Lake St. Clair, Conestogo Lake, and Long Point...

The title says it all...the last week has taken me throughout southwestern Ontario for work and for pleasure, resulting in a fair number of interesting sightings.

Starting with Lake St. Clair, last Thursday (Nov. 27th), I had some sweet work in the Lake St. Clair area, driving road transects, basically between the area, north of the Thames River, east to Chatham, north to Mitchell's Bay, and west to Lake St. Clair. The weather was pretty decent, and the highlights were:
- 3 Snowy Owls, just east of the National Wildlife Refuge
- 8,600 Tundra Swans throughout the fields
- 5 Cackling Geese at the NWR

Here's the eBird checklist to see exactly what I saw: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S20701739

The next day (November 28th), I birded/worked the area, just south of Arthur. I finally came across my FOY Common Redpoll, as well as a drake Northern Pintail, adult Bald Eagle and 2 Common Ravens, all around Conestogo Lake. http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S20711464

Completing the sweep, I took sometime to myself and checked out the huge flocks of Sandhill Cranes around Long Point, while also looking for the female Harlequin Duck at Port Dover. I was definitely successful in the first regard. Around Long Point I counted 1,173 Sandhill Crane's, all pretty much centred around Hwy. 59 and Front Road! Damn!!! That's a lot of Crane's. http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S20733908

I also came across a 'roving' flock of blackbirds and amongst them were 2 male Brewer's! Pretty cool; it was nice to get good solid looks at these guys, especially in the LP area. http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S20733953

I checked out Port Dover and the harbour/marina, but came up empty handed - oh well. :) Before starting back, I decided to drive part of the shoreline in Haldimand County - one of my favourite southern Ontario hotspots (its barely birded), but the best thing I saw was a N. Mockingbird, some eagles, and a Rough-legged Hawk. http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S20734657

I'll try to get some photos incorporated into the blog for next time.