Roaming around south Chatham-Kent

 There have been lots of nice days to be out lately. Other things pop up so I don't get out every day, but in spite of the current lock down, I've managed to check out a few places.

Erieau, both the town site and nearby McGeachy Pond CA and Rail Trail sites near by have been some of my target places. The Bonaparte's Gulls have arrived in fairly good numbers for the time of year, and the marina at Erieau is a great spot to get a close view with photo opportunities. While the Bonaparte's are plentiful one always can hope for something a little less common. The Bonies are in various stages of plumage development, and this first one is looking pretty well complete in its breeding plumage.

Forster's Terns have arrived, pretty much on schedule. They can be hard to photograph, as they dipsy-doodle around and not always in the best light.

Horned Grebes are fairly abundant. These next shots show the variability in plumage as they shift from basic winter to alternate breeding plumage.

Killdeer have been back for awhile, and are well into the nesting cycle. When I pulled in to a parking spot to look over the marina, I no sooner turned the vehicle off that this one came right up to me squawking. Clearly I knew that a nest was likely near by, so I didn't move or even get out of the truck for awhile.

The adult put on quite a show, trying to lure me out of the area with its broken-wing act.

I eventually got out and walked carefully so as not to step on any eggs. I figured I had either parked right over top or had driven over the nest, so wanted to look around to see. After a bit of gull and tern shooting, I discovered this nest with one egg, and carefully moved the vehicle and left.

A subsequent trip two days later indicated that the nesting process had continued with now three eggs. I parked along the roadside since I knew where the nest was, and didn't want to upset the adults any further. They were a lot less concerned on this visit. But with the nest right in the middle of a parking area, it might not remain undamaged to completion.

Along the McGeachy Pond trail there weren't many birds to see close by, but there were several hundred birds of various species out on the lake, including at least 100 Red-breasted Mergansers and 150 or more Bonaparte's Gulls, all diving after what I presume was a school of fish swimming below. There were a few Ring-billed Gulls mixed in, as well as a Little Gull, but I couldn't get its photo.

There were a few logs along the trail that had turtles busy soaking up some sun. Most were Blanding's Turtle, the larger turtle with the yellow throat and considered Rare in Ontario, and a few Midland Painted Turtles, the two smaller turtles to the right of this next photo.

The Rail Trail is often worth a visit, and the light for photography is usually better later in the afternoon. There were several pairs of Northern Shovelers near by.....

 

.....and lots of Blue-winged Teal.

Several Canada Geese were quietly resting....

...and then all of a sudden, there was a mass exodus of many of the ducks. Before I discovered what the confusion was, the ducks had noticed this adult Bald Eagle approaching overhead and not all that high up.

Teal in flight

Gadwall

 The resident Mute Swans did not seem to be bothered, however.

Female Mute Swan on a nest

Around home we don't have a lot of bird action, but sometimes it pays to keep an eye out the window. Unfortunately with the window facing east, the light isn't the best for early birds, but you do what you can. We have had 2-3 Red-breasted Nuthatches hanging around for several days....

.....and three female Brown-headed Cowbirds sat on a nearby limb for a few minutes.

A recent stop at the Keith McLean Conservation Area resulted in seeing much the same species of waterfowl as what I had noted at the Rail Trail. But a couple of Great Egrets were present, although decided to get up and leave to a more distant part of the wetland complex.

Getting to Rondeau is always worth the time, although on occasion one wonders where the birds might be. There are often a few spring wildflowers to check out, including:

Carolina Spring Beauty

Cut-leaved Toothwort

Colt's-foot (not native)

Other things aren't surviving quite as well. This little Northern Brown Snake was attempting to cross the road at the designated crossing on Lakeshore Road for the Tuliptree Trail. Unfortunately it lingered too long, or the driver did not see it, or both. It will now likely be a meal for some scavenger.

Yellow-rumped Warblers are arriving in small numbers, and a few other warbler species have shown up in ones or twos. It won't be long, hopefully, that there will be 25-30 species seen in a single day!

I had this male Eastern Bluebird hanging out in what appears to be a good territory for it. I didn't see its mate, but will keep a lookout for it to confirm nesting for the current Breeding Bird Atlas.

There is no question that the bird highlight of the last few days has been the sighting of a Black Vulture initially along the east side of the park. I was otherwise occupied, doing some gardening things at home so wasn't able to get to the park to see it. However I have seen this rarity a couple of times before, including one inside the park back in 2000, and the one below, just outside the park.

March 15, 2009

Maybe this one will stick around for a few more days to greet the birders who are exploring the area.

Three grebes and a....

few shorebirds. Also birds are nesting and wildflowers are appearing!

