'Snowy' White Friday

Not being a strong advocate of the commercial madness associated with Black Friday, I decided to roam around the back roads of the former Dover Township, in Chatham-Kent for a bit this afternoon to see what I could scare up. It turned out to be a Snowy White Friday instead, which was fine by me.

Although it is relatively early in the season, there has been another invasion of Snowy Owls in southwestern Ontario, and it may turn out better than even last year. In the winter of 2013-2014, there were huge numbers of Snowy Owls, but they were much more abundant in eastern Ontario and even as far east as Newfoundland. Apparently the productivity of Snowy Owls in northern Quebec was massive. Productivity is heavily dependent on the amount of food available, since some of the courtship behaviour to stimulate breeding is the number of young lemmings or voles that the male will bring to the female. I saw a photo of a nest from northern Quebec from the 2013 breeding season that had more than 70 lemmings lined up all around the nest! The abundance of food resulted in the superabundance of owls that fledged causing a major southern invasion that fall, since there was likely not enough food on the breeding ground to sustain the large population of owls all winter.

Apparently the Snowy Owls that arrive in extreme southwestern Ontario are not from northern Quebec, but from either north or west of Hudson Bay, so although we had a good number of birds, it paled in comparison to the numbers reported farther east.

Maybe this is the year for us in the southwest. There have been 2-3 in the Rondeau/Erieau area, there were 9 in the vicinity of the Sarnia airport as well as others west of Wallaceburg, all in the last few days. In my roaming around a small part of Dover today for a couple of hours, I came across 4, and there were likely more.

The first one was on a pole right along Bear Line, just north of Angler Line. These are easy to see, even against a grey cloudy sky.

Another was almost a kilometer back off the road, sitting on a pipe contraption. Even with a 700 mm lens, this photo had to be heavily cropped just to see the bird. It would be easy to miss, and I undoubtedly did miss others that were in a challenging location to see.

And there were lots of roads I didn't travel either. Also this time of year, they are occasionally seen perched on duck blinds or other suitable sites out along the edge of the lake. I saw one from Mitchell's Bay, perched on a small island closer to Walpole Island than the Ontario mainland. The fourth bird was sitting well out in a recently harvested corn field in the northeast corner of the intersection of the Jacob Sideroad and Maple Line, and only visible with binoculars.

There were lots of other white birds as well. Tundra Swans were scattered all over the place. I saw probably at least 15 different fields with these huge swans resting or feeding in. Some fields had only a few dozen birds, but a few had several hundred, along with Canada Geese. And there were always several flocks visible in the air.

While I was driving slowly by one field, a very small goose caught my eye as it emerged from behind a swan. I got a quick look through binoculars, and then grabbed the camera. This particular group of birds were much more skittish than any others I looked at, and the bird of greatest interest to me got caught up in the flight and so I managed only a couple of quick shots.

Ross's Goose and Tundra Swan

Ross's Goose, tail view

Unfortunately the photos themselves are not conclusive, but in combination with what I saw through the binoculars at first, I am quite sure this is a juvenile, white phase Ross's Goose, which is relatively rare. The bill was very small and stubby and didn't appear to have a 'grin' patch. Overall the bird was extremely tiny.....I almost didn't even see it. According to the Sibley Guide, a Tundra Swan is about 53" total length. A Snow Goose, which is very similar to a Ross's and more common, is at least 28" in total length, or more than half the length of a swan. By comparison, Ross's Goose is about 23" in total length, which is much less than half the length of a swan. In looking at the first image I have posted, comparing the goose to the swan, it is evident that the goose is quite small, and to my eye, much less than half the size of the swan right beside it.

All in all, it was a very fine snowy white Friday.

After the windstorm, well sort of.

The wind of the last few days have been quite incredible. On the return from the K-W area yesterday, I noted that it was all some big tractor-trailers could do to stay on the road.

