Leapin' Leopards!

Today was by far the warmest day we've had in a long time. At one point, the thermometer registered 17C! As I was cruising around in the vicinity of St. Clair NWA, I noticed two frogs hopping with enthusiasm along the road.....they were both Leopard Frogs, the first of the season for me. I guess they decided to emerge from their winter solitude to celebrate 'Leap' year :-).

There are a few more raptors around in C-K, it seems, although nothing quite as exciting as the Gyrfalcon that has been in northern Lambton lately. Check out Blake's 'Burg Birder blog for a description of his (and Mike Bouman's) success in relocating that bird. But some nice clean-looking Red-tails are around, such as this juvenile bird that I captured on a pole today.

They are usually not very cooperative for the camera....as soon as the vehicle stops and something is pointed out the window at them, they decide its time to move elsewhere. Presumably they have been shot at with something more deadly than a camera, so have learned to be a bit more cautious when this happens.

The NWA was actually pretty quiet, other than a good number of Canada Geese and a handful of Tundra Swans, Mallards, etc.

I checked the Mitchell's Bay area. There is still lots of ice, although one can see the open water well out from shore, where there are ducks bouncing around on the waves. They all looked like divers from the distance, but the light was poor. More interesting was the presence of 7 Bald Eagles scattered around on the ice towards the south end of Walpole Island. There were only a couple of adults, the others were sub-adults. They were too far away to even bother with the camera. A nest is not far away, up along the edge of the Chenal Ecarte. I stopped along the north end of  Malcolm Road to check out the nest, and noted it is still there but I didn't see any adults nearby.

I saw three Wood Ducks in a large drain, two of which are shown here, with the other male just beyond the frame.

I hadn't been out looking for Snowy Owls for awhile, and hadn't heard of anyone else doing so either, so I checked out a few likely spots. First of all I checked along Meadowvale Line, east of Hwy 40, south of Wallaceburg. Somewhat to my surprise, I saw 7 birds, 5 of which were on the north side and the other two on the south side. Another was on the south side of Corktown Line. None were very close to the road, so photographs were record only. I had a few Horned Larks land not far from me, so I took advantage of that opportunity.

Then heading west of Hwy 40, I checked out a few other spots. Along Mallard Line between Bear Line and Winter Line, I found three more Snowies! One was being harrassed by a couple of crows. Another was a little closer to the road, and this is one of the better photos I got today. It is by far the whitest of the ones I saw today, and it may be the same one as at the top of the page, which was photographed only about 2-3 kilometres away. Eleven Snowies were more than I expected.....I wonder how many others are out there.

It isn't often that one finds Snowies and frogs on the same day in February!

Quest for the nest.....

Bald Eagles aren't the novelty they used to be, but they still are a highlight to see.

At one point in the first half of the last century, eagle advocates determined that there was on average an active Bald Eagle nest for every mile of Lake Erie shoreline between Long Point and Point Pelee. But by the early 1970s, there was only one. That was at Rondeau Provincial Park, where historically there had been two active nests. When the first Ontario Endangered Species Act came into effect in 1973, the Bald Eagle was listed along with 11 other species.

The culprit for the decline? Primarily it was the liberal use of DDT, which caused egg shells to become so thin that they broke when the adults attempted to incubate them. There were also deformities in beaks appearing in birds that had hatched, resulting in young birds not being able to fledge.

Even the nesting pair at Rondeau, at least for a few years, did not produce any young, or at least not every year. When young were raised, it was often only a single eaglet.

Of course in many respects, it has been a good news story since that time. DDT was banned, at least in Canada and the US. DDT was still used in developing countries of Latin America and elsewhere, but since eagles didn't migrate to those locales, and the fish they were feeding on here weren't affected by DDT, the plight of the eagle improved considerably.

Adult eagle with fish in its talons

There have been other issues that eagles have faced, including loss of habitat as well as persecution in areas where they weren't protected by legislation due to the perception that they were killing young livestock. In recent years there have been effects by power lines, wind turbines and such. As unfortunate as those incidents are, the Bald Eagle population has continued to climb in numbers.

