First Post of 2013

This was supposed to be the last post of the year but turned into the first of a new year - a quick little one about our last little outing which was Sunday December 30th 2012. It was a pretty much a full sun day too, one of the rare days where the sun has shown its face in the last 2 to 3 weeks in Southernish Central Ontario.

First, we headed to Thickson Woods around 10:30am. Not a huge lot to see though we did see a hawk fly by overhead quite low, and a Ruby Crowned Vireo hopping around on some downed dead pine needles on the branches of a fallen small pine tree. There were the usual Red Breasted Nuthatches, woodpeckers, and one lone red squirrel. However, Before getting there we had gone to Walmart for cold meds for me and if we had not have, we'd have missed the cool sighting of the cutest American Kestrel on a wire beside the road as we headed back. So adorable! Perfect day too, with the sun on it and the wind ruffling its feathers.

We decided to head to Halls Rd. after Thickson. I love going down to the shore of Lake Ontario, which is a close walk from the path there. On our walk in, the barred owl was about again and we watched her for a bit, dozing, preening, yawning, basically a sun basking day for her. Good to see she seems to be doing well and is obviously finding food and likes the area.

Heading down to the shoreline ended up providing a pretty cool discovery. As soon as we cleared the path and looked out, there were 1000s of Canada Geese on shore and in the water. Many were so funny, standing on 1 foot with their faces tucked back into their back feathers, looking so cute. We watched them for a bit until another couple came down to the shore. They were talking about how there Has to be something different among this huge amount of geese. They began looking with binoculars and soon named some sort of gull and walked off further down the beach. We saw nothing that distance away where they seemed to be referring to. Then, a white head among the geese stood out. We walked down along the shoreline and through my lens I could see a thinner grey bird, the size of the geese almost, but with a white head and yellowy beak. We neared the couple, who had a little book on birds, and they blurted out that it was a Snow Goose. Ok, I thought they were more white but hey, what do I know.

Funny enough, when we got home and had a chance to view the pics of it I had gotten, there was a 2nd bird, all grey/brown but with similar markings at the wing edges, floating along with the Snow Goose. After a little research, we learned one was a Dark Morph Snow Goose and a juvenile Snow Goose. How cool as the last interesting sight on one of our 2012 walks!