Some birding highlights in May

 The month of May is typically prime birding season, as most readers will be well aware. While the weather of 2025 has not been ideal for some migration movement, there have been some very good days, and lots of the expected migrants have put in an appearance in varying numbers.

I have been out from time to time, but not as often as I used to. The month of May has been occupied by many other things, as it was just a year ago, that my wife and best friend of almost 48 years passed away. Monday, May 26, is the exact one year anniversary of her passing. Regular readers will be aware of a special blog I posted a few days after she departed from her earthly life, and you can read that blog at this link. Life has not been the same since, of course, and I may have more to say about that later in this post.

However I do try and get out on occasion, and have seen a good assortment of the mostly expected migrants. One of the highlights is to encounter my first of the year Acadian Flycatcher.

Several of the flycatchers in the Empidonax genus look fairly similar, and it always helps when you hear them vocalizing. This particular bird did not vocalize while I was within earshot, but its appearance was spot on, and it was persistent in hanging around this species prime habitat, and exactly in a place where I have found nesting birds over the last several years. So I feel 99.9% confident in it being an Acadian Flycatcher, and I will be out checking this location periodically.

Some other regular species, and certainly some that are a little less common, include the following.

Another member of the flycatcher family is this one, an Eastern Wood-Pewee.

Chestnut-sided Warbler

Next is a Cedar Waxwing. It is an erratic species, and I have seen very few this winter and spring, but on this occasion I encountered at least a dozen flitting around some newly leafed-out trees.

A much less common warbler, in fact it is a Species At Risk, is this Canada Warbler....

...while Black-throated Green Warblers are much more abundant....

...as is the brightly coloured Blackburnian Warbler, one of my favourites,

Next is a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, hard to photograph as they are constantly on the move looking for insects to feed on.

Bay-breasted Warblers, are typically a little later to show up in the migration period.

Baltimore Orioles can sometimes be abundant, seeing several dozen in a day without even trying. Of course some will remain to nest.

Hairy Woodpeckers, shown next, are permanent residents, but can sometimes be hard to pin down for a photograph.

Next is a Least Flycatcher. It looks quite a bit like the Acadian Flycatcher, shown at the beginning, but it occurs in much more open forest edges, looks a bit grayer, and when it gives its distinctive 'che-bek' call almost repeatedly, is easy to confirm.

Another member of the flycatcher family is the Olive-sided Flycatcher, which is just a migrant in this part of Ontario. They usually perch in open areas, fairly high up on a dead branch, and sometimes can be heard calling for 'quick, three beers'. I have yet to see anyone delivering beer to this bird, but they keep calling :-).

A frontal view shows a bit of its grayish vest, and it doesn't have a white eye-ring that many of the smaller Empidonax flycatchers have.

Another permanent resident that occasionally will be visible long enough for a photo is the Pileated Woodpecker. They are always fun to see, and photograph.

One of the bird species that the majority of birders visiting Rondeau are hoping to see is the Prothonotary Warbler. It is an endangered species, and fortunately Rondeau has lots of suitable habitat. It was first discovered nesting in Canada at Rondeau back in 1929. I have been following this species in various ways at Rondeau for more than 50 years, and I have a rough draft of a booklet in preparation to feature this iconic species. I got the first draft completed in early2024, but as mentioned previously, the rest of 2024 and since has carried on with a much different set of priorities. I still hope to complete the booklet, as there is an important story to tell, so stay tuned. Maybe it will be done in time for the 2026 birding season!

Prothonotary male

Prothonotary female

Certainly a popular bird, although not particularly rare, is the Scarlet Tanager, shown next. Most will continue on their migration farther north, but there are always a few that remain to nest.

On one occasion as I was hiking the west South Point Trail, I came across this carcass along the edge of the trail. It is a Turkey Vulture, and it had been there for at least a few days, as one could detect the decomposition smell....

...as could a few of its fellow vultures. In a tree above the carcass, as well as a few soaring above, were at least 9 vultures that had also detected the decomposition 'fragrance'.

Yellow Warblers are one of the most common warbler migrants, and it nests fairly abundantly here. It is hard to believe that back in the 1970s, it was on the Audubon 'blue list' as a species of concern given what was then, in declining numbers. It certainly has rebounded well!

Yellow Warbler back view

Nashville Warbler

Quite common, especially in the early part of the warbler migration parade, is the Yellow-rumped Warbler.

The rufous morph of the Eastern Screech Owl continues in its American Beech cavity, although it is getting harder to see due to the developing leaves.

Elsewhere, some shorebirds are showing up, such as this Dunlin....

...and this one is keeping an eye on the sky, on the lookout for a predator perhaps?

