A 'recharging' Snowy and some pre-CBC scouting

Over the last couple of days I've spent a bit of time scouting around in the St. Clair NWA Christmas Bird Count circle. Tomorrow is the count...a great way to start the new year. We've been holding this count on New Year's day for about a decade, and I really appreciate the commitment of the regulars to participate.

Every year is different, of course. This year has been one of the mildest so far, with nary a bit of ice to contend with, for humans or wildlife. That may change somewhat by tomorrow, as it has been slightly below freezing for the last few hours, and will remain below for the next 24-36 hours, if one can believe the weather forecasters. So if that happens, some ice will appear and that isn't necessarily a bad thing. Up until now, the birds have been widely spread, not being constrained by ice in the least, so a bit of ice might get them a bit more concentrated. I hope.

Fortunately this year seems to be great for Snowy Owls....that is three years in a row, which is abnormal. They normally go in cycles and may be in good numbers for a year, maybe two successive ones, and then revert to being a no-show for several years. The area of our Christmas Bird Count has been one of the more reliable areas to find this owl in the winter in southwestern Ontario, but even at that, we've come up empty for as many as 6 years in a row. This is due to the food availability at the time of their breeding, and is affected by lemming cycles. When there are lots of lemmings, there are lots of young owls produced, and when the lemming population takes a nose dive later in the year, it forces the owls to head south for the winter. I'm not sure what three good years in a row means. Three good years of lemming populations? And what is the cause of that? Is it the dreaded climate change, which results in more lemmings in successive years?

At any rate, it is always nice to see Snowy Owls. Yesterday in my travels around the north part of the former Dover Twp, I counted 12 Snowy Owls, one of the highest totals I've ever had at one time. There may have been more that saw me, as several were well out in the field and not easy to spot. Most were on the ground.

 Some were on a pole or low structure.

 This next image is one I've always been on the lookout for....a raptor of some type on a solar panel, and a bonus is that it is a Snowy! Is it recharging :-)?

There has been a rather large mixed flock of blackbirds north of Mitchell's Bay and south of the Bear Creek Unit of SCNWA. In with the ~5000 birds are up to three male Yellow-headed Blackbirds!
Unfortunately I haven't been able to catch up with this flock yet, so have been forced to use a photo from the spring here.

And truth be told, this large flock has been slightly outside our count circle so they need to come a bit farther south before we can count them for the count week or count day. Here's hoping.....

I did come across a large flock of at least 800 mostly Brown-headed Cowbirds today, south of the Thames River. There was the occasional European Starling mixed in but nothing more exciting that I could find.

I checked out the mouth of the Thames River to get an idea of what to expect tomorrow. Ducks were very scarce, but there was a handful of gulls. I know not many people, especially boaters, have much use for the several trees anchored just beyond the mouth of the river, but the gulls found them useful. There were Ring-bills, Herring and Bonaparte's Gulls all in the area, as well as a single adult Great Black-backed, seen here perched towards the top of the tree.

Upstream from the mouth towards Jeannettes Creek was a single, and somewhat distant, Double-crested Cormorant. They aren't easy to get on this count....we've only had them 10 times in 35 years.

There are lots of Tundra Swans and Canada Geese around, not surprisingly....there has been no need for them to travel farther south with all the water open and fields available for feeding and resting.

 This next one was just sitting at the edge of one of the large drainage canals. Even though it isn't a huntable species, it may be injured as it showed no signs of moving while I was there with the camera. It certainly couldn't have thought that it was camouflaged!

Amongst the thousands of Canada Geese just south of the NWA were two white Snow Geese. We get Snows, or the blue phase of the Snow Goose, a little over half the time on this count, so it isn't all that surprising. We are chagrined when we miss it, however, so hopefully these will stick around for a little longer.

Happy New Year!

CBC rarities and a Snowy Owl oddity

The 30th Wallaceburg/Walpole Island Christmas Bird Count was held yesterday, Dec 27. The weather was not too conducive for finding lots of birds, but the birds made up for it in other ways. Quality, not quantity is one way to describe it.

My territory basically includes the St. Clair River from Walpole Island north to about the now closed Lambton Generating Station, as well as some inland areas east to Hwy 40. There is a lot of area there, but given that most of it is agriculture or private industrial, there is not a lot of inland area that is able to be covered very thoroughly. So the river gets a lot of viewing time, and normally that takes a lot of effort with lots of waterfowl, gulls, etc. Not so this year. I have never seen the river so devoid of birds!

