Ontbirders, Yesterday (Friday) at around 2:30pm there were roughly 6000 Tundra swans in open fields within the Jason Ford Soney Wildlife Refuge at the southern end of Walpole Island. As I watched a flock of about 2000 swans took off and flew southward towards Johnston Bay and Lake St. Clair. Also on Walpole Island several large flocks of 500+ Red-winged Blackbirds could be seen flying about en masse in various parts of the island. In the cattails to the east side of the swans their 'screes' were so loud that even the whistling of the swans could no longer be heard.
On the St. Clair river between Walpole I. and Sarnia I counted the following: 7 Mute Swans 2 Hooded Merganser 6 Red-breasted Merganser 16 Common Merganser 4 Bufflehead 3 Great Black-backed Gulls In Sarnia Bay, rough estimates of waterfowl numbers were as follows: 50 Ring-necked Ducks 25 Bufflehead 60 Redheads 6 Lesser Scaup 4 Common Goldeneye 6 Common Merganser DIRECTIONS: Walpole Island is a First Nations Reserve and is situated in the St. Clair River about 10kms west of Wallaceburg. Wallaceburg can be reached by taking Hwy 40 from either Chatham (north) or Sarnia (south). Kip Daynard Emsdale, Ontario