On my way to Rondeau on Monday morning, I stopped in at the Blenheim Sewage Lagoons, hoping to find the Eared Grebe which was seen on Sunday. In Pond 1, was a Pied-billed Grebe, plus Spotted Sandpiper and lots of Ruddy Ducks, Northern Shovelers, Blue-winged Teal and Bufflehead. In Pond 5, a Horned Grebe in well-developed breeding plumage was there, along with the same mix of ducks. And then I noted the Eared Grebe. While binoculars were adequate, I was glad for the 'scope to appreciate these birds. At one point I had both Horned and Eared simultaneously in the field of view, which was a nice comparison, but from a distance. I did get a record shot of the Eared as shown. Even at 700mm, it is heavily cropped.

Just to make it easier to appreciate, I am posting this image of an Eared Grebe I shot at these same lagoons on Apr 26, 2011, where it was much closer!

In the sprinkler cell was a great many shorebirds. Pectoral Sandpiper and Dunlin were the main ones. A single Greater Yellowlegs and 5 Lesser Yellowlegs were present, plus the usual Killdeer. There were likely in excess of 600 shorebirds altogether.

Greater Yellowlegs

Lesser Yellowlegs

Pectoral Sandpiper

On occasion, something spooked the shorebirds, sending them wheeling around in concert before settling back down to the water. I looked for a passing raptor as the cause, but sometimes it seems that there doesn't need to be an obvious reason for them to take flight. Perhaps they are practicing their evasive techniques in case a predatory raptor does show up?

Pectoral Sandpiper and Dunlin

The Dunlin have a white wing-stripe, the Pectoral Sandpipers do not.

Here is a little quiz for you. I am periodically questioned about counting the numbers of birds, and especially when there are large numbers or flocks of birds in flight. The added challenge is that when birds are in motion, you can't accurately count them all. Sometimes you only have a couple of seconds to come up with a number. So take a couple of seconds and make an estimate of how many birds you think are in the flock below. 100? 133? 150? 176? 200? Or? The answer is at the bottom of this post.

It was a very pleasant way to spend an hour and a half. I had the lagoons to myself, other than the birds. Male Savannah Sparrows were scattered on the tops of hay bales serenading their mates. Waterfowl were flying about from time to time, and an immature Lesser Black-backed Gull flew by, heading for the Ridge Landfill a couple of kilometres to the west.

Blue-winged Teal

Northern Shoveler

A brief stop at Shrewsbury before heading to Rondeau didn't have a lot of action, but I noticed a Killdeer sitting in a grassy areas. It appeared to be on a nest.

Usually as soon as one approaches a Killdeer nest, the bird will get up and run away, and if you get too close, it will try and distract the intruder with its broken wing act. This bird sat tight until I got almost right to the nest before doing its distraction display, which leads me to believe the eggs are very close to hatching.

Below is the next generation of Killdeer, if all goes well. The nest is quite well camouflaged, although less so in this grassy patch than if it were on, for example, on a gravelly beach. 

I made it to Rondeau. The South Point Trail had a few of the usual birds as well as a couple of Red Admiral and Eastern Comma butterflies, but the most interesting thing was a Ribbon Snake. It is a snake of wet woods and is officially a Species At Risk. Although it looks very much like an Eastern Garter Snake, it has brighter yellow stripes, a bit of chestnut colour along the lower side, and a small white vertical patch right in front of the eye.

A walk around the Tuliptree Trail produced an adult Bald Eagle soaring overhead, and I heard one or more Sandhill Cranes trumpeting out in the marsh. At the extreme southwestern boardwalk, I had Winter Wren singing. It has an impressive, musical song, and when one hears it, it is hard to believe this little songster can produce such music! It popped out in the open briefly. Generally it breeds farther north, but on occasion it will nest at Rondeau. I had the first confirmed nesting of this species at Rondeau in the early 1980s, in an upturned tree root only a few metres from where I saw this bird this day.

Also on TTT, a Canada Goose had found a satisfactory nesting platform on top of this mossy tree root.

Along Gardiner Avenue, I came across Coltsfoot, one of the earliest spring wildflowers, although it is not native. The leaves do not appear until it has finished flowering.

A Mourning Cloak butterfly was flitting about, but shortly after it landed on this tree trunk, a Yellow-rumped Warbler came by and startled it.

The Spicebush Trail and Bennett Ave had a great show of wildflowers. Wildflowers have been slow to show this spring due to the never-ending winter, but they are finally waking up, and have really come on nicely in the last few warmer days. Hepaticas, both sharp-lobed and round-lobed species, are the most abundant. Their leaves are not well developed at this early stage of flowering, so it is tricky to tell one from the other. These photos show it emerging from the leaf litter on the left, and from a very rotting log on the right.

Cut-leaved Toothwort, below, is just beginning. It is named for its extremely dissected leaves. Some other toothwort species will be showing up soon.

Bloodroot, named for the reddish sap of the roots, is another early species. When it first appears, the leaves are very tightly wrapped around the stem, but after a few days the leaves will be more obvious as shown in the lower photo.

And so the flowering season, and the nesting season is well underway!



Answer to bird quiz: I find that almost everyone underestimates the number, myself included. The number of shorebirds that are all or in part showing up in this image is ~300. Did you come up with that number? Post a comment here, or send your thoughts to me privately or anonymously if you wish.