Going out like a lion?

Some critters might think so!


I was occupied with family duties today, so I didn't get out to do any nature surveying, hence this very short post. However as I was returning home late this afternoon, the snow started, at first very lightly and then fairly heavily. At home, I looked out across at a neighbour's lawn and saw quite a gathering of American Robins. There was just a dozen or so at first, but they kept streaming in until there were at least 45 in the tree or on the ground beneath a cedar tree. This evergreen had intercepted some of the snow and kept the ground a little clearer. They were scattered, so I could only get a maximum of these nine in a photo. Can you see all nine?

They were busily chirping to each other, and I can only imagine that they were saying the same things that most humans were saying....when is this winter going to end?

Actually, if the weather prognosticators are correct, the next 3 days or so in Chatham-Kent look positively spring like!

Timberdoodle, Boogie-woogie aphid, etc.

It looks like spring is becoming more apparent. I noticed this sign on my travels in Chatham-Kent over the last few days. Thank-you to all who took it to heart and stopped praying for snow :-).

A visit to Rondeau was on the agenda yesterday, March 26. The snow is definitely diminishing, and the ground beneath the bird feeders was almost totally devoid of the white stuff, showing the winter's accumulation of seed hulls. The feeder was reasonably busy, with the usual mix of American Tree Sparrows, Dark-eyed Juncos, White-breasted Nuthatches, Black-capped Chickadees and others. Song Sparrows are becoming more abundant throughout the park, with several seen picking through the accumulated seed litter.

 

 

The usual Eastern Towhee was busily picking through the seed as well. Even though there are more of these critters in the park these days, this one was behaving very similarly to the one present all winter, including following the same pattern around the feeder, so I presume it is the same bird.

American Robins are everywhere now. I must have seen about 100 over the course of the day, usually in groups on lawns, but some even in the woodlands of the park. Males arrive first, and are distinguishable by their darker heads. I only saw males today.

One of the highlights of the day was finding an American Woodcock, sometimes known as the Timberdoodle. They typically show up in early March. I glimpsed it out of the corner of my eye while I was driving slowly along one of the roads, so after parking nearby, I got out and carefully approached it. It did not seem to care that I was there, even though I was aiming my telephoto lens at it! American Woodcocks are members of the shorebird family, although they are somewhat atypical; they spend most of their life in upland areas rather than wetlands, grasslands or along shorelines as most shorebirds do. They can be found in wet woods, where probing into the soft earth with their very long bills is a little easier.

They are quite cryptic, relying on their camouflage to make them difficult to see, especially from a distance and if they are immobile. In fact while I was trying to photograph this bird as it wandered through the underbrush, it was very difficult to get a clear shot.

I watched this bird for awhile, and found its feeding behaviour curious. The long beak is well adapted to probing in the earth; the tip of it is flexible so that it can open and grasp an invertebrate critter, including worms. Both the beak and tongue are raspy, enabling the bird to grip slippery critters.

On several occasions I noticed this bird stick its beak into the ground to more than half the length. It remained completely motionless like that for several seconds before withdrawing it.

I was surprised how often the bird came up with a wriggling worm! The sandy ground with the layer of leaf litter must have thawed out earlier than I expected. If you look closely at this next image, you might be able to see the worm, although by the time I took this photo, the bird had managed to manipulate it lengthwise to make it easier to swallow.

The woods are still fairly quiet. Aside from the occasional woodpecker pecking, I did notice some lumpy black things on branches of American Beech trees. They are uncommon but when you find one lumpy black thing you likely will find several on the same tree. This is called Sooty Mould.

It is present due to the Boogie-woogie Aphid. Let me explain......

During the late summer, if you are walking through a beech/maple forest, you might come across branches of American Beech trees that have sections looking like they are covered with snow, which is absurd because it is during the heat of summer. If you look closely at the real thing, you should be able to see parts of it waving around. These are long filaments at the back end of the little white Beech Blight Aphid. If you bump into the branch, all the aphids will start wiggling their hind ends, causing the filaments to wave vigorously, presumably to scare off the offending intruder. But that is where its Boogie-woogie handle comes from.

