Life at the Pinery in October!

We headed to Pinery Provincial Park in hopes of seeing some winter finches such as Crossbills, Grosbeaks and Bohemian Waxwings. Late October/early November is traditionally a good time to see these species, but they are hard to find when the weather is warm enough for butterflies to be flying!! A beautiful Eastern Comma posed nicely along a trail. Eastern Commas will overwinter under tree bark or other sheltered area for the winter, emerging in March when the weather begins to warm up.

Autumn Meadowhawks are still finding mates this late in the season!

Boardwalk on Riverside Trail.

When we reached Beach #3, we found a large raft of ducks. Over 500 Red-breasted Mergansers were in the group along with a few Common Mergansers. Fly-bys included White-winged Scoter, Red-throated Loons, Common Loon, and Bonaparte's Gulls that were trying to steal food from the mergansers. 

Lots of interesting patterns on the beach! Receding water dragged sand past some pebbles.

An interesting set of tracks! A dime is beside the tracks in the lower photo to provide some scale. No sign of the actual critter, but possibly a spider? The critter left several linear tracks in one square cubic metre.

Beach art! This stump was attached to a tree trunk which was buried under the sand. The shape at the centre top seemed to resemble either an owl or otter, looking over its shoulder!

Feather trapped in the sand.

After moving away from the beach, we spotted 2 Golden Eagles soaring down the Ausable Cut. It was a good day for hawk movement as we also saw 6 Sharp-shinned Hawks, 6 Bald Eagles, and 4 Red-tailed Hawks!

Juniper berries were a big attraction for the Cedar Waxwings. We tried hard, but couldn't find a Bohemian Waxwing in the crowd. Cedar Waxwings are highly social, often seen in large flocks, especially when foraging. They are known for their cooperative feeding behaviour, passing berries beak to beak, down a row of birds!

https://www.birdfact.com/birds/cedar-waxwing

American Goldfinch, still sporting some of his yellow colour which will fade in the winter.

American Herring Gulls are one of the most familiar gulls of the East Coast and many people just call them "seagulls". Approximately 2 dozen different species of gulls live in North America, and not one of them has the species name of Seagull.

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

Morning fog on the Ausable Cut.

Green Frog, resting in the sun on the Ausable Cut.

New stairs providing protection to the fragile dune, leading to Lake Huron in the Dune's Campground.