The last couple of winters, albeit a little later in the season than this, looked like this. A huge amount of ice was present, causing large concentrations of ducks, especially Canvasback, Redhead and Common Goldeneye, to be jammed in to the little open water that there was.

This year, of course, all water was completely open, and freighters could go up or downstream uninhibited.

Side note: the day started off with heavy cloud, rain and brisk north wind. It improved somewhat as the day went on, but there was a bit of misty drizzle on and off for most of the day, and certainly not conducive for photography. Hence many of these images were taken under poor light, and I had to ramp the ISO up to 1600 or higher in most cases.

It was only after I got this photo on the computer that I realized a flock of Bufflehead, out of focus but in the lower left hand corner, were passing by. Bufflehead was one of only five waterfowl species I saw on the river this day. (I got two other species inland.) There was quite a current, and freighters going downstream were travelling considerably faster than those struggling to get upstream. With the brisk north wind, there were at times even whitecaps on the river!

With so few waterfowl to count, I even took the occasional photo of other things. A large church across the river in Michigan looked to have a good turnout.

At the Sombra Ferry dock, there is always a group of Mallards, and occasionally something else mixed in. In the last few days, a female Harlequin Duck has been hanging out. When I first saw it this day, it was resting on a post, and was almost underneath the boathouse and therefore in heavy shade. I used a bit of flash for these next two photos.

Harlequin Duck

Harlequin Duck with Mallards

It is considerably smaller than the Mallards it was with. And when the ducks get 'tired' of bouncing around in the water, they have a post or other feature to hang out on.

Mallard

The day before, there had been some Cackling Geese in amongst the resident Canadas at Cathcart Park, so I stopped there. Not a goose in sight, but there were, to borrow from "The Twelve Days of Christmas" seven swans a-swimming. I couldn't get them all in the same frame...only these four.

Mute Swans

Mute Swans were typically in numbers greater than we like to see, with 77 recorded for the count.

At the north end of the territory, I saw one of the two Peregrine Falcons that had been known to hang out at the Lambton Generating Station.

Peregrine Falcon

Working inland a bit, I came across a Northern Shrike, the first one I have seen all fall/winter so far.

Northern Shrike

Wild Turkeys are usually pretty easy to find on this count, but with the wind, rain and no snow cover they were almost impossible to find this time. I eventually saw a flock of 22, most of which are in this next photo. As it turns out, there was only one other Wild Turkey seen on the count, coming in to a feeder.

Wild Turkeys

I wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to see the very cooperative Vermilion Flycatcher that had gotten the attention of birders far and wide these last 10 days. Even though it wasn't in my official territory, I can now add it to my personal Birds seen on a Christmas Bird Count list :-). Larry Cornelis found this bird a few days ago, and it is now the first time this species has been recorded on a Canadian CBC. In 2001, Larry found a Black-necked Stilt that stayed around for that year's CBC and it was the first Canadian record for a CBC. What are you going to find for us next year, Larry?

Vermilion Flycatcher

On my way home at the end of the day, I came across a Snowy Owl along Hwy 40 just south of Wallaceburg. It wasn't a real surprise given that several have been seen in the count circle over the past few days. However since there is never a guarantee, I decided to photograph it in case it was the only one seen. It was almost 5 p.m. and at this time, with the very heavy cloud cover, it was getting quite dark. The only way I could get this photo was setting the ISO to 6400, a number higher than I've ever used before. (Back in the film days, any slide film above 400 ASA/ISO was almost useless.) So I was quite pleased how well this one turned out. The bluish gray sky is an artifact of the heavy gray cloud cover. The image looks much, much brighter than the conditions it was shot under! In taking a closer look at this owl, I couldn't help but note the 'goggle' effect of the feathers around its eyes. Of the four pics I took, they all had this, and I have never noticed this before, although I can't recall ever photographing a Snowy Owl in such dark conditions. Is this something that they regularly look like in the dark? Does it have some kind of benefit to them to hone in on prospective prey? When they are on their breeding grounds, much of the time is in daylight. It was quite breezy from the north when I took this, so does this protect their eyes when they are more fully open to compensate for the dark conditions?

Snowy Owl

Any thoughts???

Merry Christmas!