Aphids suck the juices out of the branches, but not normally enough to cause serious damage to the tree, although sometimes if they are too abundant, some branches can die. After feeding on the juices, the aphids excrete a substance called honeydew, which accumulates below the colony of aphids, ending up either on the ground or on other branches. It is this accumulation of honeydew which in turn supports the establishment of the fungus, known as Sooty Mould.

Another highlight was seeing Eastern Phoebes....at least three of them, all along Lakeshore Road. It was out of the wind, and presumably there were a few more insects available for this predominantly insect eater. But they did not want to cooperate for the camera, so I just admired them from a greater distance.

After leaving Rondeau, I took a side trip to Erieau. As the weather warms up, the ice will recede even more, making photographing waterfowl more difficult so I wanted to give it another try. As expected, there was lots of diversity and numbers, although nothing I hadn't seen before. But some readily swam or flew by the vehicle, so I had to capture a few more shots for the files. I don't really know why I need more photos of Redhead, Canvasback and others.......

The following one shows a side by side comparison of a female Redhead trailing a male Canvasback. The bill and head profile are useful characteristics to separate the two. Canvasbacks have a long, dark bill and a gradually sloping forehead, quite different from the shorter, lighter bill of the Redhead with its higher, steeper forehead.

Lesser Scaup are still present as well, although their numbers seem to be dropping.

Common Mergansers are actually common at the moment. I have posted photos of both the male and female recently, with the female showing a very noticeable crest.

I leave you with the photo below, showing a female in flight, and virtually crestless.

Gulls, anyone?

Gulls aren't many people's favourite birds. To the average person, they are 'seagulls' (for some reason they are not lake gulls or river gulls, or...). Some people have more derogatory names for them.

Birders are, on average, much more appreciative of them. There are some birders who are hard-core 'larophiles', since the Latin family name for gulls is Laridae. Approximately 25 species of gulls have occurred in North America, with at least 20 species being recorded in Ontario. Only a few species are considered 'common' and so especially during gull migration, birders attempt to sort through an aggregation of sometimes thousands of gulls, hoping to find a rarity or two.

Some people may view gulls as congregations of noisy messy birds, and if you have waterfront property or a boat moored at the dock, they can be both messy and annoying. But gulls are an important element of the natural world. For example they play a major role in cleaning up the beaches, feeding on thousands of dead fish that wash ashore (remember in the 1960s through the early 1980s, for example, when the huge quantities of smelt washed ashore on Lake Erie? Then after a few days of baking in the sun and heat really lived up to their name?). Gulls also eat an enormous amount of insect pests in the agricultural fields. And they themselves may end up being dinner for some higher order predator. Gulls mostly nest on the ground, and their eggs and chicks are invaluable sources of food for snakes, hawks, foxes, raccoons, etc.

Even during the winter, there are dead fish on the ice or near open patches of water. The following image shows a second year Herring Gull cleaning up a dead fish pulled from a nearby hole in the ice.

Identifying some of these gulls can be challenging, especially since most species take at least two years to attain their full adult plumage while others may take up to 4 years. The variations in their plumage due to feather moult over those several years, the occasional hybridization with similar species, as well as some geographic variation can, on occasion, leave even the experts confuddled about an individual gull's identity.

Regardless of the challenges, I find gulls fascinating in their appearance and behaviour. I am not a larophile by any means, and I confess to being uncertain on the exact species identity and age more often than I like. But therein lies the challenge of birding.....

This is the time of year when the adults are in their beautiful (yes, that is an appropriate term to describe their appearance) breeding plumage. The whites are immaculate, and in combination with the various shades of gray feathering and distinctive bright colouring of their fleshy parts, really makes observing gulls a treat. In addition, their posturing and vocalizations can be quite entertaining.

I spent a few hours yesterday (March 22) at Lighthouse Cove, located at the mouth of the Thames River in Essex County. There was very little open water, and lots of woody debris which had washed downstream late last year and remained frozen in the ice. And there were lots of gulls!

