Late November, early December highlights

 In spite of the warmer than normal weather in late November, one doesn't expect to see swallows still around. However Cave Swallows, if they are going to show up in southwestern Ontario, have a habit of showing up after the majority of the others in that family have gone south. Such was the case when I got a text message saying that a Cave Swallow was at the Erieau pier. Since I was almost ready to head out somewhere anyway, it made the decision of where to go very easy. 

As I got to the main channel, just as I was getting parked, I saw this swallow scoot by, heading for the pier that juts out into the lake. Bingo! And as I glanced towards the base of the pier a minute or so later, I saw 4 people looking intently at something, so with camera in hand, out I went. 

And there it was, resting at the edge of the lower section of the pier, trying to keep out of the brisk wind. You can tell by its posture and fluffed up feathers it wasn't really enjoying the cool wind.

It seemed quite tolerant of us. Every few minutes it would get up and fly around, and sometimes flew by almost within arms reach, before returning to the edge of the pier.

However after awhile, it got up and flew east towards Rondeau, and we never saw it again. What a great sighting in late November! This swallow species seems to show up quite regularly in small numbers. I have had one to five of them at Erieau on at least 3 occasions, and along the east beach of Rondeau.

I've been able to find, and photograph, other species which, although they are much more common, are always a delight to see as well. Here are some of the highlights.

Bald Eagles always get ones attention, especially a fully adult bird with its distinctive white head and tail, and its fierce look if one gets a close enough look.

The above bird was in a tree right along the roadside near St. Clair NWA and it didn't seem to be concerned when I got out and aimed my camera at it. The next photo is of a bird that was well out from the trail at Keith McLean Conservation Area, and it flew off as I got within several hundred metres of it.

On one of my several visits to Rondeau, I photographed some smaller, land birds. A Hermit Thrush, not all that common this time of year but usually there is the occasional one lingering, was feeding on some berries at the side of the trail.

Its spotted upper chest area and the rusty tail are good indicators to separate this species from others in its genus.

Northern Cardinals are year-round residents, and the males really show up well with their bright red plumage.

Less brightly coloured but perhaps even more attractive with a more subtle, warm brown plumage, is the female cardinal.

Not a small bird, of course, but Wild Turkeys are regularly seen in their family groups. There were four others in this group, but I just zeroed in on this one for a full frame photo.

Elsewhere on my Rondeau travels, I photographed some Cluster Flies even though the temperature was barely above freezing...

..and I noted this White Pine seedling also along the trail. White Pines are an important element of Rondeau's vegetation, and while they are often eaten by White-tailed Deer, hopefully some will survive to maturity. This past weekend the park was closed to the public, as a deer hunt/cull was in progress. In the absence of natural predators at the park, periodic culls are important to keep the population of both the deer, and the vegetation, in a healthy condition. At one point in the mid 1980s or so, and in the absence of any kind of cull for a decade or so, the winter population of deer approached 600! The vegetation was in horrible shape, and one winter there were about 20 deer that died of starvation and severe cold. Deer biologists that specialize in herbivory determined that the population in winter should not exceed about 125 animals.

In other travels, I have often been near wetland areas which have not been iced over. Not sure how long that will last, as it isn't officially winter for a few days yet. Waterfowl are always fun to focus on. This first photo is of a female Bufflehead at the lower left, and a female Hooded Merganser on the right.

Female Hooded Merganser

As is the case with some mergansers species, the females have a tufted head, as the hoodie shows. The next photo is of a female Red-breasted Merganser which is much larger than the hoodie.

I photographed these Ruddy Ducks at Erieau, which were taking advantage of the quiet water in the harbour area. This first one is of a male...

...and next is a female.

This next one is of a female Ruddy Duck that was not resting, but quite alert.

Typically in the St. Clair NWA vicinity at this time of year, there are lots of swans. Mute Swans, shown first, are not present in large numbers, but as long as there is any open water, are present throughout the year .

But what gets more attention due to their seasonal variation, and huge numbers are Tundra Swans. It is not uncommon to see upwards of 10000 birds in scattered flocks, especially if there is an unplowed field to feed in....

....or a wetland area to take refuge in.

Small groups are frequently seen flying from one field to another, or back to the NWA.

There are still some flocks of Sandhill Cranes reluctant to leave the area. I came across over 150 only a few days ago, in two separate areas. They were quite a way off in a field, so not easy to get the kind of photos that I was hoping for, but this is what it is.

Sometimes they are on the move as well, to a quieter or better feeding area.

