Gentlemen; It looks like the RNGRs are starting to come north. It will just be a matter of consistently open water in Dyers Bay to get them to you. A giant lead (5 km x 50 km has opened up just off Cape Hurd, but it is much too far away to see if any waterfowl are using it.
Keep your eyes peeled, Rod Bill, I know you are away right now. On Mar 7, 2014, at 4:48 PM, Alan Wormington <[email protected]> wrote: > This afternoon, along with Marianne Reid, Rosemary Reid and Rick Mayos, I > counted a total of **36** Red-necked Grebes on Lake Erie off NE Hillman > Marsh. Here there are a few leads in the otherwise frozen lake, and it is > also the location where 2 Red-necked Grebes were seen on March 5 (Jeremy > Hatt, Jeremy Bensette) and 6 on March 6 (Jeremy Hatt, Kory Renaud). > > There has been considerable debate lately as to if all these widespread > Red-necked Grebe sightings pertain to spring migrants, or wintering birds > that have been frozen out of the Great Lakes. Even before this week's > observations at Hillman Marsh, I concluded that these birds are wintering > birds that have been frozen out of their normal wintering areas elsewhere on > the Great Lakes. The reasons are many: > > 1--Red-necked Grebe is very rare at Point Pelee, and the previous 19 spring > records span the period of March 22 to May 18 inclusive; thus the current > birds are outside of this date range. > > 2--Previous record-high count for Point Pelee was of only 3 birds (1 date in > spring / 2 dates in fall). > > 3--Red-necked Grebes, along with other rare species such as Long-tailed Duck > and White-winged Scoter, have been showing up lately at southerly locations > such as Kentucky, where Red-necked Grebe is a real rarity. If the grebes > were truly spring migrants, there is no rationale as to why they would be > currently appearing at these southern locations. > > 4--If the Red-necked Grebes off Hillman Marsh were truly spring migrants, > then I would expect to also see some Horned Grebes and Pied-billed Grebes --- > but there are none. > > 5--In regard to early Horned Grebes, some time ago I thoroughly researched > all record-early arrivals for Point Pelee (February 9, 10, 15, 26) and > without exception they ALL correlated to surges of warm air at the time, up > to the +10 C. temperature range (based on Windsor Historical Weather Data); > in other words, there has never been an early arrival of Horned Grebe at > Point Pelee that was associated with COLD conditions. > > 6--When I formerly lived in Hamilton, I do recall some late February arrivals > of Red-necked Grebes, but they arrived during WARM spells and at least some > of the birds were in summer plumage; ALL of today's birds were 100% winter > plumage. The pattern of spring occurrences are well-described in Bob Curry's > "Birds of Hamilton" (2006); he likewise states that spring arrivals are > associated with arriving warm weather. > > 7--The source of these birds has been debated, and some have mentioned that > Red-necked Grebes do not winter on Lake Superior. That is true, but there > are certainly other sources for these birds most notably Lake Huron and > Georgian Bay. Another source is likely Lake Michigan --- especially > considering that the species is essentially a NW/SE migrant through the > overall Great Lakes system. All of these water bodies are currently > more-or-less frozen solid. > > Also at the Hillman location there was a tremendous collection of various > ducks, including the following: > > Common Goldeneye --- 3000 > Redhead --- 1400 > Canvasback --- 80 > Long-tailed Duck --- 45 > White-winged Scoter --- 8 > > Hillman Marsh is north of Point Pelee, and south of Wheatley. > > Alan Wormington, > Leamington > > > > > _______________________________________________ > ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial > birding organization. > Send bird reports to [email protected] > For information about ONTBIRDS including how to unsubscribe visit > http://www.ofo.ca/site/page/view/information.ontbirdssetup > _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to [email protected] For information about ONTBIRDS including how to unsubscribe visit http://www.ofo.ca/site/page/view/information.ontbirdssetup