Two species of gull are the most common in southern Ontario at the moment: Herring Gull and Ring-billed Gull. Herrring Gulls are one of the largest and most common gulls. It is more or less a resident of this area, although the numbers fluctuate widely since most will go farther north to breed. However some will remain to breed locally on small islands in larger bodies of water, such as Rondeau Bay. Adult Herring Gulls are distinctive due to their large size, pink legs and the red and black spots on the lower part of their otherwise yellowish bill, as shown in the next photo.

 

The male is usually a bit larger than the female. The photo above shows a mated pair, with the male at the back, vocalizing about their courtship ritual......perhaps it is part of their display as they prepare to feast on fish remains.

Many times when you see a gull feeding on dead fish, they are picking it apart and taking small bites, but that isn't always the case. By nibbling away a bit at a time, the bird may risk having the rest of the fish snatched away by another gull.

Here these same two Herring Gulls are trying to protect their dinner from the clutches of a Ring-billed Gull at the right which, although is smaller, may be brave enough (or hungry enough), to risk snatching it.

Therefore when possible, they may swallow it whole. It is surprising how large of a fish can go down the hatch, as the following two photos demonstrate! These two photos were taken 5 seconds apart, and 5 seconds later the fish had disappeared.

Ring-billed Gulls are sometimes even more common than Herring Gulls, and nest in large loose colonies. The adult Ring-billed Gulls are considered medium-sized gulls and are easily identified by their bright yellow legs and the black ring around the tip of the bill.  A close-up view shows the bright orange inside of their mouth as well as the reddish orange ring around the eye. As the breeding season winds down, these bright colours will diminish, although the yellow legs will still be evident.

Adult Ring-billed Gull

The sky was heavily overcast and the light subdued at the time I was at Lighthouse Cove yesterday. I tried to capture the intensity of colours these Ring-billed Gulls would have under different light conditions but was unsuccessful. Therefore I will go into my archives and post a photo I took almost exactly three years ago, at Erieau. The intensity of colour was the greatest I have ever captured, and I caught the adult making his case known to someone quite vociferously! I wonder if the gull on the left is feeling just a little bit hen-pecked?

Anytime there is food to be had, there may be quite the feeding frenzy including boisterous vocalizations and wing-flapping as demonstrated by the Ring-billed Gulls below. Gulls come and go, and while a gull may be protecting its dinner from one potential marauder another one might sneak in undetected and take off with it, only to be pursued by those gulls left empty-handed. Depending on the length and intensity of the pursuit, the snatcher may decide it is in its best interest to give it back!

Next time you have the chance, I highly recommend that you take a closer look at the antics of these intriguing characters!

Waterfowl Galore!

The sunshine, above freezing temperatures and southerly winds are all combining to bring lots of waterfowl to southern Ontario. All of the photos in this post were taken today.

We started off the day heading to the area a bit south of Blenheim, hoping to find a reported Greater White-fronted Goose, but were unsuccessful. Other birders also struck out. However there are a few domesticated geese residing near where this one was reported. Perhaps we were on a wild, er, domestic goose chase (thanks, Blake :-). But being that close to Erieau prompted us to continue in that direction to see what might have arrived since the last visit.

The flooded fields immediately north of McGeachy Pond continued to have a good number and diversity of waterfowl, with hundreds of Tundra Swans arriving shortly after we did.

The area between McGeachy Pond and neighbouring houses were flooded due to the recent snow melt, which is perfect for waterfowl and Killdeer, and at a good range for viewing from the roadside.

In spite of the myriad wind turbines operating in the vicinity, the swans and other waterfowl seemed to have no trouble navigating safely through the area. Of course it is broad daylight. I wonder how they fare when flying at night?

While we were viewing from this area, American Robins were flying by. They have been increasing in numbers steadily throughout southern Ontario over the past week, but I had yet to photograph a spring arrival until this one today. Several meadowlarks, recent arrivals as well, were working along the grassy road side, but I was unable to get any photos of them.

