Strange Gulls in Pt. Edward today

I am in the middle of moving agin, so will have to look at all the photos later, to see what species are here.

American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos) or a Fish Crow (Corvus ossifragus)?

The question, inspired by creeping one my favourite blogs: Ontario Birds and Herps which describes a recent rare sighting, is answered in an interesting article: http://www.birds.cornell.edu/crows/FishCrow.htm

The short answer, according to the article: Ask the bird if it's an American Crow.  If it's a Fish Crow it will emphatically proclaim "uh uh!" 

Birding Gadgets

SNOWIE

We saw a SNOWY OWL again tonight around 5:30pm between Centre Rd and Hickory Drive just north of Egremont Drive in a tree. 

Dramatic Chicken Portraits

Winter Starling Flock

London Line east of Sarnia an incredible amount of starlings land on the tree beside me, then simultaneously take flight.

Today at the head of the St. Clair River, again there were many Long-tailed Ducks and Buffleheads.   Goldeneyes and Common Merganser are also around, but less plentiful. A couple Readheads, Scaups, a Hooded Merganser, a Ring-necked Duck, Mallards and Canada Geese are hanging around Bridgeview Marina.  The highlight though was the Pergrine Falcon that swooped over head.  Too in awe to take pictures of that one.

Birding at the head of the St. Clair River

Morning at Venetian Village

This sunny morning at dawn two muskrats sat on the ice eating beside the mallards, geeses and bufflehead that were just waking.

Winter walk day 2 - White-winged Scoter

This looks like a juvenile or 1st winter bird. White-winged scoters are usually fairly uncommon to the area, but today the bird made a visit to the Strathroy Resevoir just beside the start of the path at the SCRCA admin. office.

Wintery walk

Nothing much to report: a sunny walk in the wintery woods at Strathroy CA.

At Canaterra Park tonight we spied a small fox walking on frozen Lake Chipican. When we shone our headlights onto him, he disappeared into the phragmites.

My first snowy owl sighting

Jake spied this snowy owl just outside of Strathroy on Egremont Rd. just east of Seed Rd. According to Wikipedia:

The Snowy Owl is typically found in the northern circumpolar region, where it makes its summer home north of latitude 60 degrees north. However, it is a particularly nomadic bird, and because population fluctuations in its prey species can force it to relocate, it has been known to breed at more southerly latitudes. During the last glacial, there was a Central Europe Bubo scandiacus gallicus, but no modern subspecies are recognized.

Here is a link to the location and another photo:

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/64265108