Eleven birders enjoyed near perfect conditions today for the Winter Birds of the Detroit River OFO outing. Subzero temperatures left Lake St. Clair completely frozen, which concentrated many waterfowl at the Detroit River mouth at Lakeview Park Marina where the outing started. Large numbers of Canada Goose, Canvasback, and Greater Scaup were present along w/ several Mallard, American Black Duck, Redhead, Common Goldeneye, and Common and Hooded Mergansers. Two Ring-necked Ducks and singles of Lesser Scaup, Red-breasted Merganser, and Ruddy Duck were also present. Gulls were unfortunately low in number but a Trumpeter Swan, two Wood Ducks, and 36 Great Blue Herons roosting together on the ice were additional highlights.
After Lakeview Park Marina we left for the Little River Pollution Control Plant and Little River Corridor Park to look for more waterfowl and search for passerines. Surprisingly four more Wood Ducks were present on the open waters of Little River w/ hundreds of Mallards. Here we also picked up a few American Robins, a Hermit Thrush, flyover Snow Buntings, several White-throated Sparrows, and another highlight of the day, an "Oregon" Dark-eyed Junco. A perched Sharp-shinned Hawk gave everyone great scope views. After lunch we visited St. Rose Beach along the Detroit River where 1,400 Canvasback and 500 Redhead were present along w/ a good assortment of expected wintering waterfowl, and another highlight of the day, six Long-tailed Ducks; a good count for the Detroit River at any time of year. Our next stop was the Ambassador Bridge for Peregrine Falcon but for the first time on this outing this 100% guaranteed species wasn't found despite a lengthy search. We finished the day w/ a walk through Ojibway Park enjoying close looks at regulars like Red-bellied Woodpecker, White-breasted Nuthatch, and Tufted Titmouse. Five Fox Sparrows was a great count for the winter and a Golden-crowned Kinglet offered close views. Our final highlight was a resting grey morph Eastern Screech-Owl that gave everyone a good opportunity for photos. In total we ended up w/ 50 species and 6,306 individual birds. Our eBird trip report can be found at https://ebird.org/tripreport/319121. Jeremy Hatt & Kory Renaud -- Ontbirds and Birdnews are moderated email Listservs provided by the Ontario Field Ornithologists (OFO) as a service to all birders in Ontario. Birdnews is reserved for announcements, location summaries, first of year reports, etc. To post a message on Birdnews, send an email to: birdnews@ontbirds.ca. If you have any questions or concerns, contact the Birdnews Moderators by email at birdn...@ofo.ca. Please review posting rules and guidelines at http://ofo.ca/site/content/listserv-guidelines To find out more about OFO, please visit our website at ofo.ca or Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/OntarioFieldOrnithologists.
