Northern Landscapes for a change

I spend most of my time here in southwestern Ontario, naturally, so it is a very pleasant change to see what other parts of the province look like. Our daughter and her husband live in North Bay. The 600+ kilometre trip from our house to theirs, takes us through vastly different landscapes. Recently we timed a visit to (hopefully) coincide with some impressive autumn colours.

The first leg of the trip is pretty boring.....from Chatham, through Toronto and then heading straight north. Once we get into the Barrie/Orillia area, we really start to feel we are getting there and by the time we get north of Huntsville it is the land dominated by rocks, hills, lakes and trees. This first image is just a short distance north of Huntsville, right along Hwy 11. The lake probably has a name, but I haven't investigated to find out what it is. Regardless of its name, or lack of one, it is a place I stop at briefly, sometimes venturing across 4 lanes of traffic, just to enjoy the view while numerous vehicles are impatiently heading to their respective destinations.

We like fresh spring water---a welcome treat from the municipal water---and there is an accessible spring a short distance off the highway at Novar where we stop and fill up several water jugs. However as soon as one gets off the highway and prepares to travel down this paved side road towards the spring, one sees this next scene.

This image was actually taken a couple of years ago. I was particularly pleased on that occasion to see a bright red kayak with two paddlers approaching, so I waited and got a few shots of them in action. The scene this year was similar, but without the kayak.

A little farther north again is a place that I discovered several years ago, and is one of my favourite places to take a break. It is Brooks Falls, and I have stopped numerous times over the years, in all seasons. The Magnetawan River flows here, and depending on the water flow, can look impressively powerful at least close-up. The access is via a municipal park by the name of the falls, and one can park just a few metres from the trail that takes you to several vantage points.

The day we visited this year was bright and sunny, not conducive for the best photography here. These first two images are a couple of my favourites from a previous time, one in mid-September and the other two weeks later.

Owing to the bright, contrasty conditions, I focussed on areas that were in shadow where I could capture more intimate scenes.

We made it to North Bay. In reality it isn't all that far north, being at a latitude well south of the 49th parallel, the typical southern boundary of Canada across much of this vast country. But relative to where we live in the extreme southwest, which is more or less at the same latitude of the northern California boundary, it is north! (Aside: I remember many years ago travelling through the USA, and explaining to an American traveller where we were from. His comment was quite revealing: "Oh, that is the part we didn't get from the British!")

One of my favourite places to explore while at North Bay is Laurier Woods Conservation Area. It is almost 100 hectares of natural area within the city limits of North Bay....what a concept, and what a treat! There are several kilometres of trails.

 Somewhat surprisingly, the colours this year were not as vibrant as a year ago, even though this year was a few days later. There was generally more green than I expected.

Without being all that familiar with birding hotspots of the area, I contacted a birder friend who spent several years living just south of North Bay. He recommended several spots, and so on this visit I checked out places like Sunset Point, an area protruding well out into Lake Nipissing, giving a 270 degree view of the lake.

Sunset Point Park

Sunset Point

 This next photo is also of Sunset Point, but looking northward towards the city centre. The shallow water and extensive sandy shoreline looks great for a few shorebirds and of course gulls. But it also lends itself to numerous people out walking their dogs, so maybe such birds give it a wide berth.

I also checked out the Callander Sewage Lagoon for birds, and of course Laurier Woods. Another spot at the south end of North Bay was Champlain Park, right along the lake and with a small river passing through it.

Given the time of year (second week of October) and limited time spent birding (it was primarily a family-oriented trip), I didn't see any really unexpected birds, but had a good array. Most were waterbirds, and included Common Loon, White-winged Scoter, Horned Grebe and various duck species. I think my total was about 30 species, and I dutifully entered my observations on ebird. At least now I have a better idea of where to spend birding time in the future, and have some other ideas of places to visit such as the Cranberry Trail, which goes about 2.5 km through the forest and includes marsh and lake viewing. It is nice having such extensive natural habitat within minutes of where we were staying.

While in North Bay, a visit to Duchesnay Falls is always a treat. It is located right along the highway leading out of the northwest side of the city.

Duchesnay Falls, the overview look

Duchesnay Falls, the close-up view

And just to wind things up, here is High Falls, just north of Bracebridge, located between a small roadside picnic park and the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources office on the west side of Hwy 11. It is an impressive sight, but one has to pick the vantage point carefully to eliminate the bright red signs warning of danger, and the metal walkway going across the falls on the upstream side.

For many of my waterfall photos, I like slow shutter speeds (typically 0.5-6 seconds or more) to highlight the silky smooth look. However for High Falls, I chose a faster shutter speed to try to stop the action and capture the feeling of raw power of the water. It is even more effective when there is more water flowing over, as I have sometimes seen here. In this case, the shutter speed was about 1/1000 sec.

