May 7, 2022 Our last day of our birding adventure - North to Lake Huron

 We left the Ridgetown Inn Motel and headed toward  Keith McLean CA just to see if any new bird  turned up today.  Nope.  It was still very windy.  We drove into Rondeau for a quick look.  It was still windy there.  At Shrewsbury, a Eurasian collared Dove had been reported at the local church.  We found the location and a birder who was in his car told us the bird had been in the church parking lot and had just flown.  We spent about a half an hour looking for the dove with no luck.  A father and son duo also came by looking for the bird.  The ten year old son was a very focussed birder.  We dipped on the dove, and we had Jane keeping us to a schedule so we had to boogey north.  There were more places to see.  

We drove cross country to check out some well know birding spots that Susan and Jane had been to last year.  Over the years I have read birding reports about these places but I had never been there.  Our first stop was in Sarnia at Canatara Park.   The colour of Lake Huron shores was turquoise.  The area was beautiful.  We met a fellow there, Rolly's on his T-shirt who told us about a Screech Owl he had seen and the location.  Off we went looking for it and dipped on it.  We did see some Red breasted Mergansers on the water.  We drove along the shores of Lake Huron to Kettle Point, which is a cottage area.  Here we saw a Pied billed Grebe, Mute Swan and a Kingfisher.  We were literally at Kettle Point on a rise.  The view was lovely. Next was the nearby Pinery Provincial Park.  There is a large campground here.  Jane was promised a Tufted Titmouse here and sure enough one frequented the feeders at the Pinery Visitor Center.  

On the ground we saw a male and female Eastern Towhee pair.  Really lovely to see both of them side by side. This photo is the female Eastern Towhee.

From there we went on to the Grand Bend Sewage Lagoons.  We could not get close to the lagoons so we did not see much around there.   It was after 6 pm and time to head to London.  It is so hard to stop birding on a nice day.  We went through Lucan which is famous for the Black Donnelly story.  One more stop please.... we stopped at Gibbon Road in London, but did not see any new birds.   We were happy for the day and I was thrilled to visit all the places today that I have heard about in birding news over the years.

We stopped at an Indian Restaurant for take-out and had our last supper of the trip together at Susan's.  We briefly brought up the idea of a Pelee Trip in 2023......

Jane and I left the next morning.  It was Mother's Day and we did not tarry along the way.  I was getting together with my daughter's family to celebrate the day with supper and cake.  I was home at 3:30 pm.  It was great birding trip.