Today (Tuesday), I went out to the Erieau area to see what might have blown in to take shelter and decided to stay. The winds today were a mere 40-50 km/hr, not the sometimes 80-100 km/hr of yesterday, so the waves were only 2 metres today. On the way out, I noticed that a lot of unharvested corn was knocked down, which will make harvesting it much more challenging, I am sure. I also noticed the roofs of several houses which had missing or flipped up shingles. Having just replaced our own roof a mere two months ago with a steel roof, we fared quite well.

As expected there were quite a few waterbirds in the Erieau harbour area, the lake front and of course Rondeau Bay. Many were too far out to attempt to photograph, so I concentrated on the ones closer at hand. There were many Bonaparte's Gulls, one of my favourite species. They look so sleek, and acrobatic.

This next photo shows almost 70 of the estimated more than 450 Bonies zipping back and forth between the main channel and the marina slip. There must have been quite a few shiners in the slip, since the gulls were noted diving regularly, and periodically coming up with a small fish.

A bonus, but not entirely unexpected, were two adult Little Gulls. I managed to photograph one, and I was surprised at how pale gray the under wing was of this bird. Normally the underside of the wings are considerably darker. This first image only shows the upper side, however,

This next image isn't as sharp, but it shows the relatively paler gray under side of the wings, compared to the photo that follows, which I took a few weeks ago. All three images were taken under similar overcast light conditions.

A juvenile Glaucous Gull was in the harbour area as well, but I didn't get a photo of it. Elsewhere in the vicinity were the usual waterbird species, including:

Greater Scaup

One of more than 25 Horned Grebes

Red-breasted Merganser

There were lots of Ruddy Ducks, Bufflehead, Redhead, Canvasback, Common Goldeneye, American Coot, Mallard, American Black Ducks, etc, totalling well over 3000 birds, but as mentioned previously, most were out in the bay or off the south beach and some good optics were required to see them well.

I was watching the main channel for awhile, and I had an interesting observation pertaining to water currents. A flock of 5 Ruddy Ducks was in the channel, and appeared to be swimming rather vigorously towards the bay. As mentioned previously, the waves and swells coming from the lake through the channel and into the bay were at the most, only 2 metres, and they quickly subsided once they got close to the bay. However, the Ruddies were actually drifting towards the lake, so the water currents leaving the bay were stronger than the wind and wave action forcing water into the bay.

If you look at a map, you will notice that the orientation of Rondeau Bay is from a SSW-NNE direction. With the extremely powerful W-SW wind of the last few days, the water from the lake is forced into the bay in great quantity. However since the wind of today was merely 40 or so km/hr, the abnormally high water level of the bay was now attempting to drain back out into the lake, and this draining was overcoming the lower wind speed and wave actions. This is known as the seiche effect. On a larger scale, these powerful winds will have blown water towards the east end of Lake Erie during the peak of the wind storm; as the wind dies down, the water will come rushing back to the west end of the lake. Depending on the strength and direction of the wind, such a seiche effect can raise and lower the water level of Lake Erie significantly. Seiches have been noted on all of the Great Lakes, and examples are known where there has been as much as 8 feet difference from one end of the lake to the other compared to normal levels!

As in previous visits, American Pipits were a-plenty once again, with at least 28 seen here and there, but after awhile, one stops counting! I came face to face with this one on the lawn of the Library while I was looking at the myriad ducks on the bay.

A Great Blue Heron was lingering in a nearby channel. It looked a little scruffy, no doubt having had its feathers severely ruffled by the extreme windy conditions. But I observed it catch a couple of small minnows, one of which can be seen in its beak here.

I was keeping an eye out for Snowy Owls again, as one or more had been reported in the last few days. However either it was just hunkered down to keep out of sight, or it had been blown a long way away. Regardless, I did not see one today.

A mixed Friday & Saturday

Friday was cool, but sunny with lots of snow still around. Saturday was a mix of freezing rain, rain and heavy cloud, but warmer, causing much of the snow to disappear. I'm sure birds are confused!

