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!

Am Avocet and Eurasian Collared-Dove

Days like this don't come around often, especially at this time of year. Two unusual birds: one a new species for the year and the other, a new species for my Rondeau list as well as a new one for the year, both within an hour or so of each other. And I didn't have to drive out of Chatham-Kent. Of course if it weren't for intrepid birders, in this case Keith and Jim Burk, discovering both of these species and getting the word out, my year and Rondeau list would likely not have changed. So thanks Jim and Keith!

Yesterday afternoon I headed towards Rondeau with the hope that the Eurasian Collared-Dove that they had found earlier in the day was still hanging around in a visible location. But on the way, I went by the entrance to the Blenheim Landfill where the day before Keith had noted an American Avocet in the pond just inside the entrance, but which is still visible without going through gates. It was at the far end of the pond, of course, so with the long telephoto and peeking through the Phragmites, plus some heavy cropping, this is one of the better shots I got. Check.

Now it was on to Rondeau in my search for the dove. I got to the Dog Beach area and noted a birder along the road. It was Kit McCann, who had been searching for about 45 minutes without seeing the bird. That wasn't what I was hoping to hear, so I drove to the end of Lakeshore Road and parked, gathered my camera and binoculars and slowly walked north. I noted an immature Redheaded Woodpecker in the cottonwoods next to the last cottage. A nice bird at any time of the year, but not what I was looking for, so I kept on. I met up with Kit, who was walking in my direction. We saw a few Mourning Doves in trees, but nothing we could make into a Eurasian Collared-Dove. We kept looking, and then spied a possible candidate. It looked a bit paler, and didn't have the usual speckling on the wings. But we couldn't see the characteristic dark neck band. There was a slight hint of a band, but was it just the shadow of a branch?

A little different angle, and then it popped its head up.

Bingo....target achieved! We watched it for awhile, and eventually it flew off to the north east, then swung around back in the general vicinity of where we had found it. It was in another dead tree, but this time much closer to the lake. Kit and I eventually went our separate ways, and since I had to drive by the spot again after retrieving my car, I decided to get my tripod and scope out to see if I could see it in the more distant dead tree. It was visible, but not without a bit of difficulty given the branches. While I was looking at it, a car approached and the driver asked whether the dove was around. It was Rob, from Mississauga, and when I replied in the affirmative, immediately pulled over and got a look through the scope, quite happy that checking this one off was so easy. We watched it for a few more minutes.

It wasn't as exotic as a Fork-tailed Flycatcher which was all the rage today at Tommy Thompson Park in Toronto, but I will take it! And given the nature of flycatchers to show up in unusual places in the autumn, who knows what might still show up??

Catching up with a couple of rare birds

This has been an easy time to get around, unlike what we experienced a year ago. Remember scenes like this?

Just before Christmas, I went to Rondeau to enjoy the solitude. It was one of those overcast days with virtually no wind. At times, a bit of filtered sunlight came through the clouds to brighten things up. And it was much warmer than normal, with temperatures reaching about 8C. Sounds carried well, but the birds were quiet along the South Point Trail. There were hardly any people there at all. But the trails were inviting to experience the multitude of shapes and shadows, and saturated but mostly neutral colours.

This first image shows a very large Tulip Tree, which is about a metre in diameter, and certainly portrays some old growth character. It was off the beaten track, just south of the old south campground, for any readers who remember the south campground which was open until the fall of 1972 (and very briefly in the late summer of 1985, before the damage of several years of high water caused it to be closed permanently). Even the medium-sized American Beech tree to the middle left of the image, with its smooth gray bark, is actually a decent sized diameter, but not as obvious given I was using a very wide angle lens. The wide angle and distance from the lens exaggerates the small size. I liked the brilliance of the large green mossy mound, standing out like a beacon on the otherwise brown forest floor.

The shoreline was quite different than what it has been like on recent visits. The effects of the violence of the recent wave action was still in evidence, but on this visit, the lake was almost calm.

Today I had reason to go to Essex County for a change. I had heard about the Red-throated Loon at Kingsville back on December 4, but did not realize it was lingering in the Kingsville harbour at least up until the Cedar Creek CBC a few days ago. So I checked, and saw it almost immediately.

This species migrates from its high arctic breeding grounds through the extreme southwest of Ontario annually, but often it is in flight passing by and only seen in small numbers . To have one linger for this long at such an approachable location is quite unusual. It seemed to be alert and healthy, diving several times. So maybe it just decided to conserve its energy by not flying to the Atlantic coast for the winter.

While I was in southern Essex County, I decided to look for the Eurasian Collared-Dove which has been just east of Leamington for several months. I hadn't attempted to find it when it was first reported....it is not a native species....but it has established itself in small numbers across the central and eastern US. I saw one in Nebraska back in late July of 2006, while attending a North American Prairie Conference at Kearney. A bird was consistently found in the parking lot of the university campus where the conference was held. But this was my first one in Canada. It isn't the greatest of shots due to the very heavy cloud cover. However the lack of black spots on the back part of the wings, the shorter and more squared tail and the black collar at the nape of the neck are characteristics that are evident here, and easily separate it from the abundant Mourning Dove which is often found in similar habitat.

Maybe sometime I will get one for my Rondeau list!