Christmas...certainly a busier time of year for most, if not all. Anticipated by many, and for various reasons, dreaded by some.

Winter has just begun, officially, but one would never know it looking outside here in southwestern Ontario, and a lot of other places. These next few images are what we have come to expect especially over the last couple of years when winter has been rather....wintry!

East beach of Rondeau

Bennett Ave slough after a fresh light snowfall

Bennett Ave slough in the depths of winter

Instead, at least for the next few weeks, according to the weather prognosticators, we will likely be faced with the landscape looking like this next image. Of course much of the world experiences snow-free conditions at Christmas.

Harrison Trail

So without wintry Christmas scenes to photograph right now, I will post some colours that often are used to represent the season.

Winterberry

This image above isn't the normal holly that one associates with Christmas, but it is a member of the Holly family and occurs in small quantities at Rondeau and many other locations. It is Winterberry (Ilex verticillata).

This next image also shows the green and red combination, albeit a little more muted, and with some gray mixed in. It is a Pyrrhuloxia, a typical denizen of the extreme southwest in Arizona. But hey.....one showed up at a feeder at Eagle in nearby Elgin County during the latter part of December, 2004 and first part of January, 2005. Given all the western and southwestern birds to show up in Ontario these last few weeks, maybe a Pyrrhuloxia is next!

Pyrruloxia

I think most birders in Ontario are happy, and a lot more likely, to see a Snowy Owl. This has been another good year so far for this arctic visitor. I photographed this one on Wednesday, December 23, along the rural roads of Chatham-Kent near.....nowhere, but south of Wallaceburg and east of Mitchell's Bay. This is the whitest one I've seen so far this year.

Snowy Owl

So this Christmas, I hope you will maybe find time to see a full moon if the weather permits.

I also hope you will be able to enjoy time this season with family and friends, and even get out to explore the wonderful creation that most readers of this blog appreciate.

Most of all, however, I hope you consider the real purpose and message of Christmas, which is the birth of Jesus. And amidst all of the chaos and uncertainty in the world that we read about every day, please pray for peace on earth.

Merry Christmas to all!

Bird Count Bonanza

The Blenheim/Rondeau Christmas Bird Count was held yesterday, Dec 20. This has been a long tradition here, with the first one occurring in 1939, making this one the 76th count. The database is enormous, not surprisingly, What helps is that for the last 40 or so years, this count has been near or at the top of all Ontario CBCs in terms of species diversity. The cumulative list up until this year stands at an amazing 189 species, including 3 that have only been seen during the count week but not on the count day.

Some species are almost a guarantee. In spite of Bald Eagles being an endangered species for much of the time since 1939, we have only missed recording them on two occasions.

We have endured lots of weather diversity. I have been on this count for 45 years. Some years are windy, including some with sustained 50 km/h winds (and gusts well above that). Some years were so rainy that using binoculars was next to hopeless unless you could use them from inside a sheltered area. Some years were so foggy that you could hear Mallards on Rondeau Bay, but couldn't see them to find out what other species were with them. Some years were so snowy that visibility was difficult, and one could hardly even exit the park to go to the compilation. Some years were bitter cold with wind chills well below -25C, and other years were so mild that I have used a canoe in the marsh on a couple of occasions. Some years it is mild enough that there are even frogs, snakes and turtles out and even bats flying around! For some reason the Eastern Garter Snake in this next image was out on Tuesday, when it was 6C but overcast and with a cold, light drizzle falling.

The 2015 count was relatively benign in terms of weather severity. Cloudy bright conditions are great. The eventual brisk S-SW wind of 35-55+ km/h wasn't so great, especially if one was in an exposed area, which I was as my territory is the most exposed of the entire count circle.

For approximately the last 30 years, my territory has been the South Beach of Rondeau all the way to Erieau and back, and then the south end of the Marsh Road. Both of these areas are quite exposed, and requires a lot of walking on various surfaces. Typically it results in at least 15-18 km of walking, carrying a bunch of equipment (tripod, scope, binoculars, snacks, etc while dressed in winter attire). For some reason it seems to be more challenging to cover this area than it did 30 years ago.

The early morning hours were clear, with very little wind, which is normally ideal conditions for calling for owls. Just as I got out of the car at my first stopping point to call for owls,I heard a gentle ruckus in the trees. When I looked over and up, I noted 14 Wild Turkeys silhouetted against the sky. It always seems a bit odd to see such large and ungainly birds roosting so high up on bare branches, but I am sure they feel safer there than on the ground where a prowling coyote or fox might disrupt their sleep.  After a few moments some, and then the rest, decided to complete their early morning roosting activity a little farther away from this human intruder.