Eurasian Wigeon plus odds and ends

It was only a few short weeks ago, when Lake Erie was doing this. There was another storm from the southeast since then that was creating similar effects.

Yesterday I went to Erieau to see what was new. The birds were fairly typical, but I noticed this.

The wave action had been coming over the edge of the pier fairly vigorously during one of the storms, and the building closest to the channel, while having not been in great shape before, had taken some serious blows by the pounding waves. I'm not sure what the future of this building is. It has just been used for storing odds and ends for some time now, and I don't know if anyone has the need to repair it.

One of the birdy things I noticed while near the waterfront and pier area were several flocks of Rusty Blackbirds, feeding on the grassy areas, or on the pier, or just about anywhere else. The warm temperature of the day caused a lot of gnats to be around, and Rusties were busily feeding on them wherever they could find them. One Rusty was especially interested in this old building...

 .....and was checking out the myriad gnats around the eaves trough and roof area as well.

As usual, there were thousands of waterfowl out on Rondeau Bay. There had to be at least 1000 American Coot, and probably ten thousand ducks of various species. American Wigeon, Gadwall, Mallard, Redhead and the like were the most numerous. The light was good for checking them out with a 'scope. I was hoping for a Eurasian Wigeon, almost a guarantee to be somewhere on the bay at this time of year.

Bingo!

It wasn't as close as I would have liked, but quite visible nonetheless through the 'scope.....not quite as good using a telephoto lens even with heavy cropping, however. It isn't quite in full breeding plumage, as other shots show a fair bit of grayish on the back and sides, but the brick red head and the yellow frontal stripe and the lack of a dark area at the gape are all good indicators. Being right beside a male American Wigeon in this photo is a good comparison. Hopefully it will stick around for a few weeks and be in a brighter, fuller breeding plumage before winter sets in.

There were others out looking through the ducks and shorebirds in the area.

McArthur sighting

I stopped at the Blenheim Sewage Lagoon a bit later. The shorebirds were actually in fairly decent numbers. I didn't see the Willet or Red-necked Phalarope.....presumably both finally moved on. But there were good numbers of Dunlin, a smattering of White-rumped Sandpiper as well as both yellowlegs, Pectoral Sandpiper and of course Killdeer. This first image shows predominantly Dunlin, but there are a few White-rumps in there. One that I haven't figured out yet is the bird at the lower left. It appears to be slightly smaller than the Dunlin, with a shorter bill, and long legs trailing beyond the tips of the tail feathers. Could it be a Western Sandpiper? Suggestions would be welcomed!

White-rump

Lesser Yellowlegs

In other news, I had 38 Sandhill Cranes at the Bear Creek Unit of St. Clair NWA a few days ago. At first I just thought there were 2-3 feeding in the wetland, but then they got up in small groups from farther back in the vegetation. Unfortunately when they flew off they were heading into the sun, and the photos were not all that great. I haven't had that many at one time in this area for quite awhile.

 Great Egrets are still around, although they are now showing up as 'Rare for this date and location' on ebird. Time to get the ebird filters updated!

FYI, another local site is available for birding, butterflies, botanizing, etc....the Fletcher Ponds. Technically they have been open and available for several years, but I just recently found out they were not posted. I had been there during the first Breeding Bird Atlas in the early 1980s, but it was posted for a few years at some point after. Now there is a small parking lot and a trail back to a series of wetland/pond areas, with shrubby areas and a few scattered mature trees. The access lane is located on the west side of Merlin Line, just south of Fletcher and almost immediately south of the Fletcher United Church. I have only been there once in recent weeks, and just got a few typical autumn migrants during my short visit, including this Blue-headed Vireo.

There were a few butterflies, including sulphurs, Monarchs and this Common Buckeye.

Some Painted Turtles were getting in some late season sun in the various ponds.

But given that it is largely in an agricultural landscape, except for the decommissioned railroad slightly to the north, it may attract birds looking for something more natural than corn or soybeans. I will definitely be checking it out from time to time. Maybe a spot to attract a vagrant flycatcher???

Raptors and more

There has been some great weather for watching raptors on the move.....north northwest winds, a mix of sun and cloud all work together for pushing raptors down towards the Lake Erie shoreline. They follow the shoreline to southwestern Essex County before travelling across the Detroit River and continuing their way south.

These past few days, the usual hawkwatch sites here in the southwest at Hawk Cliff, Holiday Beach and across the Detroit River at Lake Erie Metropark/Brownstown have had some impressive lists and numbers of raptors and Turkey Vultures. But you don't have to go to those places to see good numbers. Anywhere along their usual route under the aforementioned weather conditions can be worthwhile.

This past Saturday I was at Rondeau and was starting to check for passerines in the campground feasting on the Red Cedar berries, but I quickly got side-tracked by moving raptors and other birds passing across the blue sky. A few Turkey Vultures were noted at first, and they were fairly low down.