For example in the early years of the Blenheim/Rondeau Christmas Bird Count (which began in 1939), it was common to get anywhere from 1-11 Bald Eagles on the count. By the late 1950s through the mid 1980s, it was rare to get more than 2-3, and some years none were counted. Since 2000, it has been unusual to get fewer than 10 eagles, with a high of 17 recorded one year.

On the St. Clair NWA Christmas Bird Count (CBC), which started in 1981, Bald Eagles were only counted about half the time for the first few years and only one or two if any. Since 2002, that count has averaged 10 eagles, with more than 20 counted on two of those years. The all-time high of 27 was on the most recent count.

The Wallaceburg/Walpole CBC, which began in 1986, did not have a single Bald Eagle for the first 10 years but in the last decade has only missed them once. The most recent count recorded 8 birds, an all time high for that count.

A new CBC has been started in the Skunk's Misery area, which includes parts of Chatham-Kent, Elgin, Middlesex and Lambton. In only its second year, in early January, 2016, there were 27 Bald Eagles tallied.

 Of course some of the count results have been weather related, but in general, this last decade and a half has seen a continual increase in Bald Eagle numbers throughout southwestern Ontario. And it was about a decade ago when the species was re-evaluated and taken off the provincial Endangered Species list. It is currently ranked as Special Concern, a much lower level of significance.

When I was working at Rondeau in the 1970s and 1980s, it was always a highlight to go out to the nest and band the young birds. The adults liked their privacy as well as having good access to the extensive marsh, so getting to their nest was not easy. The next few shots have all been scanned from old slides.

Approaching the nest tree, where the nest is in the upper left hand corner

We had to cross several sloughs, and even with chest waders, it was not always easy to get to the nest without getting wet. Fighting our way through the gnarly buttonbush while carrying equipment made it an additional challenge. During the first few years, a researcher associated with the University of Wisconsin was the lead bander, as he had been keeping tab on all the eagle nests around the lower Great Lakes. Of course there were very few nests to keep track of in those days. On occasion someone from a TV station would join us, to document this newsworthy event. Even though they were told they would need chest waders, they didn't always come prepared. But at least they kept the camera equipment dry.

Once we got to the nest tree, one person would climb the tree, using climbing spurs and ropes (although one time an energetic young fellow just had climbing spurs, and no other equipment. He did it free hand.......That wouldn't happen in today's world, with emphasis on health and safety.....)

The climber would get into the nest, and if we calculated the bird's age closely enough, the birds would stay put. Then each one would be carefully put into a burlap bag and lowered to the ground, where the awaiting crew would take measurements and a blood sample, and then an aluminum band was placed on the leg. Ideally we would band the bird when it was about 5-6 weeks of age. A younger bird might have smaller legs, and the band would be too big for the leg. If the bird was older, it might attempt to jump out of the nest, fledging prematurely.

On one occasion we got a 'jumper' and the eaglet, with wings outspread, floated down to the adjacent marsh. I managed to catch up to it, grasping its lower legs to keep the talons from doing any damage, and took it to the rest of the crew where the banding process was completed. It was returned to the nest in the bag, and it did not attempt to jump again.

Measuring the femur

Putting on the band

Measuring the beak

On occasion, there were even three birds in the nest, certainly an indication of improved health in the adults. Two is the norm, so three birds were a major highlight.

But the main reason for this post is not to present this bit of history....most readers will likely know a good part of it. No, this post is to try and generate interest in finding active nests in 2016, especially in the Chatham-Kent area.

The local Bald Eagles have been in their early stages of courtship and nesting behaviour for a little while now. In fact some may have been busy repairing old nests or beginning new ones, even late last autumn. But now that spring is not all that far off (we hope!) serious nesting activity is near. Egg dates for this latitude around the lower Great Lakes, typically starts in mid-March. The farther south one goes, the earlier the nesting season starts, not surprisingly. For example in Florida, the egg-laying season usually starts in mid-November.