And even though the main raptor migration is over for the autumn period, some raptors will be content to stick around. I was out looking and hoping for Snowy Owls, but didn't see any. However there are a few Northern Harriers, a.k.a. Marsh Hawks, around hunting in open fields or in wetland areas.

And Red-tailed Hawks, such as this immature one, are regularly seen along woodland edges and even on power line poles.

Not the greatest shot of this bird on a power line pole, but you do what you can to capture the setting!

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Raptors, a rare egret and swallow and an unfortunate incident at Rondeau Prov Park

 Cattle Egrets are hard to find most years, and earlier this year that held true in Ontario. Even a reliable location in the Mitchell's Bay area where one or more has been present almost annually, did not turn up any this year. But in the last month or two, they have been relatively abundant, having been seen in numerous places across southern and eastern Ontario. While in places like Florida they seem to be attracted to golf courses as well as livestock pastures, one was seen as far north as Smooth Rock Falls, northwest of Cochrane, on a golf course!

It is quite likely that this influx of Cattle Egrets is the result of the strong southerly winds, including hurricanes, that have been a periodic event over the past couple of months.

Here in Chatham-Kent, there have been observations in the vicinity of the Ridgetown Sewage Lagoons, and more recently in a pasture with cattle, a bit north of Erieau. It is possibly the same bird, but no one knows for sure. At any rate, this most recent bird, still present as of yesterday, Nov 16, can often be easily seen from the road, although sometimes it is mixed in with the cattle farther back and hard to find. On occasion it will even venture out of the pasture onto the grassy road allowance, as in the case of the header photo as well as the third one down.

This next one is hardly cropped at all.

I got these photos on one of my trips to Erieau, searching for what ever I could find, but in particular, looking for one of the Cave Swallows that put in an appearance. But the Cave Swallows must have put a tracker on me to avoid me, as while looking wherever they had been seen, it seemed that I missed them by 2-10 minutes, or showed up just after I moved to another spot. Even birders who had traveled a fair distance arrived and saw one almost immediately. At one point I even spent two hours in one spot, where they had been seen 'reliably' about every half hour or so, but without success. Such is birding....

Fortunately I did not need it as a lifer, or even a species for my CK list. I have seen them irregularly on about 4 occasions over the years at either Erieau or Rondeau, including the time at Erieau where I found them roosting on a piling underneath a walkway in the vicinity of the fishing tugs. Here is a photo of that event, back in October of 2010, showing two Cave Swallows.

I decided to give it another try on the following day, and after some watching and waiting, I did see one of them fly by. Swallows are normally quite active in their flight, dipping and diving, but this one seemed to be rather slow and unenthusiastic. Perhaps it was feeling the effects of nothing to eat in the colder than normal weather, with temperatures just hovering a bit above freezing. Surely there were few, if any, insects to feed on.

While at Erieau on the day that I missed the swallows, I did see other things, and got some photos. For example there were at least 4 adult Bald Eagles flying in the vicinity from time to time, asometimes quite actively interacting with each other. I'm not sure whether they were defending their territory or undergoing some type of courtship actions.

Continuing on the topic of raptors, I spent a few hours at a site along the north shore of Lake Erie just west of Rondeau, hoping to catch sight of migrating raptors since the wind was more or less in the right direction. I did see a few, including lots of Red-tailed Hawks.....

...and a few Sharp-shinned Hawks, among others.

There were also a few American Crows on the move. They don't like anything pointed at them, so they quickly move away.

There were also a couple of small groups of Evening Grosbeak. It is another good year for this species to be moving into, or even continuing on and out of southern Ontario. I did not get any photos. They are usually flying low, barely tree top height, and fairly quickly and directly unlike the soaring flight of most of the raptors.

I spent a bit of time at Rondeau on a couple of occasions since my last post. The Eastern Screech Owl seems to have taken up residency in its regular American Beech tree just off of Bennett Ave. If one stays on the road, the bird does not seem to mind, but if you make any move to go off the road and get a closer photo, it will back into the cavity so that it is barely showing. Therefore a long telephoto lens and a heavily cropped photo seems to be the only way to show it. This photo was taken with the equivalent lens of 11X and cropped to about 40X.

 On one of my visits there was a strong east wind blowing. Wave action is imperative in shaping the sand spit, sometimes does so rather dramatically. At this time of year there are typically many species and individuals of water birds on the move. A careful look at this first photo if you click on it to enlarge it, will show a couple of lines of ducks off on the horizon, but very faintly.

On occasion there will be a flock relatively close, such as these Red-breasted Mergansers. It is not uncommon to see several thousand flying by over the course of several hours.