The waterfowl came and went steadily, some heading in a general northerly direction and presumably moving up towards Lake St. Clair. Other groups headed back out towards Rondeau Bay, so we continued to the Erieau pier area where the bay is more visible. The harbour area where the fishing tugs normally moor is the best location to view the bay. With the slowly receding ice, the number of waterbirds continues to increase. With the open water near the harbour, as well as large patches beginning to show in various places on Rondeau Bay, it is difficult to estimate the number of ducks. The majority are Redhead, Canvasback and both scaup species, with a smaller number of the other regular diving duck species mixed in. Puddle ducks were comparatively few at least from this vantage point. However it would be safe to say that there were easily 20,000 individuals of these various duck species scattered across the bay.

The next image shows a few ducks fairly close by, but note the white on the ice in the distant background.....it is part of the huge number of Tundra Swans in the area. This is looking north from Erieau towards the head of the bay.

Just in the vicinity of Erieau and Rondeau Bay alone, there are likely at least 12,000 swans.

The next image is looking east across to the southern edge of the Rondeau Bay/marsh area where some open water is appearing, and there were at least a couple of thousand swans here, some of which were tucked behind the south beach and not visible from here. Hundreds more birds were constantly in the air and arriving steadily. An adult Bald Eagle was noted flying over the park, but did not seem to disturb the swans.

Black Changing To White

Okay don't panic....I'm not suggesting that we are getting more of the white stuff, although with the way things are going this year, who knows. Everyone I've heard from recently is tired of the way winter is dragging on.

No, the 'black' I am referring to is the presence of American Crows......I'll get to the 'white' shortly.

Chatham-Kent, and specifically the city of Chatham, happens to have the notoriety of supporting the largest winter crow roost in Canada in most years. It wasn't too many years ago that the town of Essex was competing for, and sometimes winning, those accolades. I know that many other cities in southern Ontario have seen an increase in wintering crows, even cities as far east as Ottawa. But it seems that over the last decade or so, Chatham-Kent has usually been the 'winner', much to the chagrin of many locals.

Crows undertake a major migration in the mid to late autumn, just like many hawks do. Even though estimates of crows in the Chatham-Kent area on a single day in late November have often been well over 250,000 birds,  the hawk migration watches at Holiday Beach Conservation Area and at Lake Erie Metropark just across the Detroit River counted almost 550,000 crows passing their observation towers during the autumn. And there were some days when they were too busy counting hawks that they just stated "crows moving all day, no numbers taken." So even though well over half a million crows left southwestern Ontario, typically well over 100,000 birds remain in the Chatham area for the winter. For example the St. Clair NWA Christmas Bird Count, for which the count area includes the western part of the city of Chatham, almost always tallies over 100,000 birds within the count circle, and our all time official number for the count is 159,860 birds! The number of crows in Chatham-Kent has rivalled even the largest winter crow roosts in the U.S.A., according to the results of the Christmas Bird Counts held there.

Crows in Chatham-Kent in December

Crows roosting in the neigbourhoods along the Thames River in January

I know it isn't fun to have so much bird poop landing on ones car, sidewalk, steps, roof, person, etc. But from a bird perspective it truly is a fascinating phenomenon. This roost has been here to some degree for as long as even the oldest human residents can remember. I won't get into the reasons in this post as to why the crows have chosen Chatham-Kent as their principal wintering spot.....I'll save that for a post this autumn, so stay tuned.

Here is a video clip of a small section of the roost along the river.

The crows build up their numbers steadily, beginning in early to mid-October, and essentially remain in the C-K area until early to mid-March. As the days get a bit longer allowing them to travel a little farther during their daily excursions to forage, in combination with some milder weather, the crows tend not to return to their roost. That is happening right now, and although there are still some crows around, they would more likely number in the several hundreds rather than the tens of thousands.

And now on to the 'white stuff'.....instead of surrounding fields being blackened by crows, they are being whitened by the arrival of those magnificent Tundra Swans, which to many people, herald the arrival of spring! While in some milder winters a few dozen or more swans may overwinter in places like Rondeau Bay, this year there was a total absence of them......they must have realized that they would have much better wintering conditions in their traditional area of Chesapeake Bay along the east coast surrounded by Virginia and Maryland.