Nests are most visible right now, and until the trees leaf out in May. Active nests will have one or more adults nearby, confirming their active state.

I am aware of up to 18 nests in Chatham-Kent or immediate vicinity.

• two at Rondeau, one visible from the Marsh Trail and the second only visible from a small section along the south beach.

Rondeau nest

• one in the immediate vicinity of Clear Creek Forest Provincial Park
• another one along the Lake Erie shoreline east of Morpeth
• one along the Thames River, east of Thamesville. It occurs along an oxbow on the north side of the river, and is visible from Hwy 2/Longwoods Road.

Along oxbow, east of Thamesville

•  one along the Thames River on the south side and closer to the Delaware of the Thames First Nation
• one at the north end of the Scane Sideroad, on the south side of the Thames River
• one that used to be adjacent to a small gravel pit northeast of Thamesville, although it may not still be usable, and that pair might now occupy one of the other nest territories not far away
• one on the south side of the Thames River, in a tree line south of the Maple City Golf Club
• one along the Snye Channel (a.k.a. Chenal Ecarte)
• one, or possibly two, along the Lake St. Clair shoreline south of SCNWA
• one on the south side of Lighthouse Cove. Technically it is in Essex Co, but it is associated with the Thames River and the river mouth

  

  Lighthouse Cove nest

• one in a woodlot east-northeast of Wheatley, although I haven't seen that nest for a few years and it may not still be active
• one in a small woodlot north of Talbot Trail, just west of Dillon Road
• one in a larger woodlot complex north of Dealtown. It is possible this pair and the one along Dillon Road may be the same, as eagles sometimes have nests that they rotate to.
• one along the Sydenham River, east of Dawn Mills.

There is a possible nest in a small woodlot north of Shrewsbury. It is a recently constructed nest, although it is not very large.....yet. To add to the uncertainty, in the last few weeks some of us have seen and photographed Bald Eagles perched on the nest or in nearby trees, and we have also seen and photographed Red-tailed Hawks doing the same thing! It will be interesting to see who eventually makes use of this one. Or since Great Horned Owls typically begin nesting before either eagles or  hawks, maybe this one will be used by a Great Horned Owl! Stay tuned....

These are the ones that I am aware of. Not all are necessarily active this year, and likely there are others. Given that Bald Eagles feed on fish a lot, or other creatures of wetlands, nests are typically found within one to two kilometres of a large water body or river.

If you are cruising the countryside in the vicinity of Lake Erie, Lake St. Clair, the Thames River or the Sydenham River, keep an eye open for Bald Eagles or a large cluster of sticks that could be their nest. And if you find something that fits, please let me know, either through a comment on this blog, or via email: prairietramper@gmail.com

Immature Bald Eagle

Weather ups and downs

I thought I would change my header pic. The Vermilion Flycatcher was wonderful to see, no question, but it is almost certain that it met its demise several weeks ago. Snowy Owls have been fairly abundant again this winter, with being able to find a dozen in a single day on occasion. Since there is still a bit of winter ahead of us and some Snowy Owls are still around, I thought it fitting to give one of the whitest owls I came across this winter a bit of profile before I switch to something more spring-like in a few weeks.

With all the ups and downs of the weather, I am sure the waterfowl (maybe humans also!) are just wondering what in the heck is going on. There was a lot of waterfowl around at the beginning of January. By late January, with the weather taking a nose dive, much of the open water became ice covered and some of the waterfowl disappeared for warmer climes, presumably. Then we had a warm spell, with rain, and much of Lake Erie, Rondeau Bay and the Thames River was quite open. Lots of waterfowl returned, and this time included the deluge of Snow Geese along with a few Ross's and Greater White-fronted Geese. Then the polar vortex hit us about a week ago, leaving very little open water anywhere. The birds that did stay could be seen huddled around whatever open water there was, or in flight moving from one open patch to another. That was the state of things for most of this week, so I went looking for open water to see what was there.