Some gulls, on the other hand, will occasionally be very close to shore or even overhead.

Bonaparte's Gull

And that brings me to the unfortunate incident at Rondeau. 

For anyone hiking anywhere along the southeast beach dunes of the park, you undoubtedly have noticed some changes.

Park staff counted 81 trees that had been cut down. Most were in the 5-15 year old category, but there were at least 6 oaks in the 40-80 year old category. Given the challenging growing conditions on this beach dune system, it takes a lot of energy for trees to grow here.

How did this happen? 

It seems partly due to poor communication between the federal gov't overseeing the Coast Guard, and staff in Ontario Parks. I don't know all the details, but for some reason the crew from the Coast Guard assumed they had permission to come onto provincial park land to clear trees that in their minds, might be interfering with views of the light beacon. The light beacon has been a feature of the southeast part of the park for many decades, as an aid to boaters needing it as a navigational aid after dark. While it is still important to some extent, with all of the satellite stations high in the sky providing accurate location information even down to about 5 metres of accuracy, the light beacon is not nearly as important as it once was. Nonetheless, this crew entered the park and proceeded to cut over 80 trees of various species and sizes. It is possible one or two of the trees may have temporarily interfered with a sight line from out on the water, but it would have been very temporary, and there certainly was no need to cut down any more than two or three at the very most, and even that would have been overkill, literally and figuratively.

The damage has been done, and it will be many years before any of the trees recover, if they do at all. Some will sucker up, especially one or two of the non-native species, but that only compounds the problem.

In discussing this issue with various park staff, they are understandably livid over this, and rightfully so. It seems there isn't anything that can be done at this point, and those piles of tree trunks and branches will be a reminder of this unfortunate incident for years to come, as things deteriorate very slowly in this very dry environment. Hopefully if the Coast Guard needs to step foot on Rondeau Park property at any time in the future they will discuss what they would like to do, in writing, and get proper approvals by Ontario Parks if it is warranted.

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Some of the even rarer migrant birds of the Rondeau checklist area

Before I get to the mega/ultra rare migrant birds of the Rondeau checklist area, there is still a group of birds that are merely quite rare, and in fact I expect a number of relatively keen birders of Ontario have seldom if ever seen them. As in the past post, the ones on this list below are based on my opinion, not on any official list. Some will be on the Ontario Bird Records Committee (OBRC) list of birds requiring documentation.

This first species could arguably be in the previous post. It wasn't that long ago when seeing one in southern Ontario was quite a noteworthy event, and it still is to some extent. However the population in Ontario has been expanding from its more limited northwestern Ontario range, and in the last year or so has been documented nesting on one of the islands in the western end of Lake Erie. Both of these birds were photographed in the Erieau area.

Harlequin Duck is still quite rare, although once in awhile one or more can be found staying around for a few weeks such as these two that were off the tip of Rondeau and quite visible from Erieau in the winter and very early spring of 2016.

 Hudsonian Godwit is a pretty impressive large shorebird, only seen occasionally on migration. It nests in the north as well as the northerly prairie provinces. It is most frequently encountered at sewage lagoons later in the summer as post breeding birds are more likely to wander. It could also be included in the previous post of rare migrants, rather than in this post.

The Hudsonian Godwit's larger relative, the Marbled Godwit, shown next, nests regularly in the lower part of the prairie provinces and is not as commonly seen here in southwestern Ontario. The species is very seldomly seen in the Rondeau area. This bird was one I photographed from a kayak at Mitchell's Bay on September 24, 2013.

Staying with the shorebird group, the Black-necked Stilt is a western species found most often in the vicinity of prairie potholes. It seems they are most often seen in southwestern Ontario during the spring migration when they get blown off course. They don't stick around for long, however. There have been a few records over the years, and the pair shown next was photographed at the Keith McLean Conservation Area just outside of Rondeau in 2019. Most records are at sewage lagoons, but the high water and excellent shorebird habitat at KMCA was beneficial for birds and birders last year.

 A rare shorebird due to the decline of its migration and wintering habitat is this next one, the Red Knot. The one shown in the foreground of the next photo is an immature bird I photographed from my kayak along one of the sandy islands at the south end of Rondeau on Sept 27, 2012. It has a chunky body like a dowitcher, but with a relatively short bill. That is a Black-bellied Plover in the background.