Hanging out with the Dunlin were a couple of Least Sandpipers. Due to the legs being in the shadow of the bird's body one cannot clearly see the distinctive yellow legs, but they were yellow.

Great Egrets are always nice to photograph, and large wetland areas along Lake St. Clair are usually productive since the species nests at some of the offshore islands or a bit farther north at Walpole Island.

And Sandhill Cranes are regularly heard, if not seen. A few will remain to nest in some of the larger wetland areas fortunately for birders and photographers.

Wild Turkeys are widely scattered across the landscape, as well as at Rondeau.

I came across this egg of a Wild Turkey along the Black Oak Trail of Rondeau a few days ago, suggesting it is a recent hatch.

As mentioned near the beginning of this post, life has taken on some very challenging and different directions especially in the last year or so. As a result, while I plan to continue Nature Nuggets, I may venture into another blog which will feature many of the things not totally related to the Nature Nuggets theme. The plan is to discuss so many things related to my ongoing life journey, including many things that I could never have planned for, but that will hopefully be apparent when I get to the stage of adding that blog. When it comes out, I will reference it here in Nature Nuggets, so interested readers can have access to the information that it will cover. So many thoughts and ideas are floating about in my mind, and I have started to itemize many, but I need to get them organized before jumping into it, so stay tuned!

 

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Some Species At Risk birds and their related habitats

 It has been an interesting last few days. I've been out doing some grassland assessment for certain types of birds, and just wrapped up the second of two visits at two different sites, a few days ago. Each visit was about 10-12 days apart. Most notable at the one site was the promising number of Bobolink, one of the target species, and officially a Species At Risk.

The males still look quite distinctive in their typical breeding plumage.

There were several dozen Bobolinks, but at this time of year the number of fledglings certainly add to the overall total. They look very similar to the adult females, and in just a few weeks, the males will look more or less to be in the same, duller plumage as well.

As they flew around, they often landed in the grasses which bent under their weight, and then they were hard to see, and even harder to photograph. I got a lot more culls than keepers!

On occasion one would be sitting up nicely.....

...and sometimes had a caterpillar or something in its mouth, indicating they were still at the feeding young stage.

Other birds were utilizing the grassland habitats, including:

Common Yellowthroat

Eastern Kingbird

Song Sparrow

 

Along one of the shrubbier sections of the site was this Willow Flycatcher.

The grassland habitat varied. Some parts still had stems from the previous years growth quite visible, and it was here were most of the breeding bird action was.

Areas that for some reason had been matted down over the winter, showed a delayed growth, and so it was likely less appealing to the grassland birds when they returned this spring. There were very few birds using this shorter grass habitat.

Interspersed amongst the grasses were some prairie wildflowers, such as Ohio Spiderwort, one of my favourite grassland species.

While I was concentrating on birds, I couldn't help but notice some butterflies, including this Great Spangled Fritillary, a little worse for wear.....

...and given there were hundreds of milkweed plants, often in fairly dense clusters, it was a magnet for Monarchs.

Of course I have been at Rondeau on occasion, sometimes leading a tour for folks associated with the University of Windsor, but sometimes just on my own. One of the highlights was to find this Acadian Flycatcher on a nest.

As good as this find was, it was disconcerting to see the leaves right beside the nest, which tells of a questionable future. The leaves show a serious bout of Beech Leaf Disease, which is causing many American Beech trees to be in major decline. There are more than a few Am Beech trees in the park already dead, with virtually all of them in the park showing at least some signs of being affected. This will play havoc with the future of Acadian Flycatcher in Rondeau and other woodlots, as it nests almost entirely in these beech trees. On occasion they will nest in a Sugar Maple, but that is the exception. It does not bode well for this endangered bird species here in Ontario.

While some birders have reported more than one pair of Acadian Flycatchers along this Tuliptree Trail, I discovered that some people were attributing an Eastern Wood Pewee nest, shown next, to be that of an ACFL. The nest of the EWPE is typically on an open branch of various kinds of trees. At one point I actually saw an adult EWPE perched on the side of this nest, even though it is a bit dilapidated.

It is not in the fork of an Am Beech. They are both members of the flycatcher family, but quite different in many respects.

Eastern Wood Pewee

At one point I noted what I believe to be Fan-shaped Jelly Fungus on a log in a slough.

On another trail, I came across a cooperative Eastern Kingbird....

..an Appalachian Brown butterfly.....

....and a young Eastern Cottontail.

On another occasion I made a trip out to Clear Creek Forest Prov Park, for some forest photography on an overcast, relatively calm day. I was fairly happy with some of the photos I got.

While I was there, I wanted to see if there were any dragonflies to photograph in the old quarry on the north side of the forest. Due to the cool day with heavy cloud cover, there was hardly a dragonfly to be seen, so maybe next time!

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