The Pinery Jan. 3, 2020

We had an early start at The Pinery and were greeted with this view of the Ausable Cut.

Tufted Titmice (above) and White-breasted Nuthatches (below) were abundant as they searched for food at parking area #9.

Our surprise find was an Eastern Towhee, definitely not on the expected winter bird list!  He disappeared almost as quickly as he appeared in the undergrowth.

Much of the main road  at The Pinery is closed to vehicles during the winter months.  We parked and walked a 5.5 km loop to reach the Riverside Trail, one of my favourite trails at any time of the year.  A Merlin made a fly by and shortly thereafter we found this Blue Jay, "frozen in fear". He didn't want to twitch a feather until the Merlin was no longer a threat to his survival. Another "frozen in fear" bird was the Red-headed Woodpecker, below.  We were happy to add the woodpecker to our 2020 list!

Since we were already in North Lambton, we made the short drive to Greenway Road and found over 50 Tundra Swans taking a break from their southern journey .

Canatara Park continues to host a variety of bird species through the winter including this male Red-bellied Woodpecker whose head was glowing in the morning light!

A White-breasted Nuthatch showed the Downy Woodpecker who was boss.  The nuthatch chased off the woodpecker with an aggressive display of feathers.

Deryl was touring in the Corunna area yesterday and found a Snow Goose on Lasalle Line that I luckily had time to see before it flew off.

Early this morning, Deryl headed to the Solar Farm and found his first Short-eared owl of the year...a species that I will need to watch for now!