Canada Day! And more.....

Ok officially Canada Day doesn't come for another few weeks. But a couple of days ago, there was an influx of Canada Warblers into the Rondeau area. They were seen in multiple parts of the park, but probably the best location was along Spicebush Trail, where several were seen, including one very cooperative male that gave photo ops for several people. Even during the relative short time I was there, I think I heard at least a thousand shutter clicks.

It was right adjacent to one of the boardwalks, giving people slightly elevated views as it spent several hours flitting back and forth, feeding, resting, searching for food and whatever. It would perch on a stump....

 ....pause and give quizzical looks at the people around.....

 ....flit to a branch....

 ...jump down to the base of a tree hunting for something....

 ...sometimes get bored with the audience....

 ...and occasionally find something to munch on. All in all, it was a very entertaining time with this declining species.

Of course there has been a good variety of other warblers, although I haven't caught up with some of the rarer species.

American Redstart

Blackburnian

Cape May

Common Yellowthroat

Chestnut-sided

Magnolia

 Sometimes you only get a partial view, and hopefully enough to make a positive identification before it disappears.

Nashville

Orange-crowned

There is a good variety of the usual non-warbler species, including those that may now be here to nest.

Baltimore Oriole

Eastern Kingbird

Eastern Towhee male

 There had been a Spotted Towhee seen in the campground by a few birders. I wasn't in the area at the time, and so missed seeing it. However from photos I have seen, it wasn't very cooperative. It wouldn't be a new Rondeau species for me, as I had one coming to a feeder back in late 1979 when I was the park naturalist. That was before it became an official separate species rather than a western subspecies, so although it was an interesting sighting back then, it wouldn't have created the same stir as today.

Eastern Towhee female

 I've periodically thought that this next species should be the official bird of the Grand River Conservation Authority, given that its 4-letter bird code name is GRCA.

Gray Catbird

 Vireos have not been very abundant as of yesterday, although that could change any day now. Red-eyed Vireos, one of the most common of all songbirds in the eastern deciduous forests, have been noticeable by their absence. I think I have seen less than five so far this spring.

 Warbling Vireos are a little more common.

 Scarlet Tanagers have been around, although not abundant at all.

 Of course the 'resident' White-winged Dove has been back for a few weeks now, and as before, likes to build a nest on Mel's car.

 An Eastern Screech Owl is back in a frequently occupied hole. There is no guarantee that it will be visible, and if anyone goes off the trail to get a closer look, it will very quickly back up and disappear from view.

Yesterday when I was out, I got word of a Clay-colored Sparrow in the campground (thanks, Mike!). Since I was at the north end of the park at the time, I headed over and met Mike. Even though only a few minutes had passed by, the bird was nowhere to be seen. Which is often what birds do. Mike had indicated he had seen it loosely associating with Chipping Sparrows, so we used that clue to continue and broaden our search. However after another 30-45 minutes went by without seeing it, we decided it was gone. We did see several Chipping Sparrows, including this one which was putting the finishing touches on its nest.

 About 3 minutes after Mike and I had gone our separate ways, I heard him call out that it had re-appeared a little way down the campground road, so I hurried over. It was active, and not willing to allow us to get too close, so the long lenses were put to good use.

 Who knows, with the closed campground and open grassy/shrubby nature of the campground vegetation, might it be appealing for this species to nest if it can find a mate?

There is always something else to see along the way, including things like this Eastern Chipmunk. It has been a good year for chipmunks, and with the less traffic during the time the park was closed, fewer road kills. On some trails I have seen more chipmunks than warblers!

 This Eastern Cottontail was out in a grassy part of the campground.

 Leopard Frogs are widespread. I took a break from photographing the Canada Warbler to shoot this guy who was on the other side of the boardwalk.

 Tiger beetles, such as this Six-spotted Tiger Beetle (which can have either more, or fewer, than six spots) can be seen on sunny days along the trails and roadways.

 While walking along a grassy trail a few days ago, I flushed up a Song Sparrow. Its nest was not too hard to find.

 Spring wildflowers are continuing, such as this rarity known as Goldenseal. It occurs in a couple of places at Rondeau, and as of a few days ago, had just about completed its flowering for this season. Due to its rarity and Species At Risk status, its location will not be divulged.

 A spring-time orchid is this Showy Orchis. It isn't large and showy in spite of its name, as it seldom gets more than 15 cm (6") high.

Last year's flowering stalk

Butterflies have not been too plentiful, not surprising given the cool, windy conditions. With the promise of summer-like temperatures in the next few days, I anticipate a lot greater variety very soon!