A trip to St. Clair NWA proved fruitless. Everything in view was frozen solid, with not a single duck or goose to be seen anywhere, not even in the surrounding fields searching for food.

I moved on to the Jeannette's Creek boat launch at the Thames River. Different location, but same story.

Next stop was the mouth of the Thames River at Lighthouse Cove. Surely there would be something there, even if it was just a handful of the domesticated Mallards!

And there they were. Not the domesticated Mallards, but more than a thousand waterfowl. Unfortunately they were packed in to a relatively small opening in the ice, about 400-500 metres from the viewing point. They were stretched out in a long line, so this first image just shows a portion. Beyond the waterfowl is ice right to the horizon!

An initial quick scan determined that most were clearly Canada Geese, not surprisingly. A few Tundra Swans were mixed in. A closer look is always worthwhile, and in doing just that, I came across a few Canvasback, Mallard, Greater Scaup, Redhead and a single American Coot. And Snow Geese.

It seems that Snow Geese are scattered with almost every flock of waterfowl in extreme southwestern Ontario right now. I counted about 28 Snows, and also saw at least 4 good examples of Ross's Goose, plus at least half a dozen Ross's X Snow hybrids. Unfortunately with the bright sun reflecting off the snow and ice playing havoc with the camera's ability to focus clearly over that distance, the image above is the best I got.

I moved on, deciding to head towards Lake Erie. Given the alteration of the landscape, it was not surprising to find clusters of non-native birds.

European Starlings and Rock Pigeon

I noted a Muskrat out at the edge of a field, nibbling away at some of the recently exposed grass.

 At Erieau, there was some open water in the main channel and part of the harbour area towards Rondeau Bay. Ducks and geese there were a-plenty, although not often close enough for the photographic results that I was hoping for.

I only saw 6 American Coot. The numbers have dropped considerably from the ~4000 that were in the area on the Christmas Bird Count in late December.

American Coot

There were small groups of Bufflehead.

Bufflehead

 And small groups of Common Goldeneye.

Common Goldeneye

A coupe of Hooded Mergansers were around, but a long way off, so they went unphotographed, as were the Red-breasted and Common Mergansers I saw. There were small flocks of ducks waaaayy out in the lake beyond the ice pack. It seemed like they were scaup and mergansers. Three Bald Eagles were observed well out on the ice as well....two adults and one that appeared to be a fourth-year bird, so not quite a full adult.

On the return home, I stopped in at the warm water outlet of the Chatham water treatment plant along the Thames River. It was a good decision.

The winter resident Belted Kingfisher was still there, perched on a branch right over the water outlet. I could park close enough and open the car door so as not to spook it.

Belted Kingfisher ♀

 A male Green-winged Teal was swimming around. This is the first one I've seen since the SCNWA Christmas Bird Count on January 1.

Green-winged Teal

 A single male Wood Duck was close to the river bank. Others have seen a couple of Wood Duck there in the last few days, but since there are other open spots along the river in less accessible areas, it was probably elsewhere at the moment.

Wood Duck

Now that another spell of warm weather is upon us, it will be interesting to see what else has been lured to this area with the promise of spring!

It's snowing geese!

With the warm spell of a few days ago, the waterfowl returned in considerable numbers. Geese in particular are getting a lot of attention, but not the usual Canada Geese. We've had a ton of Snow Geese, including lots of the darker morphs known as blues, to enjoy. Numbers as high as 200 have been seen, but since there are so many and they are often on the move to some extent, it is hard to know exactly how many are around. I know that number pales in comparison to the tens of thousands that show up in extreme eastern Ontario in the fall, but it is a very good number for this area. The only time I remember a larger number in the Rondeau checklist area was back in the very late 1960s, when there were a couple of thousand that came through for a few days in the fall. A hard north east wind had blown them off their usual course, and they were making use of the corn stubble fields in the south Chatham-Kent area. They would fly almost right over the house that I grew up in on their way from the bay to the corn fields. That was back in my hunting days, and a couple of my buddies and I were successful in getting two or three birds.