A couple of hours at Erieau on mid-day Friday proved to be worthwhile. There were lots of waterbirds, in the main channel, off the south beach of Rondeau and in the marina slips. I was hoping for something a little more exotic, such as a Harlequin Duck playing in the surf around the rocks, and although there were lots of ducks there, I couldn't find a Harlequin. Lots of scaup, Common Goldeneye, Bufflehead and Am Black Ducks. But what caught my eye was a flock of shorebirds. Fortunately they landed on the western tip of the south beach, and it resulted in me counting 38 Dunlin and two Killdeer.

At Erieau proper, there was a good variety of waterbirds: a nice looking female Long-tailed Duck was swimming around. For some reason, it is not a common species towards the western end of Lake Erie.

Red-breasted Mergansers were scattered around, as were most of the other usual species. The male Redhead photo shows it passing through its autumn plumage with the brownish back and not yet into its normal winter plumage with the all grayish back. The Common Merganser is in its winter plumage as well, but in a couple of months it will be sporting a clean dark green head. The number of American Coot has dropped considerably from even 2-3 weeks ago.

Red-breasted Merganser

Redhead

Common Merganser

Ruddy Duck

American Coot

There were still lots of Horned Grebes around as well with at least 30 in view from Erieau without looking too hard.

Horned Grebe

 On the gravel surface near the marina slip, there were several American Pipits, which are abundant across southern Ontario these days, as well as Horned Larks, Snow Buntings and a few Lapland Longspurs.

Horned Lark

Lapland Longspur

My next stop on Friday, and my first stop today, was in Rondeau. The Visitor Centre feeders were not exceptionally busy, but had some of the regular species (e.g. Song Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco, American Goldfinch and White-throated Sparrow) as well as a good sized flock of Pine Siskins. At one point I estimated at least 100 siskins at the feeders or in the vicinity.

Song Sparrow

White-throated Sparrow

On Friday, with snow still covering most things, the plowed scrapes along Lakeshore Road proved worthwhile. There were American Pipits (8), Fox Sparrows (4), as well as the more common American Tree Sparrows, Song Sparrows, White-throated Sparrows, Dark-eyed Juncos, Northern Cardinals, Blue Jays. A female Wood Duck was scavenging along the road, surprisingly. I suspect it was looking for acorns.

American Pipit

Today, the scenery was different. There were still lots of pipits here and there, but in the rain, cloud and heavy overcast, they were more challenging to photograph.

American Pipit

At the corner of Bennett Ave and Harrison Trail, I had a brief look at a Northern Goshawk, my first of the fall. But no photograph.

Near the parking area between the tennis courts and the traffic circle were more pipits, and three Killdeer. A closer look shows the rain droplets on the bird's back.

Killdeer

At a feeder just north of the campground, there were three Fox Sparrows mixed in with the juncos, sparrows and cardinals.

In the campground, birds were scattered in a couple of small groups. One group had several Golden-crowned Kinglets, three Ruby-crowned Kinglets and 5 Black-capped Chickadees busily searching for food in a snowy, weedy patch.

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

A bird that is usually around, but often difficult to find, is Chipping Sparrow. This one was entirely by itself, and I almost missed it.

Chipping Sparrow

At least I didn't have to be concerned with over exposed highlights off the snow today!

Tis the season for crows, and lots of them! Here's why.....

Most residents of Chatham-Kent, and especially those living within the urban area of Chatham are in some ways loathe to see this time of year arrive. It means that huge numbers of American Crows have once again, descended on the area. This event results in many a local discussion about why they are here and what can be done to eliminate them or at least shoo them off into someone else's area.

