On the 28th of Oct, a female King Eider was reported by one Tom Hince from Port Huron, and was seen a little later off the Ontarian(?) side as well. Unfortunately I didn't see the posting about it till I got home from work that day (nearly sunset), buuutt, figured I had a chance to get it the next day, and I was right! The next day (29th), my dad and I were able to go looking for it because we needed to go to Sarnia anyways! So we got there shortly after 5:00, spent some time going through the (annoyingly) distant scoters in search of the bird.. after a good 10min of scanning, I picked out a brownish bird with a dark bill and a fairly tall forehead.. Got it! King Eider (#257)! Yes #257 for my Lambton Big Year! Where did the other 6 birds since the last post come from? Well I will tel you.....in the next few paragraphs.
After finding the Eider (which was a LIFER by the way), I spent a good time doing one of 2 things... 1 taking crappy phone-through scope pics of the bird (ended up taking 200+ pics.. only 3 are ID'able'ish) and 2 sorting through Bonaparte's Gulls on the other side of the bay/river, which is where I got my second new bird of the day, Little Gull (#258). There were at least 2 individuals over there.
So the first new bird I got after #250 was #251..(no really!) This bird was seen briefly in flight in Pinery PP. And the identity of the bird wassssss.....wait for it.....a Ruffed Grouse.. Yeah I bet you guys were expecting something a little more exciting then that.. But still new for year none the less! Second bird was at Forest Sewage Lagoons, one bird that I have spent much time looking for at lagoons this fall, a Long-billed Dowitcher (#252) which occured on the 20th of Oct by the way. As well as my next new bird, located at the no long flooded Modland Rd Rain "puddle". Which this day had over a thousand geese! Most were Canadian, but a quick search with bins showed up I believe it was 4 Snow Geese, and a single Ross's Goose (#253). I did not spend the time searching for anything like Cackling Geese, frankly because the sun was going down and I was kinda lazy..
The next three occured during the OFO trip lead by Maris Apse.
On this trip, we started out at Grand Bend beach doing a lake watch.. There must have been at least 50 loons seen from there! Can you guess what 254 is based on that?
Well I think most of you have guessed....WRONG. #254 was a Black Scoter.. Which in all honesty I thought I had this year until I wrote up my eBird Checklist.. #255 was I'm presuming you guessed before.. Red-throated Loon. I was able to pick out at least 2 there over the water, but I'm guessing some flew over un-ID'd by myself. Also at this location were 3 Eagles, most only saw 2, 2 Peregrines, and a Merlin was seen by only 3 of us. Scoter wise, 12 White-winged, 15+ Black, and one Surf flew by soon after I got myself set-up.
Next stop for the trip was Grand Bend Sewage Lagoons. A Sewage lagoon a really dislike, not because how bad it is or anything like that, but because it is about 200m outside Lambton County.. Which means anything I see there can't count for my county list.. The first two cell's at this location were fairly barren, though a small group of Greater Scaup flew from the first cell when we got there. The third cell was quite good for ducks. Shortly into my scan, I spotted a Grebe.. and said to myself "that looks totally Eared!" After quite a bit of research by all of us it turned out to be an Eared Grebe! Also notable at the lagoons a Tree Swallow, a Northern Shrike (first of fall), and a rather curious Red-necked Grebe which came from the opposite side of the lagoon to within 20-30ft of shore for superb looks. That day we also went to Pinery PP and Kettle Point.. Nothing much of note at the Pinery, just the resident titmice and a common merganser. At Kettle Point many of us, excluding me, got their first Snow buntings of fall, also there were a few scoters, Greater Blackbacked Gulls, at least 2 distant Horned Grebes sitting on the water, and I managed a look at a single flying Red-necked Grebe (#256)
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| King Eider second from left |
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| Red-necked Grebe through scope |
Good Birding!
