Tundra Swans decided it was finally time to head south!

A Northern Shrike left its tree top roost as we stopped the car. They breed in open parts of the boreal forest and along the northern edge where the the boreal forest meets the tundra. Some will spend the winter in Southern Ontario when they find open habitat with groups of small trees and bushes.

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Shrike/id

A wooded area along Watterworth Road: Other than some old woodpecker holes, we didn't find any signs of bird life as we walked along the road. The birds had probably feasted before we arrived and were taking a rest at the time.

We spotted 19 Wild Turkeys on Lobella Drive. When looking through the binoculars, a Raccoon could be seen foraging for food amongst the Turkeys. They all seemed to be getting along! The raccoon is visible in the right 1/3 of the top photo.

 Children's Christmas Bird Count!

Volunteers across North America take part in Christmas Bird Counts each winter between December 14th and January 5th. Twenty-four children, 6-12 years of age (and their parents), participated in the 5th annual Children's Christmas Bird Count in Canatara Park on January 4th. The young birders were divided into 6 groups, each with an experienced leader. Each group walked their own trail section in the park. It was a cold day so activities wrapped up a little earlier than in past years.

Finding birds is often a case of being in the right place at the right time! My group was lucky to have a feeding station in our section where park visitors leave sunflower seeds. Almost all of the species that we saw during our walk were at this location. A few Black-capped Chickadees waited patiently in the bushes before flying to the food source, grabbing a seed and returning to the bush for safety.

At 14-17 cm in length, Downy Woodpeckers are North America's smallest Woodpecker.

House Sparrow on the left, and a White-breasted Nuthatch.

Northern Cardinal: Sunflower seeds are one of their favourite foods in the winter! My group called ourselves The Cardinals, because that was the first species that we saw.

A White-breasted Nuthatch stood in the typical "upside down" position.

Total Species and Total Numbers found by the whole group.

400 Long-tailed Ducks

40 Red-breasted Mergansers

1 Mourning Dove

42 Ring-billed Gulls

98 American Herring Gulls

1 Great Black-backed Gull

1 Glaucous Gull

2 Bald Eagles

2 Red-bellied Woodpeckers

6 Downy Woodpeckers

6 American Crows

13 Black-capped Chickadees

1 Tufted Titmouse

4 White-breasted Nuthatches

3 House Finch

32 American Goldfinch

7 Dark-eyed Juncos

8 Northern Cardinals

 A Very 'Birdy' New Year's Day!

Several birders headed to the waterfront to start a new birding list for 2025! We were lucky with the weather; cool but not frigid, and the sun even shone a bit! By the end of the second day of January, I had seen 63 species of birds...a good start for 2025!

The only circumpolar diving duck, the Greater Scaup, breeds across the tundra regions in both North American and Europe. Above, a female Greater Scaup bounces in the waves of the St. Clair River.

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/greater_scaup/overview

Of all the diving ducks, Long-tailed Ducks, spend the most time underwater. During foraging excursions, they spend 3 or 4 times as long underwater as they do on the surface!  

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Long-tailed_Duck/overview

The 'famous Rock Snake' along the St. Clair River at the Point Edward waterfront earned us an owl (species?) and Razorbill! 😏

The Swan Goose (Anser cygnoides) is a large goose with a natural breeding range in inland Mongolia, northernmost China, and the Russian Far East. While uncommon in the wild, this species has been domesticated. Introduced and feral populations of its domestic breeds occur in many places outside its natural range. (I have seen them in animal farms and on private farms. Perhaps we will get a local feral population in a few years??) They feed mainly on grasses, leaves, roots, sledges and water plants. 

https://animalia.bio/swan-goose

Bufflehead dive for aquatic invertebrates, crustaceans and mollusks. They usually swallow their food while still underwater.

https://www.ducks.ca/species/bufflehead/

A Cruise Ship is docked in Chemical Valley. Cruise Ships pass through the St. Clair River, but I have never seen one in transit. This ship appears to need some maintenance.