American Crows are migratory birds. They nest across much of Ontario and elsewhere, but as many birds do, they migrate south in the fall. And like most birds, they don't migrate any farther than they feel they have to. Insect eating birds must fly far enough to where the temperatures are warm enough to allow for adequate insect activity. Birds that are less specific in their eating habits have more options. Crows will eat many different things, from animal matter (think mice, other birds, frogs, insects, dead critters along the roadsides) to plant matter (corn, soybeans, other vegetable matter) to garbage. It takes a lot of energy to fly to the southern US or farther, so if they can find what they need without flying that far and using up that energy, they will take their chances.

Enter the municipality of Chatham-Kent.

C-K is on the major autumn migratory flight path for many birds. The shape of southwestern Ontario is like a funnel, directing birds from all across Ontario down through C-K. In spite of the large numbers of crows still hanging around, be glad that far more have already left the province. For example, there are two hawkwatch sites that are key to gathering this information. One is at Holiday Beach, a bit south of Amherstburg, Ontario, and the other is more or less right across the river in southern Michigan. These hawkwatch sites were initially established to document the large numbers of hawks passing through in the autumn. From one to several people are counting raptors at each site on a daily basis, from the beginning of September until the end of November. Birders being what they are, started including the sightings of many other bird species, and sometimes butterfly and dragonfly species as well. The movement of American Crows passing through in sometimes large numbers did not go unnoticed, and not undocumented.

In the autumn of 2013, there was a total of at least 550,000 crows that exited Ontario at these sites. There were some days when the hawk counters at these sites were so busy counting hawks, that the crows were simply noted as 'streaming by all day, but we were too busy counting hawks' to come up with a number to add to the cumulative total. Therefore there could easily have been tens of thousands more crows passing through.

But the sad truth for many of the human residents of C-K is that far too many crows decided not to venture any farther than here. Thus we have the annual dilemma of an extraordinarily large winter gathering of crows to contend with.

Crows have been using Chatham as a wintering area for decades, according to some of the oldest residents.

Besides being on the main flight path of the crows, why do they remain here? I'm glad you asked.

Food is the number one need for any species to survive. As mentioned above, crows eat a wide variety of things. Besides food, they need a source of warmth if available to reduce their energy expenditures, and adequate roosting opportunities to protect them from predators. C-K provides just what they are looking for.

Food:

• there are many thousands of hectares of farmland nearby, much of which is devoted to the growing of corn and soybeans. There is enough grain and other vegetable matter left in the field, unintentionally no doubt, to provide scavenging crows with food. The grain also supports a population of mice, which in turn can be part of a crow's diet.

• there is lots of garbage available. Residential garbage is one source, especially if the garbage is put out in bags rather than in hard covered containers. Crows have no problem whatsoever ripping plastic bags apart to obtain the delectable (to them) morsels inside. Some restaurants put out massive amounts of garbage bags on garbage day, with the accumulated food remains that are enormously attractive to crows. And just a short crow flight away is the largest landfill in Ontario. The landfill a bit west of Blenheim and south of Charing Cross is by far the largest landfill in Ontario, according to the latest data from the Ministry of the Environment, at least in terms of Total Approved Capacity (TAC). It has 36.8 million cubic metres of TAC. The next largest one is Twin Creeks, in Lambton, with a TAC of about 26.5 million cubic metres. The landfill along Hwy 401 just west of London is quite small by comparison, with a mere 16.75 million cubic metres of TAC.

Habitat:

• crows like open spaces during the day. With their sharp eyesight, it gives them lots of opportunity to see predators, so the fewer the trees and hedgerows, the better they like it. The small amount of forest cover (less than 5%) in C-K works well for crows.

• but crows typically spend the night roosting in trees, where mammalian predators are less able to sneak up on them. The trees within the urban area of Chatham are ideal. They are mostly open grown, resulting in large spreading branches that can hold a lot of crows. If you look at Chatham from the air as a crow does, it is the largest treed area of the entire municipality. The urban area of Chatham occupies ~32 square kilometres, and there are lots of trees in that area unlike the agricultural landscape beyond. So the urban area of C-K is very attractive to crows.

