Rondeau, then and now

 Things are a little quieter out in the field these days, so I will take the opportunity to interject a post that readers might find interesting, especially if there has been any history with Rondeau. It will attempt to show some of the changes that have taken place, mostly within the last four or five decades.

Rondeau has long been known as a great spot for birding.

There are many species which, either for a short time or a much longer time, show up at Rondeau. The current list is slightly more than 360 species. One of the lwell-known high priority species that birders come to see is the endangered Prothonotary Warbler. It was first discovered breeding in Canada at Rondeau, back in the early 1930s, and the park remains a hot spot for it even now.

Woodland sloughs are the prime habitat for this species, and Rondeau has several kilometres of good quality habitat of this type. This next photo shows Phil, a former staff member of mine while I was at Rondeau, looking in a slough as he scanned for birds. The presence of water that was a metre or more deep in places, numerous dead trees in various stages of decay and the extensive openness were all important for Prothonotaries.

They like a bit more canopy cover than what these photos show, but will make use of fairly open habitat. As do other birds. I photographed this Northern Flicker at its nest in a dead tree right close by where the previous photo was taken, and also a Brown Creeper nest under some bark on the same tree, a fairly rare breeding species at Rondeau.

Anyone of a certain age who had an interest in nature might recall the TV series To the Wild Country, filmed by John and Janet Foster, and partially narrated by Lorne Greene. One of the episodes was entitled Wild Corners of the Great Lakes, and it featured a bit of Rondeau, and in particular the Prothonotary and its nesting habitat. If you are interested, you can see this episode here. The Rondeau segment starts at about minute 17. It is interesting that when it was filmed, back in 1974, the water levels of Lake Erie were at almost record high. Part of the segment shows a former Rondeau colleague of mine, Howard Coneybeare, canoeing through a slough, and discovering a nest of a Prothonotary. With the high water levels, and the openness of some of the sloughs, canoeing was quite possible. Some sloughs were extremely open, as the first photo shows. It was taken in about 1974.

This next photo shows a fairly typical large slough, as in about 1985. Canoeing was quite possible, with a little care.

But since then, conditions have changed. Water levels have had their ups and downs both seasonally and annually. These next few photos were taken in just the last few days, and while the overall lake levels have dropped a bit, they are still above average. However the local drought conditions have caused the sloughs to look quite different, especially with the aggressiveness of the non-native Phragmites. This next photo was taken at almost the same vantage point as the ones showing Phil the birder above.

And from about the same vantage point, but looking south towards the lake, is what the scene looked like in August, 1985.

There were always lots of turtles sunning here, along with a few snakes, and it was good habitat for nesting birds as well, such as Eastern Kingbird. But fast forward to 37 years later, and this is what the same area looks like, taken from about the same vantage point.

There is no water in what remains of this slough, no logs other than what has washed up along the beach, just sand and grasses, as the erosion of the southern part of Rondeau has caused movement of the shoreline inland more than 50 metres. And just a 100 metres or so east of this spot, used to be a fairly large picnic area, with parking and a large picnic shelter. All that is gone now, and has been for several decades. This next photo shows where it would have been, but now well out in the lake.

And these next few photos show what a wet slough looks like in early 2023. It would be impossible to canoe in them!

Here are a few more items, illustrating some changes over the last 50 plus years. Some readers may well remember the days when there was a beautiful campground at the south end of the park. It was generally well-wooded, unlike the very open campground that remains at the north end of the park. It was established back in the 1950s, I believe, and when I was growing up, I remember our family camping there back in about 1963. There were four or five substantial washroom facilities to service the campground as well as the picnic area mentioned above.

South Point campground washroom

There also was a campground office, to service requests for camping. It was located on the left hand side of what is now the South Point Trail, formerly a road to and from the campground, right at the corner of the sharp S-bend.

 The campground closed for good, in about 1973 due to the very high water which flooded the campgroun, other than for a couple of months in late summer and early fall of 1985. The building gradually deteriorated and I remember quite a few Barn Swallows nesting in the open structure that remained.

In 2023, this is all that is left.....what I presume is the septic tank of the campground office.

More on some other historical changes in a future post!

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