Then came a flock of Gadwall heading from the lake over to Rondeau Bay.

A few Red-tailed Hawks moved through, including one fairly low.

And waaaay up in the blue were some tiny specks that warranted closer inspection. They were almost too high to identify with only binoculars, but I grabbed a few shots with the equivalent of an 800mm lens and heavily cropped them on the computer to confirm the ID.

A pair of immature Bald Eagles.

An immature Red-shouldered Hawk.

The bonus bird of the time there was this immature Golden Eagle soaring way up! But even at this altitude, the large sized dark bird with the tell-tale white patches in the outer part of the wing and at the base of the tail are classic Golden Eagle. This species is just starting to show up in southern Ontario on their autumn migration. The above mentioned hawkwatches have each recorded one or two so far, but there will be more on their way, and late October is the perfect time to see them.

I did check out other things during my time in the park, but towards the end of the day as I was getting ready to leave, I noticed a large swirl of vultures, and they just kept coming. And coming. And coming. The sky was getting a bit cloudier, and I suspect this large group was looking for a place to descend and roost for the night.

A portion of a group of ~600 Turkey Vultures

When all was said and done, I estimated there to be a good 600 birds in this group. I looked for other birds mixed in, as sometimes happens, even hoping for a Black Vulture, but all I saw were Turkeys. I did notice that at upwards of 4000 or more Turkey Vultures were observed at a couple of hawkwatch sites the next day, so presumably this group was part of that event.

80+ Turkey Vultures

In other news.....October is the time of year when gentians are in bloom, and there are two species which can be found at Rondeau: Bottle Gentian (Gentiana andrewsii) is fairly common but scattered in tallgrass prairie and old field edges. Fringed Gentian (Gentianopsis crinita) only occurs in a handful of locations in the park. Neither are particularly rare in Ontario, unlike other gentian species that are fairly restricted to high quality prairies, but great to see just the same.

Bottle Gentian

Note the closed nature of the Bottle Gentian. That is as much as they open up. They are pollinated by bees which are large enough and strong enough to cut their way through the outer part of the flower. By forcing their way inside in this way, they gain nectar and in the process, pollinate it.

Fringed Gentian

Fringed Gentian typically grow in clusters as shown in the image above. Note the close-up of the flower below, showing the fringed edge of the petals illustrating why it gets its name. They are usually tightly closed on cloudy days or during the period that they are in the shade, so if you want to see them at their finest, you have to go out on a bright sunny day.

October plenty

We were away over the Thanksgiving period....more on that in a future post.....so I will pass along some of the highlights of early October.

October is one of my favourite times of year. The parks are less busy with the crowds of summer and there are still lots of things to enjoy.

There is a nice variety of fungus on the forest floor, including this Clitocybula abundans which is fruiting off of some wood just under the soil and leaf litter.

I was pleased with the diversity of butterflies utilizing the sunnier parts of the trail. Aside from these Common Buckeye and Eastern Tailed-Blue, there were Red Admirals, both sulphurs, Monarch and Mourning Cloak. The buckeyes have been noticeably more abundant in the last few weeks.

Common Buckeye

Eastern Tailed-Blue

Other invertebrates along the trails include this Marbled Orb Weaver, a large colourful spider that is typically abundant in the fall.

 Oblong-winged Katydid are also more abundant now. Usually they are green, as in this next image.

But sometimes they can be either bright pink, or pale yellow, as in these next two. The pink one I took many years ago, on slide film. A pink one was seen by several people late this summer, in the vegetation right next to the Rondeau Visitor Centre. The yellow one I photographed on Pelee Island a few years ago on a digital P&S. Both have been used in the book Songs Of Insects, an excellent book illustrating the numerous crickets, katydids, cicadas, etc of eastern North America. It includes a CD with the various insect songs and is available at the Friends of Rondeau bookstore.

 Along the eastern side of the park, and especially in the campground, there are quite a few Eastern Red Cedars. Some years they have virtually no fruit, but this year looks to be a good fruiting year, at least for some individual trees. This is a boon for various birds looking for nourishment this time of year.

American Robin

Hermit Thrush

Cedar Waxwings and a few lingering warbler species will definitely make use of this abundance as well, and if the berries last long enough, will be great at attracting birds for the Christmas Bird Count (only two months away!!).

I've seen more Northern Parulas this fall than I did in the spring.

Northern Parula

Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers are showing up more and more.

Northern Flickers are more abundant now than they were in the summer.

Somewhat surprisingly, this American Woodcock was strutting along the paved trail, but didn't let me get too close before heading off to the brushy side. One seldom sees them out in the open on bright  sunny days.

Turkey Vultures are passing through in large numbers, wobbling through the sky as they go. Already more than 30,000 have been documented at one of the hawkwatch sites along the Detroit River, but last year almost 70,000 were recorded, so there are lots more to come.

October is definitely a month of plenty to be thankful for!