Part of the winter roost along the Thames River

• there is less wind within the urban area due to the trees and buildings, affording some slight benefit to roosting crows. During the coldest periods of winter, anything to reduce the wind chill effect will help them survive.

• the presence of buildings, as well as the river itself (at least when it is open) provides a slightly warmer environment, which also helps a crow to survive. 

A small part of the winter crow roost

• the urban lights are a definite advantage for crows. Their main predator is the Great Horned Owl, but these owls seldom spend much time in partially lit areas after dark. 

Adult Great Horned Owl

For those who remember the family of Great Horned Owls raised in Paxton's Bush awhile ago, there were always a few crow feathers decorating the nest cavity or lying on the ground below. Note the crow feathers stuck in the tree in the following photo. So roosting in well lit areas means that the crows are less likely to be bothered by hungry Great Horned Owls.

Great Horned Owlets of April 2013 in Paxton's Bush

From a strictly bird perspective, the comings and goings of such a large number of birds is truly an impressive avian phenomenon. They of course spend much of the day beyond the urban limits, but by mid-afternoon, they begin gathering in open fields just outside the city limits. They will gather in various fields, and this is part of the 'staging' process just before entering the roosting area. It is quite an event to see the birds lift off of these fields, blackened with crows, and stream overhead as they head towards the roost. At this point they are almost completely silent, quite the opposite of their noisy daytime behaviour. It is almost an eerie experience, and seeing this almost always reminds me of that famous Albert Hitchcock movie.

As problematic as the presence of large numbers of crows in C-K seems, it is a growing problem in other municipalities as well. One useful comparison is that of data compiled by the Christmas Bird Counts (CBC), an event that takes place between mid December and early January, in many areas across North America and beyond.

The highest number of crows on any CBC to include the Chatham roost is 159,860 birds, recorded several years ago before more serious efforts were in place to disrupt them from their roosts. Counting crows (not the Californian rock band by that name :-) in the bird context is more art than science, and may be a topic for a future post.

The number of crows in other large centres in southern Ontario is much smaller by comparison, but has been on the increase especially in the last decade or so. For example as of about 2011, London has been getting about 13-15000 crows; Woodstock has had as many as 38,000 crows; the town of Essex, in the county by that name, used to be recognized as the crow roost hotspot, with as many as 117,000 crows; at times, Essex and Chatham used to vie for the Canadian title; urban areas such as Stratford and St. Thomas both have around 3000, obviously small by comparison, but all of these centres have noticed an increase in recent years. Even as far east as Ottawa, there are numbers of crows on their CBC typically in the 10,000 to 21,000 range.

It is interesting to note that according to the statistics in the North American database of CBCs, the Chatham roost is one of the largest, if not the largest, crow roosts in North America!

What are the solutions?
Unfortunately they are few. Certainly the topic of all garbage being in hard containers might make the streets less attractive to crows, but if you've been reading this far, hopefully you will realize that there are many other factors that make the area attractive to crows, most of which cannot be changed very easily.

If there was more extensive tree cover, especially along the Thames River beyond the urban boundaries, and if at least some of it that was semi-lit to make it less attractive to owls, it is possible that crows might gravitate to those areas where they could roost in relative peace rather than put up with the various scare tactics by Chatham residents.

The bottom line is that over time, we have created a haven for wintering crows. But by mid-March, with the lengthening of days and with the birds venturing farther and farther away, the numbers locally will drop just as steadily as they built up these last few weeks.

Weather flip-flops

A few days ago we saw our first snowfall. But this past weekend was fairly decent, and instead of the snow out our kitchen window, we saw this:

If you look hard, you can see a bit of snow lingering in the shelter of the house on the far side of this park entrance. But all in all, it was pretty decent weather, so I went out to see what I could see.

There had been a Snowy Owl reported from the Grande Pointe area towards Mitchell's Bay, so that is the direction I headed. It seems like one or more Snowies show up in this vicinity fairly regularly, even in a non-invasion year. I drove slowly along a lot of back roads, but didn't see any Snowy, but perhaps one saw me.

