29 December 2013. Haldimand County. There’s a drive I take almost every winter through the flat farm landscape of Ontario’s Haldimand County down to the shore of Lake Erie. I don’t care for the dreary and exhausted winter countryside, I don’t like the coating of frozen road grime but I do like the numbers and variety of hawks, owls and eagles seen along the way. But not this year; oh I got the dreary, exhausted winter countryside and the coating of frozen road grime alright, but I didn’t see much in the way of hawks and owls and there were simply no eagles at all. I am hoping they all had the good sense to go much further south to escape this tough winter (which really has only just started.)
Still, all was not lost. There were a few hopeful roadside American Kestrels, a dozen or so Red-tailed Hawks and a single Sharp-shinned Hawk on the prowl. A few flocks of American Tree Sparrows, a Northern Cardinal or two and the odd Slate-coloured Junco were the only passerines. I was hoping to see Snow Buntings, but no such luck. Bird of the Day was a beautiful Snowy Owl perched on a fence post several hundred yards from the road, too far way to photograph but nice through binoculars. On the lake: Red-breasted Mergansers, Common Goldeneyes, Black Ducks, Buffleheads, Mallards and a rapacious Greater Black-backed Gull that growled menacingly at a Herring Gull who wisely surrendered its meal.
A slim pickings day of birding – the Birds of Winter. Here’s one of them.
