Slowing down

The past week has been a slow one for birding in the county, quite a change from the end of January. Once most of the ice melted on the lakes the duck numbers dropped quite a bit, though a few interesting ones are still around. As of this afternoon, at least one White-winged Scoter was still at both Sandy River Reservoir and Briery Creek Lake, as well as several Greater Scaup at each lake. There's also at least one Red-breasted Merganser at Sandy River. But the Canvasbacks and Redheads have mostly disappeared, nearly all the Hooded Mergansers seem to have gone (presumably back to smaller lakes), and the numbers of grebes have dropped as well.

gull on ice... Sandy River Reservoir... 8 Feb 2014

So far my only new bird for the year in February was the Great Horned Owl that I saw last night. I was able to locate him in my scope and briefly watch him(?) watching me. I spent some time today looking for other owls -- mainly a Long-eared Owl -- which is a low-percentage proposition (look in a lot of trees, and a very low percentage have an owl in them). I have found a few Long-eared Owls this way in the past, but never in Prince Edward County. I did find a patch of whitewash and a couple of reasonably fresh owl pellets... but not their source.

Although my cold fingers tell me it's still winter, a few subtle signs of spring are showing. The days are getting longer, of course. I've seen two flocks of blackbirds flying overhead the past couple of days, and both days have heard Mourning Doves actively calling. But for now... it's still pretty quiet. And I wouldn't be surprised if we got another round of cold weather and maybe a few more interesting waterbirds on the big lakes before the spring really hits.