Another domestic duck: Domestic Mallard

We learned from friends that a Pileated Woodpecker was at Camp Saredaca in the morning. Although we didn't visit until the afternoon, it made an appearance, flying back and forth searching for bugs in dead tree stands. Pileated Woodpeckers drum slowly, accelerating and them trailing off at the end which distinguishes them from most other woodpeckers that drum at a steady rate. They can drum close to 17 beats per second and will perform 10 to 30 beats before taking a break!

https://www.audubon.org/news/10-fun-facts-about-pileated-woodpecker

Winter is the time to look for American Tree Sparrows in Southern Ontario. They breed in Northern Canada. Small flocks frequent snow-swept fields and bird feeders where they feast on seeds on the ground.

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/American_Tree_Sparrow/overview

 2024 Favourites!

As the year comes to a close, I reminisced about my favourite experiences.

The Dukes' Skipper is a very rare and local resident, restricted to extreme south-western Ontario. I had a nature connection with one on a hot July day. A Dukes' decided my sweaty skin was a good source of salt! It also found residue on my binoculars and stayed with me for almost 10 minutes, absolutely making my day!!

Cecropia Moth, June 21st. I was happy to find this one on my own!

A Grapevine Beetle surprised us when looking at the critters in our Moth Trap on July 13th.

During a bird inventory, we stopped to scan with our binoculars and a Grey Treefrog was resting right in front of me!! Another species that I was happy to find on my own!! June 6th.

A small plantation of PawPaw and Common Hoptree was planted locally a few years ago. The Hoptree (which is a species at risk) is a host plant for the Giant Swallowtail. One day I counted 14 caterpillars. I checked on them daily and on August 19th, found a "train" of Giant Swallowtail caterpillars on the branch!

Common Candy-stripe Spider June 13th: This beauty was in our backyard one night as I wandered around with a flashlight. I was waiting for moths to fly towards the UV light and land on the hanging sheet.

Although a little gruesome, I was fascinated by this experience on June 3rd. While watching a live teneral (freshly emerged from the nymph stage) damselfly species, an Eastern Forktail approached, grabbed the prey and severed the wings and abdomen from the rest of the body. It carried the abdomen to another leaf where it discarded the wings and proceeded to eat it. “Eat or be eaten!!”

I found the first Slender Orange-bush Lichen ever recorded in Canada! A Lichenologist came to Sarnia so he could confirm the species which is normally found along the Gulf of Mexico!

And a final cool experience was finding a Virginia Opossum high in a tree cavity on December 30th! It is Canada's only Marsupial! They are a nocturnal species, but during warm winter days, are sometimes active. After this individual had its picture taken, it turned around and went to sleep. Opossums have a wicked hiss and a mouthful of teeth that they will flash when scared, but they're actually sweet-tempered and don't bite unless forced to defend themselves. Apparently they never have rabies.

https://www.welcomewildlife.com/virginia-opossum-a-yards-ideal-visitor/

 We Saw The Sun!!

The sun was shining on Saturday morning and we made good use of the weather during a walk at the Brights Grove Lagoons. A minimum of 2,000 Canada Geese were on site.

By the time we had walked around the cells, the birds were almost entirely gone, probably to find food in nearby fields. At least 11 subspecies of Canada Geese have been recognized, although only a couple are distinctive. In general, the geese get smaller as you move northward, and darker as you go westward.

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Canada_Goose/id

A south wind was blowing and we had to dodge "flying chunks of fecal foam".

Two dozen American Goldfinch were scattered through the lagoons.

Woodpecker condominium! During the winter months, Downy, Red-bellied and even Pileated Woodpeckers can be found in this area.

We saw 22 species of birds but many were too far for photos. Good habitat for forest and field birds provided lots of shelter.

Back home in the afternoon, several insects could be found, thanks to the 12 degree Celsius temperatures. To survive the winter months, many insects go into diapause, which is a kind of hibernation. On sunny days in sheltered areas, some of the hardier species can be found moving around. An Asian Lady Beetle slowly opened and closed her wings on our Maple Tree.

False Milkweed Bug on the shed.

This may be a new species for me. My submission to iNaturalist suggests it could be a North American Tarnished Plant Bug.

American Winter Ant - also new to me.

Common Bagworm Moth: While scouring the backyard for insects, I found a few "Bagworm cases" on the brick wall. Larvae spin their own cocoon nest where they spend most of their life. The nest can be made of silk, twigs and bits of leaves. They are native to Canada.

https://leafyplace.com/bagworms/

Winter Crane Flies: This individual cannot be identified to the species level because the abdomen is not visible. I'll have to try for a belly photo another time! 😊😊