Susan's Birding and Nature Blog

Sunday, 29 December 2024

Ducks and Herons - December 29, 2024

Greenway Park - December 24, 2024

I saw a nice variety of ducks today at the river.  The weather was milder, 0c and overcast.  The snow on the ground was wet and slushy.     

Green-winged Teal


Bufflehead

Hooded Mergansers

Ring-necked Duck

Common Goldeneye

Common Mergansers

The Great Blue Herons were high in the trees today.  There were 9 of them and one flyover.





December 26, 2024  - I was at Greenway again looking at the ducks and Great Blue Herons.

Common Mergansers

Green-winged Teals

Common Goldeneye

Bald Eagle - 3rd yr

Bald Eagle - Juvenile



December 28, 2024 - At Greenway again looking at the Great Blue Herons. Today there were 10.  I went to the Coves but nothing much there.  We actually had some sun today.







Sunday, 22 December 2024

Birding at the Coves - December 2024

December 16, 2024, The Coves

The water in the Coves are all frozen.  The Great Blue Herons I saw were in the trees.  

I was watching 8 Robins in the berry bushes.  All of a sudden, a Sharp-shinned Hawk came swooping down over the Robins and flew off.  The Northern Flicker was hanging around with the Robins, too.  Then from another direction, the Sharp-shinned Hawk came flying in again and scattered the Robins and Flicker and landed in a small tree.  I noticed it looking down at the ground and it flew down to a lower bush and started chasing a Northern Cardinal.  The hawk was right behind the cardinal following it around the field and the cardinal went low into a bunch of weeds and the hawk flew off.  The cardinal got away.  It was close!





Sharp-shinned Hawk


I stayed round and watch the interaction of the birds.  After a bit of time, the cardinal came out from the weeds and flew up to a bush.  This is the cardinal that was chased. He is safe.








Sunday, 15 December 2024

London CBC - December 14, 2024

London Christmas Bird Count (CBC), December 14, 2024

Weather   -11c, feels like -17c, very cold, sunny, snow on  ground

Time  8:00am to 1:00pm - 4 1/2 hours, a break at 10:30 to warm up at Tims

Where  Greenway Park

Distance  6.4 km

Species: 28  

Participants - 4

We started at the Greenway Park parking lot across from the lookout at Thames River.  We saw the usual resident birds, the white Domestic Goose, some Domestic Mallards and 2 Cayuga Ducks.  There were many Mallards, Canada Geese, Ring-billed Gulls, American Herring Gulls, and some Common Goldeneyes. 

Some of the birds we saw along the river were Canada Geese, Mallards, Common Mergansers, Hooded Mergansers. lots of Ring-billed Gulls at the water or flying above in flocks, American Herring Gulls, Common Mergansers, Hooded Mergansers, Common Goldeneyes, Bufflehead, American Black Duck, Green-winged Teals, Northern Pintail, and a female Lesser Scaup.  

There were one adult Bald Eagle and 3 immature Bald Eagles flying over.  A Red-tailed Hawk that just caught a mouse.

Never seen so many Great Blue Herons (12) at this time of the year.  Saw some flying over individually and six resting in trees at the cove with some flying off towards the Coves.

In the smaller bird category, 3 Golden-crowned Kinglets, American Goldfinches, Dark-eyed Juncos (18), Black-capped Chickadees, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Downy Woodpeckers, Northern Cardinals, White-breasted Nuthatch, Brown Creeper, Mourning Doves, House Sparrows and Starlings.  There were 5 American Crows.

We missed the American Robin and a Blue Jay!

We also saw 4 White-tailed Deer.

Common Mergansers

Common Goldeneyes (females)

Common Goldeneye

Hooded Mergansers

Green-winged Teal

Northern Pintail

Great Blue Herons




Tuesday, 10 December 2024

A Snowy Week In London

December 11, 2024

We got our first snowstorm this week in London.  About 2 ft of snow.  I went to Springbank Park the day after the heavy snowfall.  There were Canada Geese, Mallards, Common Mergansers, Ring-billed Gulls and it was nice to see a Northern Pintail.  I don't see them to often.  Lots of Dark-eyed Juncos, American Goldfinches, and Northern Cardinals.



Common Merganser

Northern Pintail

I went to Greenway Park to see what was around.  There were lots of Ring-billed Gulls and some American Herring Gulls.  Some Common Mergansers were around, Hooded Mergansers, Green-winged Teals (8), Great Blue Herons (6), and a couple of Bald Eagles flew by.  

Common Mergansers


Hooded Mergansers

Great Blue Heron


It was a nice surprise to find a Hermit Thrush!



Tuesday, 3 December 2024

Winter has Arrived - December 2024

November 30, 2024, I walked along Thames River to see what was around.  A Bald Eagle was up in a tree above me.  There were lots of Canada Geese, Mallards, Ring-billed Gulls, Green-winged Teals, Northern Flicker, Norther Cardinal, Black-capped Chickadees, Downy Woodpecker and Blue Jays.

The weather has been overcast and temperature around 0c to 2c.  We had no snow in November.





The photos below are from yesterday, December 2, 2024 in the snow storm.  There were eight Great Blue Herons together.