On Tuesday of this week, they were coming to their usual field along New Scotland Line, which they had been using for at least a week. Often they were a kilometre or more back from the road, but every once in awhile, at some point in the day, they would come fairly close....sometimes less than 100 metres from the road. They did this on the second time that I stopped that day. Just as I pulled off the road, I noted several groups of them headed straight for me, and some landed as close as about 80 metres! Unfortunately, it was a dull, snowy, drizzly day, and even at that relatively close distance, the images were not as clear as I would like. But you have to take what you get.

And when they got close enough, and I looked at some of the images more closely on the computer, I realized I had captured some of the Ross's Geese as well as some Snow X Ross's hybrids.

Snow Geese

Snows and Ross's and Canadas

 There could be as many as 4 or 5 Ross's or hybrid Snow X Ross's in this next image.

A Ross's Goose looks like a smaller version of a Snow Goose, with the following differences: smaller of course, about the size of a large Mallard; shorter legs, a rounder head, a stubbier bill, no 'grin' patch on the beak; bluish purple colouration at the base of the bill; a more vertical feather line at the base of the bill.

Of course unless you see things really clearly and from the best angle, not all of those characteristics are necessarily visible. A photo only shows that singular fraction of a moment in time when the shutter clicked, and you can't get multiple angles from one photo. To make things even more complicated, Ross's Geese hybridize with Snow Geese, so any or all of those characteristics can be more like one species than the other.

Unfortunately these images which were taken on that snowy, drizzly day are less than clear. But they do seem to fit a decent version of a Ross's

 This next one shows the closest goose to be about the size of a Mallard, shown in the foreground at the right. It maybe a little pudgier, but most characteristics fit compared to the Snow Goose just behind it.

 And a similar one with a Mallard and Snow Goose for comparison.

There have been Greater White-fronted Geese at the Ridgetown Sewage Lagoons, which I showed on my previous post. And lots of ducks on the mostly open water of Rondeau Bay, including large rafts of Canvasback.

But that was earlier this week, and with the arrival of very cold weather again, it is a different story out there. A trip today, under brighter and clearer conditions was in order. The bay is mostly frozen. The swans were still around, but widely scattered along the far edges of the ice. The Snow Geese were all packed in to a tight group, but a long way out. This group was at least a kilometre away from the closest viewing point at the end of the LTVCA trail. I counted 142 Snow Geese, although there likely were a few Ross's and hybrids mixed in, but too far away to tell.

 These shots aren't quite as sharp as I would like, partly due to the distance and there is some thermal affect from the sun reflecting off the bright snow and ice. But it was partly due to the camera.......

A side note: late last fall, I was experiencing some auto-focus problems with my Canon 7D2, which sometimes resulted in it stopping to focus altogether. It was only by turning the camera off, taking the battery out, waiting a few minutes and putting things back that it worked the way it was supposed to, at least temporarily. So in early January, it was sent in for repairs under warranty. I got it back last week, only to discover that it now failed to show any information in the viewfinder regarding ISO, shutter speed, f/stop, etc. So back it went to the repair facility. I got it back yesterday (Wednesday), so it was a quick turn-around, and today I wanted to try it out. It seems like everything is back the way it should be, but I now need to go through the Auto Focus Micro Adjustment, which is a really useful way to fine-tune the focus and match the individual camera to each lens. Going through the AFMA steps will be done soon!

Tundra Swans in flight, Snow Geese on the ice

 

I included a trip to Erieau, thinking that the increase in ice cover would concentrate ducks in the harbour area. There were a few American Coot hanging in there, with 17 seen. The numbers have been dwindling over the last little while. It is a far cry from the ~4000 that were there in late December! With the arrival of even more cold weather in the next few days, who knows how many of these few will survive!