Red Admiral

May Warbler Parade

The spring birding rush appears to be over. At least for many birders. As for the birds, they continue on whether humans are out there looking for them or not.

The trails are almost devoid of birders.

Bennett Ave benches

As usual, there were some very good days, and some very quiet days. But overall I think most birders who were able to stick around for a few days over May were satisfied. Also, as usual, I got lots of photos of warblers and other migrants, probably a couple of thousand or so. And since it is so hard to pick and choose which ones to include, now that I have your attention, I will proceed to show them all to you.

Okay, maybe not. But how about a couple of dozen of my favourites?

American Redstarts are one of the more common breeding warblers at Rondeau. Some people have wondered where the 'red' is, and have suggested calling them Orangestarts. It doesn't roll off the tongue quite as nicely, and taxonomists being what they are are not likely to change the name, so I suspect we will have to continue on with redstart for the foreseeable future.

 Black-and-white Warblers are one of the more common early warbler migrants

 Black-throated Blue Warblers are a bit harder to come by some years, but they were fairly plentiful this year.

 A warbler that used to nest in small numbers at Rondeau is the Cerulean Warbler. It has not been found nesting for several years. Even finding one on migration is a highlight. They are often up in the trees a bit and given the many cloudy days we had to contend with this year, made getting ideal photos next to impossible. These had to be tweaked quite a bit to keep them from being just a very poor silhouette.

 Cape May Warblers were fairly common........

 .....as were Nashvilles

 Northern Parulas were in relatively low numbers compared to most species.

 Ovenbirds are skulkers, but periodically pop up onto a branch for a better view.

 Undoubtedly the most abundant warbler species in the park, and probably most of southern Ontario, is the Yellow Warbler. On some days it was not hard to find more than a hundred.

 Black-throated Green Warblers were fairly regular, although not abundant.

 Northern Waterthrushes were sometimes hard to come by, but not nearly as hard as their relative the Louisiana Waterthrush. I did not see a Louisiana Waterthrush this year....yet, and given that they normally are an early migrant, may not see one at all.

Tennessee Warblers are not all that bright and colourful and are more likely to be bypassed. But they certainly were fairly abundant by the middle of the migration.

On occasion there were pockets of warblers that gave outstanding views. A prime example was on a partly sunny day when the winds were brisk out of the north. At the log pond, insects were emerging at the south end of the pond, and there was quite an accumulation of insects and other tasty tidbits the warblers were searching out. The half a dozen species of warbler were not in the least concerned with the abundance of people aiming cameras and binoculars at them. Sometimes the birds were much too close to focus on, and were zooming by within arm's reach. A couple of Blackburnian Warblers were highlights, as their orange throats glowed in the bright light.

 Chestnut-sided Warblers were also very cooperative.

 Along the Tuliptree Trail, there were at least three male Prothonotary Warblers in two of the sloughs. They were busy singing in between searching for insects at the water's edge, and in the cloudy bright sunlight, really glowed.

 Hooded Warblers were more abundant than usual. On occasion one could see 4-5 in a single day. In years past, one would be hard pressed to see more than one or two all season.

 Golden-winged Warblers are harder to come by, although there were several seen at Rondeau this season. This one was active and out in the open long enough for a few photos.

 One of the reasons they are on the decline is due to the hybridization with a close relative, the Blue-winged Warbler. I saw several Blue-wings this year, but did not get photos. But the progeny of a Blue-winged and Golden-winged pairing results in some interesting hybrids. The most common is the Brewster's Warbler, shown next. It was quite a skulker and this is the best photo I could manage.

 As the season went on, a couple of the later arriving warbler species were Mourning Warbler, shown in the next two photos, and Connecticut Warbler, shown in the third one following. Both are skulkers, most often found in fairly dense shrubbery. This Mourning Warbler happened to pop out of the honeysuckle it was foraging in long enough for a couple of fast shutter releases.

Yeah....that third one never materialized, since I never even saw a Connecticut, let alone photographed one. There may still be time this season, so stay tuned for some end of season warbler photos if I manage some. Fortunately even though the peak of the songbird migration is over, there will be lots to see as the weeks go by. For example I had at least a dozen Monarch butterflies in the last few days, as well as my first couple of Eastern Tiger Swallowtails. A relatively rare orchid is in flower now, trees and shrubs are starting to flower, and tallgrass prairies are showing some of their colour and diversity. Ahhh....it is springtime!