 A small shorebird that may be more common than reports indicate is this next one, a Western Sandpiper. It migrates late in the season, and without careful study, could be passed off as the much more common Semiplamated Sandpiper. It was photographed at the Blenheim Sewage Lagoon in mid-November, and I had one on the Blenheim/Rondeau Christmas Bird Count at a mud flat at the south end of the marsh trail a few years earlier.

 Barred Owl might seem to be an odd one for this category. Nonetheless although it is not rare in most of Ontario, it is quite rare in the very southwestern part of Ontario. It shouldn't technically be classified as a migrant, although this one moved well south of its normal Ontario range and wintered at Rondeau. There hadn't been a record for Rondeau for more than 20 years until Josh, my birding partner, and I encountered this one on the 2018 Christmas Bird Count. It stuck around for a couple of months around the northern part of the park where the local squirrel population kept it well fed. Numerous birders attempted to track down this individual, and were mostly successful in finding it.

 Black Vulture used to be a considerable birding highlight in Ontario, but in the last decade or so this species has been seen in the eastern end of Lake Erie/western end of Lake Ontario on a fairly regular basis. I am only aware of 3-4 records for the immediate Rondeau area. The first one I came across was feeding on the carcass of a Virginia Opossum, so this generally southern species of vulture probably felt quite at home feeding on a familiar carcass. This bird was seen just northeast of the park boundary, but only for a couple of days. I photographed it on March 3, 2009.

 Bohemian Waxwings are more common in the Boreal forest region, and seldom have any need to come as far south as the Rondeau area. I have only seen them here on a couple of occasions in the winter. This bird was photographed along the McGeachy Pond trail, on Dec 3, 2016.

 Cave Swallows are somewhat erratic. If they are going to be encountered in Ontario, it is most likely to happen in the mid to late autumn when the weather conditions help them along. For awhile they were on the OBRC list requiring documentation, but for a short time were taken off due to the regularity of them being seen in the autumn. Their occurrence has dropped off so one again the OBRC is requesting documentation. This bird was photographed flying over Erieau on Oct 31, 2010, where a few had been seen the day before and they spent the night under the docks of the fish tug harbour area.

 Eurasian Collared-Dove shouldn't really be called a migrant. It was introduced from Europe a number of years ago and has been gradually expanding its range in North America. Nonetheless, it has only been recorded in the Rondeau area on a couple of occasions. This one was photographed at Rondeau along the southern end of Lakeshore Road on September 24, 2017.

 Fish Crow has sort of the same story as the Black Vulture, above. A small population of this more southerly crow has become established in the Niagara peninsula area and a bit beyond. On occasion the species will show up elsewhere. I only know of a couple of records for the Rondeau area. This one I photographed at the south end of the South Point Trail on May 29, 2011.

 Laughing Gull, shown here in the lower middle of the photo, is quite irregular. The bird here is a first year bird which showed up with a large group of summering gulls out along the south beach of Rondeau, back in the early 1980s. It is scanned from a slide, so not the best clarity, and it does blend in with the gravel beach making it even more difficult to see clearly. There are a few records for this species over the years.

 Neotropic Cormorant has been showing up a bit more in the last few years. One might get caught up with a movement of the very abundant and larger Double-crested Cormorant, and end up well out of its normal range. It is more abundant along the southern and eastern shores of the Atlantic. There are at least 3 records for the Rondeau area. The one shown here, on the left of the two Double-crested ones, was in the Rondeau/Erieau area off and on for a few days in May of 2019. I photographed it on May 23.

 Townsend's Warbler is a western species that occasionally gets blown way off course. For some reason Rondeau is a place where it is most apt to show up in Ontario, as there are 5 records, more than any other location in Ontario. I found the park's first one in the spring of 1983, near the west end of the old Dillon Trail. Only a handful of birders who were in the park got to see it, as it was before any kind of bird alert was available and cell phones were non-existent. Word of mouth was the only way to advertise its presence. All of the records are either in the early spring or the late autumn. The one shown here I photographed on Nov 11, 2017 in the Bate's subdivision just north of the park. There were a lot of birders that came to see it, and since it stayed into December, a lot of birders arrived again to get it on their winter list. The bird even stayed around long enough to be added to our Christmas Bird Count list.

 Townsend's Solitaire is a species that is relatively common in the montane region of western North America. On occasion, one ends up heading east rather than southward or northward on their migration. There have been very few records at Rondeau, but when it shows up, will be found either in spring or fall. This one was photographed along Lakeshore Road just north of the Visitor Centre on April 30, 2010. It was first recorded about a week earlier at the south end of Lakeshore Road, but was not seen during the in between days.

Even rarer birds will be featured in a future post!