Eagles galore and a new species of squirrel confirmed for Rondeau!

 It wasn't so long ago, a mere 40 years more or less, when seeing a Bald Eagle was quite the unusual birding experience. In fact in about the mid-1970s, there was only one breeding pair of them along the north shore of Lake Erie between Long Point and the Detroit River. That was a pair at Rondeau, where even there, they did not produce young every year, and if they did, it was only a single eaglet. Historically there had been on average one nesting pair for every mile of the Lake Erie shoreline in that area. Bald Eagles were put onto the first edition of Ontario's Endangered Species Act, back in 1973. 

The resurgence of Bald Eagles is one of the good news stories of the last 40 years. In the hierarchy of rarity, it went from endangered status, to threatened status, and has for the past decade or two, been downgraded to the special concern status. New nesting pair are showing up regularly. As I have mentioned in a previous post, even about 4 years ago I knew of 26 nesting pairs in Chatham-Kent alone, with likely some others being around that I hadn't caught up with. In fact a couple of years ago I met up with an eagle enthusiast who knew of 30 nests in C-K, although I know that sometimes eagles have more than one nest that they move back and forth to, so the number of nests doesn't automatically reflect the number of nesting pairs. Regardless, they are definitely increasing and show no signs of that changing. And that is a good thing. The sight of an eagle always causes people to pause and enjoy.

It should be noted that it was 60 years ago in 1962 when Rachel Carson published her world-changing book "Silent Spring" that got people, including President John F. Kennedy, to realize what chemicals in the environment, such as DDT, were doing to birds like Bald Eagles. Of course the Bald Eagle is the USA's national bird, so that likely had something to do with any action to reduce the use of DDT. At any rate, the use of DDT declined, and eventually egg shells of eagles that had become so thin that they broke before getting to the stage of young hatching, became stronger and slowly but surely, more young were produced.

In my last post, I mentioned an eagle 'convention' of as many as 40 birds observed near or on a large private wetland area along Lake St. Clair. I went to the mouth of the Thames River and saw a few there, as expected. Since that visit to the lower reaches of the Thames River, I went out again, and there were at least 14 Bald Eagles, and this time I had some fly by giving me much better photo opportunities.

There were several adults, including the one at the top of this post. It landed in a tree right across the river from me.

There were more sub-adults than adults, mostly in the 1 or 2 year age range.

Bald Eagles have become so common that a birding site which I periodically send less common bird photos to, don't want to receive any more of eagles!

When I wasn't watching for eagles to photograph, there were at least half a dozen Great Blue Herons scattered along the river.

There were a few open spots here and there, so presumably they were finding enough to feed on, or were otherwise not energetic enough to move to someplace where there was.

A few days ago I heard about an unusual squirrel that was coming into a feeder at the north end of Rondeau. It was reported to be a Red Squirrel, which is not an expected species at all. It generally is more northern than what one should find in the Carolinian forests of southwestern Ontario. Nonetheless there have been a few observations in southwestern Ontario and closer to Rondeau, but never a confirmed one inside the park boundaries. Of course I had to check it out.

On my first attempt, it did not put in an appearance, so I moved on to other things and places to explore in the park. On my second attempt, late last week, I waited patiently for it but again, it did not show up at the feeder. The feeder area was busy with various birds, so I was able to put my photography urges in gear, and got these next three shots.

Northern Cardinals are fairly plentiful, and always nice to see. They always look their best and brightest in the later stages of winter.

Red-winged Blackbirds are not common anywhere in southern Ontario over the winter, but this one seemed to be content using what feed was available to it. It won't be long before many thousands are back.

I gave up watching this feeder area, and parked myself in my vehicle near another location not far away where it had been periodically seen. I didn't have to wait long. Within about 15  minutes, it appeared in some shrubbery and I got about three photos before another vehicle came along to dump some garbage. With that, the squirrel scampered up the trunk of a large White Oak, giving me a rear end look before disappearing. And this is, as far as I know, the first confirmed record of American Red Squirrel within the park's boundaries.

It is unknown how the squirrel arrived. It may have come along on a load of firewood, or it may have hitched a ride with a camper/trailer. Regardless, given that it is the only one of its kind in the park as far as we know, the population is not going to expand.

Yesterday I got word of a rare duck at Erieau, a male Barrow's Goldeneye. Shortly after getting the message I headed out, since I was planning to go out somewhere anyway. There were three others there when I arrived. It was very cold, at about -7C and quite windy with winds in the 30-50 k/hr range. Fortunately we had the wind at our backs, but it still made looking through the 'scope challenging with the vibration. Adding to the challenge was a bit of wave action, causing the birds to bob up and down when they weren't diving under. We eventually saw the bird out on the far bit of open water, but too far away to try for a photo. There was a much closer patch of open water we were hoping it would come to, but it didn't while we were there, so the only 'photos' we went away with were in our minds. Later in the day I heard that it did come in to the closer patch, briefly, but at least some that were there managed to get some record photos. I settled for a much more abundant species of waterfowl, which came in to the closer open patch.

There were numerous other species of waterfowl as well as a couple of Bald Eagles off in the distance.

I meandered a bit after leaving Erieau, but didn't find anything to photograph. However when I was just around the corner from home, and stopped at an intersection, this adult Bald Eagle flew almost right overhead! I got a couple of quick shots just opening the window and sticking the camera lens out. It isn't quite as crisp as I would have liked, partially because one seldom gets a crisp photo using a camera/lens that has been sitting inside a warmish vehicle and pointing it out into the frigid cold.

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