I ended up in the area of the Bear Creek Unit of St. Clair NWA, at the north end of Bear Line. In the main drainage channel along the access road, I noted a Great Blue Heron on the ice.

I don't know what it was expecting to find, but at least it was down out of the wind. I saw an eagle in a tree way off in the distance, but it was too far to even ID properly let alone get a photo of.

I went over to Mitchell's Bay. The lake was still completely open....no ice except for in the very quiet sheltered areas along the shoreline. But there were lots of ducks, geese and swans scattered in every direction. However they were scattered, and a long way out, since the waterfowl hunters were scattered about as well, hoping to entice some less than wary birds within shotgun range. Some waterfowl blinds were on the shoreline in front of privately owned property, but elsewhere the hunters were out in boats partially covered with cattail or other type of vegetation.

There were lots of ducks, as stated above: Redheads, scaup, American Wigeon, Gadwall, Bufflehead, Mallards, Ruddy Ducks, Red-breasted Mergansers, etc. I heard lots of banging both near and far.

I checked the Lake St. Clair Trail, heading north from Angler Line. It was sheltered from the brisk westerly winds, so I thought there might be a better chance of bird action. However it was limited mostly to American Tree Sparrows and Song Sparrows only.

There are several nesting boxes along the trail, at the edge of the woods on the far side of the channel.

Wood Ducks may make use of them during their breeding season, at least that is the hope of the well-intended people who put them up. They are largely empty now, but other forms of wildlife may make use of them. Mice are notorious for adding nesting material to make a cozy home. And sometimes Eastern Screech Owls will use them for roosting in. Screech Owls can sometimes be enticed to show themselves if you imitate their descending, nasal, quavering whistle type of call. So I whistled. And whistled some more. But either they weren't there, or they didn't want to investigate where the strange call was coming from, so no owl showed itself in any of the nest box holes. I'm going with the idea that the boxes weren't occupied, since I have had a fair bit of success calling in screech owls at other times, although it is usually a bit duller light. But just to make a point, a Screech Owl did respond from farther back in the woods. It called at least half a dozen times, although it remained out of sight. Once in awhile you can be lucky enough to see them in fairly broad daylight, such as the time when I came upon this individual at Rondeau last April right in the middle of the day.

There was a constant stream of geese flying overhead along the Lake St. Clair shore. Of course being hunting season, and with plenty of birds around, there are lots of hunters out in the lake area as well as on recently harvested corn fields. All of that hunter presence does stir the birds up. I decided to go to the St. Clair NWA to see what waterfowl were gathering there. As expected, the marsh was full of ducks and geese, with a few swans as well. Virtually every species of expected duck was seen, but from a distance. There were literally thousands of birds, sometimes in the air, and often circling or landing right in the NWA which, fortunately for the birds, is off limits to hunting. I didn't go out the trail, although from the observation tower and with a good 'scope, one can see better what ducks are in the numerous open parts of the marsh.

Of course the swans are not a huntable species, so they are relatively safe.

Along the south side of the NWA was a field of corn that was partially harvested. A large White-tailed Buck was out in the field, gleaning corn that had spilled from the harvesting equipment. It appeared to have 5 points on one side, and at least 4 on the other and for the area, was a good-sized animal. But with all of the shooting going on for waterfowl, deer are quite nervous, so this one didn't stick around long for the best photo op.

Another Great Blue Heron was hunting for unwary frogs or fish that were in a nearby and not-yet-frozen canal.

Not too far away was a huge field of Tundra Swans. Overall between the NWA and Pain Court, I estimated there to be at least 3000 swans.

So it was a good day to be out, although I didn't see anything really noteworthy.

And then this morning, we woke up to this.

Have you noticed that there is a drab, gray and white colour theme in the photos on this post (except for the first one). Might as well get used to it.....and just think there are only about 33 days until winter 'officially' arrives!!