For some reason, the owls weren't as vocal this year as they sometimes are, and only two Eastern Screech Owls responded. As daybreak approached, I headed to the very south end of Rondeau Road/South Point Trail to begin the trek out along the South Beach. The first few hundred metres are challenging to get through, as the heavy winds and waves of these past few weeks have caused lots of tree fall, and the shoreline is littered with downed trees. The southerly winds today were the source of light wave action to begin with, so walking along the shoreline here was not possible. The only way to access my territory was to make my way around or through the downed trees, etc., which at times required one to crawl on hands and knees. But it was worth it.

The sun was pleasingly bright and the southerly winds fairly light first thing, although that would deteriorate after an hour or so.

The overnight cold made the wet sand quite firm to walk on, fortunately. As the wind and waves increased on the lake side, I spent more time along the lightly sheltered marsh and bay side of the sand barrier beach. As it turned out, some of the wave action of the past few weeks had washed a large amount of sand over and created some nice sandy conditions along the bay/marsh edge.

With all of this exposed sandy shoreline with some detritus along the edge, as well as the unseasonably mild weather, surely it would be good for shorebirds, right? Over the years I've had about 10 species of shorebird in my territory. But it wasn't to be this year.....not a single one. Perhaps there was too much habitat for the few shorebirds that were likely still around somewhere.

There was lots of waterfowl diversity waiting for me. I recorded 19 species altogether, including only the third Eurasian Wigeon ever on this count. At least one male had been seen fairly regularly on the southern part of Rondeau Bay over the last couple of months, so it wasn't altogether a surprise. And it was a good year for Hooded Mergansers, one of my favourite ducks. The day before the count I had at least 60 at Erieau. Finding 11 at the south end of Rondeau Bay during the count was a nice treat.

About 20 Hoodies

Male Hooded Merganser

Female Hooded Merganser

The most abundant species of duck was Canvasback, with about 425 within view from the South Beach. Waterfowl hunters indicated that there had been a rather large number arrive in the previous few days. I expect there were more along the edge of the marsh that never got counted.

Mallards were the next most abundant duck, not surprisingly. I counted 373, not including this next one.

Anas plasticus

If it seems a bit shiny, that is because it is plastic! I guess this one got away from some hunters, as I found it along the bay shoreline.

I had only a single American Coot. It had been resting in some vegetation along the shoreline, but took off quickly as I approached. It seemed to be fine. I'm not sure what it was doing here all by itself, as ~4400 of its relatives were hanging out near Erieau. This next image is a portion of a very jam-packed group of coot I observed there on Saturday. Try counting them!

After completing my route along the South Beach, I headed for the Marsh Trail. There were ducks and gulls along the ice well out from the shoreline of the marsh. But the trail itself was almost entirely devoid of birds. I had a grand total of 9 American Tree Sparrows and one Swamp Sparrow for my entire almost 6 kilometre walk! Undoubtedly there were numerous Swamp Sparrows and others in the marsh, but I couldn't hear them chipping and they weren't responding to my 'spishing', so they probably couldn't hear me any better in all that wind.

I decided to try some woodland area at the north end of the park. Pileated Woodpeckers are permanent residents of Rondeau, but they can be notoriously difficult to find when you need them to fill in a spot on a checklist. So I worked my way along the north end of Rondeau Road, where I had seen a Pileated a few days earlier. It was a long shot, I knew, but maybe I would get lucky. At least I might find some other woodland species to add to my list.

On the way over, I came across intrepid birder Blake "Boatmann" Mann, complete with the requisite binoculars and camera gear, on the prowl for something new. We shared greetings and notes before continuing on our separate ways.

As it turned out, small birds weren't much better in woodland areas than they were elsewhere. The road and woodland edges were very quiet. There has been a deer herd reduction program on in the park in recent weeks, and I went in to one of the baiting stations to see if there was anything coming in to bits of bait remaining on the ground. A Downy Woodpecker was there, and didn't seem interested in leaving this small stash of food, so after a couple of shots, I left it to its meal.