Canada Geese were around in small numbers as well.

A highlight was seeing this male Hooded Merganser in the harbour, but it didn't stick around long.

Common Mergansers were, well, fairly common, and by far the most abundant duck close to Erieau with at least 100.

Bufflehead weren't really quite paired up yet, but the males looked dazzling and there was definitely some courtship in progress.

I was hoping that the Harlequin Duck and Long-tailed Duck were still around, and they might be, but weren't showing themselves. With the extreme cold over the next 2-3 days, I expect that the entire bay will be frozen over again, so birds that decide to stick around will be even more concentrated.

And now, I'm off to AFMA my camera.

Gaggles, Teams and a Parliament of birds

What a difference a year makes. This time last year, one might as well have gone into hibernation with the frigid cold and snowy conditions that prevailed. So it is nice to enjoy the present spring-like conditions, making it easy to get around, and with lots of open water to attract birds.

The Shrewsbury dock area continues to be a great vantage point to see waterfowl. I haven't caught up to the Bewick's Tundra Swan yet, but have seen lots of the usual Tundras as well as Snow Geese, including the blue phase. Perhaps the Trumpeter Swans are still around, but they are harder and harder to find with so many Tundras. A large number of swans is referred to as a Bevy, a Wedge (when in the air) or a Team.

Flight of the Tundras

 

Snow Geese mixed in with the Canadas and much larger Tundra Swans

 There are lots of ducks around, including large numbers of Canvasbacks

Canvasback (mostly) and Redhead

There are the inevitable Mute Swans as well.

A trip to the Rondeau Bay area wouldn't be complete without at least a bit of time at Rondeau. Woodland birds are pretty few and far between at this time of year, so I took a hike out the western side of the South Point Trail, out to the lake. I had the place pretty much to myself, seeing only one other hiker.

There is no shoreline ice, meaning that erosion is continuing. Nonetheless, the wave action is creating some interesting icicle features along the shoreline.

The Ridgetown Sewage Lagoons are often attractive to geese, and right now is no exception. There have been as many as a dozen Greater White-fronted Geese around, a species that is always a highlight. I only saw 6 on the occasion that I was there, but the others were likely just over the berm and out of sight. They were mixed with 4 Snow Geese and a bunch of Canadas. Of course they chose to be in the farthest cell, so these images had to be cropped considerably.

Greater White-fronts in the lagoon

Greater White-fronts, Snow Geese and Canadas in the adjacent field

Snow Geese and Greater White-fronts in the lagoon

Today I roamed around part of Dover Twp in the vicinity of St. Clair NWA. SCNWA is always a good spot to find waterfowl, almost any time of the year. However today there were not a lot compared with a few weeks ago when we held the Christmas Bird Count. There were 4-500 Canada Geese ( a large group of which is called a 'gaggle'), about 60 Tundra Swans and a few Mallards and Blacks. I was hoping to pick out a more unusual goose or two, and was able to see a couple of Cackling Geese, which are a miniature version of Canada. At one point not that many years ago, there were about 11 subspecies of Canadas, including some of the really small ones. However a decade or so ago, genetics determined that the four smallest subspecies were distinct enough to warrant their own species status, and the Cackling Goose was established as a full species. They are much smaller than the average Canada, with a shorter neck, and a stubbier bill. There are two individuals in this image, with the center one the most distinctive.

In other meanderings around Dover, I noted a single Snowy Owl along Heron Line just east of SCNWA. It was well out in the field, beside a tuft of grass. As I checked out the area along Meadowvale Line, in the former Chatham Twp just east of Hwy 40, I came across 4 Snowies out in a field, and all within easy sight of each other. A group of owls is called a 'parliament' (not sure why it has a particular political connotation, as owls are believed to be intelligent, and politicians are.....). Just kidding!

They were still a ways off out in the field, but the light was decent and after very heavy cropping, I came up with these two images.

With the weather turning a little more winter-like over the next few days, I doubt that these Snowies will be going too far.