In the last few days, Tundra Swans have been arriving in southwestern Ontario, from Long Point to Essex County, in large numbers. As many as 7500 birds were estimated to be in the Rondeau Bay area last weekend, and the numbers continue to grow. As they spread out to surrounding fields of corn stubble from Lake Erie to Lake St. Clair, it is difficult to get an accurate count.

Hundreds of swans may be feeding in old corn stubble fields, often with Canada Geese.

Canada Geese arriving at a field

They will sometimes use the same fields for several days in succession, but with lots of these types of fields to choose from in C-K, are apt to move around. It is best to watch for birds leaving their resting area near Rondeau Bay or another large body of water and follow them to their feeding area. Most likely when one flock goes, others will follow.The fields of the former Dover Township, especially between Pain Court and St. Clair NWA and north to Mitchell's Bay is another favourite area for thousands of these birds to feed. In short order, they will continue to northern Lambton County just south of Grand Bend using the former Lake Smith, which is often flooded in spring, as a resting and feeding area before continuing their journey north.

They won't be in southern Ontario for a long time. In most years they arrived before now, so will soon be on their way to feeding areas much farther north, before they take the final leg of their migration to their breeding ground in the Arctic and sub-Arctic watersheds.

And while they are here in Chatham-Kent, they have to contend with numerous wind towers. But it seems that the towers do not present a problem for them.

When one encounters a flock of swans feeding in a field, it is prudent to look for other, perhaps less obvious species. Can you see something other than Tundra Swans in this photo?

 

You might see Snow Geese, such as the five birds towards the front of this image. They are much smaller than the swans. Here, there are two pairs of white Snow Geese and one Blue phase Snow Goose. The Blue one is towards the left of the image, and can perhaps be seen better in the image below, taken today. The photo below also has some Canada Geese at the left, and some ducks in the back ground, including a male Wood Duck. These birds were a long way from the road, so were difficult to get good photos of even with an excellent camera and telephoto lens combination.

As the patches of water become more extensive close to shore, many other waterbirds can be observed. Places like the Erieau harbour are perfect right now, although as the ice recedes the waterbirds will spread out considerably. A few photos taken over the last couple of days in the Erieau area are posted below.

Bufflehead male

Common Merganser male

Common Merganser female

The female Common Merganser's crest doesn't always show up so distinctly. This was the result of a 'tail wind'.

Canvasback male

A large mixed flock of mostly Redheads and Greater Scaup

Some birds, such as this male Redhead, have not been able to survive this winter

Ring-necked Ducks, with Canvasback and a Greater Scaup

Pair of Mallards

Greater Scaup....note the length of the white in the wing which is longer than in Lesser Scaup

Wood Ducks in the foreground; male Northern Pintail in upper left; male American Wigeon in upper right

Besides waterfowl, there are other species that have recently appeared. I noted my first Killdeer today, although an occasional one had been reported a few days earlier. Around one of the small 'lakes' in a flooded field were at least 6 Killdeer.

Killdeer, newly arrived in the Erieau area

Red-winged Blackbirds have been slowly arriving over the last week or so. As the weather warms, the males are frequently heard giving their spring songs in preparation to attract a female when they arrive.

In the woodlands, new life is appearing as well. While I was at the Rondeau Visitor Centre yesterday I saw no less than 8 Eastern Chipmunks scampering around, chasing each other and feeding on the scraps below the bird feeders. They would normally appear once in awhile on a warm winter day, but during this winter, that just hasn't happened!

Near watercourses and wetlands, animals such as Muskrat and Mink will be roaming around. I photographed this Mink a few days ago as it was exploring along the edge of a deep channel in northern Chatham-Kent. They are normally shy creatures, but do have an inquisitive nature on occasion. This one was apparently unconcerned with my presence and I got numerous photos, using my vehicle as a blind.

 

Spring officially arrives tomorrow. Here's hoping it will be able to stay!