London CBC - December 20, 2025

 London Christmas Bird Count (CBC), December 20, 2025

Weather   -7c, feels like -12c, cold, overcast, lots of 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  6.7 km

Species: 25  

Participants - 3

I went to Greenway, December 18 to see what was around.  I saw 5 Green-winged Teals and a Northern Pintail.  The Thames River was very low so rocks were showing and the island was larger with a little sand bar so ducks were resting on the sandy area.  Parts of the river was frozen so the ducks were congregated in a smaller area.  I studied the Mallards and that is how I found the female Northern Pintail.  We've had very cold weather but Dec 18 and 19 became mild and we had rain and some snow melt.  

Northern Pintail (female) seen Dec 18

The day of the CBC, December 20, the river was very high and fast flowing.  That changed on what birds we saw.  

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, and some Domestic Mallards.  There were a lot of Mallards, some Canada Geese and American Black Ducks mixed in....Ring-billed Gulls were flying above.  

Some of the birds we saw walking along the river were Canada Geese, Mallards, Common Mergansers (19), Hooded Mergansers (5), Common Goldeneyes (28), Bufflehead (9), and we were lucky to see one Green-winged Teal.  We didn't find the Pintail.  Apparently, there was a Pied-billed Grebe found the first of the week but I could not find it on December 18 and did not find it for CBC count.

There was one adult Bald Eagle flyover and 2 Red-tailed Hawks.

Was saw 3 Great Blue Herons flying over.

In the smaller bird category, Dark-eyed Juncos, Black-capped Chickadees, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Downy Woodpeckers, Northern Cardinals, White-breasted Nuthatch, Brown Creeper, Mourning Doves, House Sparrows and Starlings.  Just one Crow and one Blue Jay.

We missed the American Robin!

American Black Ducks

Red-tailed Hawk

Many Mallards and Canada Geese

Winter Birding in December 2025

 December 14, 2025

I have been out birding.  I'm seeing all the regular birds the last few weeks.  Winter is here as we have a lot of snow now, ponds are frozen over and the Thames River is starting to freeze in some sections.  The ducks I've seen lately are Mallards, Common Mergansers, Hooded Mergansers, Common Goldeneyes, Buffleheads and American Black Ducks.

Red-tailed Hawk

American Robins finding a little opening in the frozen pond for a drink.

Hooded Merganser

Bald Eagle

Hundreds of Mallards and Canada Geese in the parks.  Someone was feeding them corn.

Common Merganser

This was this morning, December 14, really cold, feeling like -22c and heavy snow squalls.  These poor Robins.

Local Nature - May 2025

 First Week of June 2025

Eastern Bluebird

Spotted Sandpiper

Northern House Wren

I only saw Cabbage Whites for the month of May.  June 2, I saw my first Little Wood Satyr and Common Ringlet.

My first dragonfly of the year - Common Whitetail plus I saw my first Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (couldn't get my camera on it)

Mallard and ducklings

Northern Rough-winged Swallow

Large Spiny Softshell Turtle

First Ruby-throated Hummingbird of the year - June 7, 2025

Red-tailed Hawk being chased by Red-winged Blackbirds

Other first of year butterflies I saw yesterday were the Mourning Cloak and Northern Crescent.

Pleasant Days in October 2024

 First Week of October 2024

I went out for a few walks last week in this beautiful warm first week of October.  The trees are starting to turn slowly.  

I have seen a few Red-tailed Hawks around.

This is the only best photo I can get of the Cooper's Hawk.  My camera kept focusing on the branches.

At the Upland Wetland, 14 Green-winged Teals were swimming around together.

Ring-billed Gull

Greater Yellowlegs

Mid-February Birding

Fanshawe Lake - I took a walk along Fanshawe Lake this week to see what I can find.  At far distance, I spotted Common Mergansers and a large group of American Black Ducks.  I figured about 50 of them.  There were some Mallards mixed in there too.  

Common Mergansers

American Black Ducks

Immature Bald Eagle

Common Goldeneyes

A few more photos of Common Mergansers.  

I went to the Coves on Friday.  I saw some Canada Geese but no ducks.  The ponds were mostly frozen.  There were a few smaller birds flying along the pond edge and in thickets....Dark-eyed Juncos, American Goldfinches, American Tree Sparrows, Northern Cardinals, Mourning Doves. Blue Jays, Downy Woodpeckers, Red-bellied Woodpeckers, White-breasted Nuthatches, Black-capped Chickadees, House Finches, and Carolina Wrens.  

Mourning Dove sleeping

The Red-tailed had some lunch.

Red-tailed Hawk

In my last blog I mentioned some rarities I saw.  To many people the ducks are not rarities but maybe uncommon but for me and the area where I bird, they are rare as I don't see them that often.  

Mid-January Findings

Coves - Jan 21, 2023 

I went for a walk at the Coves.  At the one pond..a group of Hooded Mergansers were swimming around together.  Lots of Canada Geese and Mallards.  There were also two Great Blue Herons. 

Hooded Mergansers

These two Red-tailed Hawks were in the trees not far from each other.  The one, pulling at twigs and small branches and flew over the trees southward.  The second one did the same thing ....nest building?

Downy Woodpecker

Greenway Park  - Jan 23, 2023

We had snow yesterday for the first time this January...got about 2 in.  It was pretty with the snow on the trees.   

Buffleheads

Red-bellied Woodpecker