Return to Long Point

I spent the day down in Norfolk county along with members of the Stratford Field Naturalists.  The original goal of the trip was to welcome returning tundra swans and other spring migrants.  However the way the weather has been this year, tundra swans were virtually absent from the landscape down there and my only sighting of them was a flock of five partway through the afternoon.  Regardless, it was still a great day and great to see the other bird life actively out and about.

Red-winged blackbirds were plentiful as always.

 Song sparrows appeared to be out in full force.  Most of them were hesitant to come out into the open, but I did get one shot.

I see house finches quite often around home, but I could hardly pass up the opportunity to spend some time observing this one.

Canada geese were beginning to act territorial, chasing each other around the water.

 Although there seemed to be less ducks around than earlier in the week, there was still plenty of variety.  Most of them were far out, but we managed a few views of large clusters of birds.

Plenty of ruddy ducks out and about on the water.  Ruddys are late to change to breeding plumage, the males above are just starting to show their distinctive reddish brown colour.

A red headed woodpecker would have been nice, but this was as close as I got to that today.

Back at home, I added a couple new species to my farm list when six lesser scaup and a few northern shovelers showed  up on the pond.