Right near by was a large Silver Maple. Regular readers will be aware of my interest in big trees, and I had measured this one a couple of weeks ago. It is 122 cm in diameter....certainly not the largest Silver Maple I have come across, but an impressive specimen nonetheless. For a Silver Maple it was in very good shape. Most of them when they get anywhere close to this size, show major damage such as a broken top or lost or broken limbs. Not this one.

I walked by the remains of an Acadian Flycatcher nest. Even when it is in use, it looks flimsy, but the elements of these past few months have caused significant damage. By the time some snow settles in it, or if there is much more rain or wind, it will be completely gone, I am sure.

I did come across a Hairy Woodpecker, the only one I had on the day.

I never did see a Pileated Woodpecker, although I can't rule out the possibility that one may have seen me. As it turns out, this species was a total miss for the count which is a bit disappointing when you know they are there. We've had them on 34 occasions in the last 45 years.

Even though the day was moving along and I hadn't had much of anything new to add to my list for awhile, I was reluctant to quit early. Most birders want to stay out a little longer, in hopes that something new will come along. So I spent a bit of time just outside the park at a spot where I could look over the bay, and keep an eye on anything coming in along the shoreline. Blackbirds are well known to come in to roost for the night after having spent the day gleaning the grain in nearby fields. I did see a few Red-winged Blackbirds arrive, the first ones for my day, but the highlight of this time was seeing two Sandhill Cranes come in. Usually you can hear them long before you ever see them, but that wasn't the case today. In fact I almost missed them as they uttered not a single sound as they fought the wind coming in to the park.

It was almost 5 p.m. by this time, and the by now heavy overcast sky made things darker, so the photo op here was challenging. It is a record shot only. Regardless, it was a nice way to end the outdoor part of the day!

As for the cumulative results for all participants today, a very respectable 109 species was recorded. It might very well be once again, the highest total for Ontario.

Red and white bring birders delight

It was a red and white day.

The word got out about an immature male Vermilion Flycatcher at the Cornelis home farm this morning. I missed the text message from Steve Charbonneau, as I was enjoying a meeting of mostly MNR retirees at a local hangout for a coffee clatch that we have every month or two. When I got home and checked the email before heading up to an afternoon meeting at Walpole, I saw Steve's Ontbird posting about this southwestern flycatcher! Then I checked my phone and yep....there was Steve's text.

So I informed the person I was meeting with at Walpole that I would be there a little later, and headed first for the Cornelis farm. There was a handful of folks already there. One of them said "You should have been here five minutes ago". Right....thanks Garry :-). It wouldn't be the first time I've missed an unusual bird by five minutes (or less). Fortunately that wasn't the case today. It appeared on the fence.

Then it worked its way closer into a patch of dead asters and goldenrods etc in the pasture, until popping up even closer on an open branch of a dormant sapling.

This is the second record for Chatham-Kent. The previous one was in the late fall of 1994, and we were hoping it might stick around to be counted on the St. Clair NWA Christmas Bird Count, but that didn't happen. With the Wallaceburg/Walpole CBC only 10 days away, this one has a chance if it can survive until then. But if it decides it has had enough of southwestern Ontario at this time of year, and can make it back home to Texas or Arizona where it really should be, I'm okay with that.

It is very distinctive even in this immature male plumage, but the adult male is positively brilliant! Somewhat like a smaller, but brighter, version of a Scarlet Tanager in a basic way. This next image is of an adult male which I took at the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area in the very southern part of Arizona in the spring of 2012.

The female is distinctive as well, but much more subdued. It was also photographed along the San Pedro River in 2012.

After appreciating the view of this fantastic flycatcher today, I made it to my meeting at Walpole in reasonable time. Upon leaving Walpole, I returned home checking some of the areas where I had seen Snowy Owls earlier in the week. Sure enough, even in the fading light I saw one sitting on top of a barn roof. It was too dark to get the camera out...with the brisk wind and the constantly ruffled feathers, any photo would have been a blur. So I will post photos of three of the five birds I came across on Wednesday.

One of the first ones I saw was just south of Robin Line, in a corn field.

 Another one was sitting on the roof of a barn east of Malcolm Line, south of Mud Creek Line.

 I had been hoping for a good close-up of one on a pole by the road. The last one I saw that day was doing just that, right along Mallard Line.

It was definitely a Red and White highlight day today. Not often do you get a chance to see an arctic visitor within a few kilometres of a southwestern Arizona visitor in an afternoon!