More on bird surveys, but maybe not the one you first think about.

I had planned on posting on my blog last evening. However from about 6 p.m. until sometime over night, our internet and land line was out of commission. A cell phone call to the provider got the wheels in motion to sort out the problem, and at some point over night everything was back to normal. It is amazing, and somewhat concerning, that we rely so much on internet, even my generation. I didn't join the technical age kicking and screaming, but for anyone who knows me well, I wasn't jumping into it all that enthusiastically like some were. I didn't even get a digital SLR camera until 2006, and I didn't get my own personal cell phone until sometime in 2012 when Marie got tired of loaning me hers when I was out in the field! I grew up quite nicely---at least I like to think I did :-)---without such technological advancements. For example rare bird notifications came by way of personal contact on a land line, or reading a newspaper nature column a week or so after the bird had been observed.

But that isn't the reason for this blog post. No, this time every January is the time when a phenomenon happens across North America regarding bird surveys. And I am not talking about Christmas Bird Counts. It is the Mid-Winter Waterfowl Survey (MWWS). I'm not sure exactly when it got started, but some time about the middle of the previous century. For waterfowl, the continent is divided into 4 major flyways which ducks, geese and swans use for their migration routes. There is some overlap, but banding waterfowl has enabled waterfowl biologists to determine the routes of various species or sub-populations fairly accurately. In southwestern Ontario, the major flyway is known as the Mississippi Flyway. At least part of the intent of these surveys was to establish long term trends of the various species of waterfowl, both in their overall numbers as well as their wintering areas.

Tundra Swans

I first became aware of these MWWS in early 1986, shortly after my career changed from being the Park Naturalist of Rondeau Provincial Park, to the District Ecologist for the Chatham District of the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. By early spring, one of the things that crossed my desk were the results of the most recent MWWS taken in January of that year.

Hmmmm.....what was that, I thought.

I looked through the summary for Ontario, and specifically for the area encompassing Chatham District (Essex, Kent and Lambton counties). I was not impressed. I don't have those 1986 results handy as I write this, but it was vividly etched in my mind that conducting a waterfowl survey for this project clearly was not a priority for anyone within MNR. There were less than 4000 individuals of about three species...that was it. Even though I had been the park naturalist at Rondeau for about 13 years prior to this and there was always some waterfowl there around during the time specified for these surveys, I had never been contacted to provide information, or even knew it existed.

Apparently someone who happened to be out near a portion of the waterfront of the district made a passing attempt to identify and count the birds they saw, but clearly there was very little effort put forth. As a Christmas Bird Count participant for St. Clair National Wildlife Area CBC (I wasn't the compiler for another couple of years), I knew that even within that small area there were more than 14500 birds of 13 species. I also knew that other parts of the waterfront of the district, especially the St. Clair River, the Detroit River and areas around Point Pelee and Rondeau, often had lots of waterfowl in any given year. In fact several of these sites were nominated and accepted as nationally Important Bird Areas due to the major populations of birds, either breeding species or staging/wintering areas. This first photo shows what the sky can be like over SCNWA in late December and into January. Those aren't dust specks on the lens, those are hundreds and hundreds of ducks and geese in just a small piece of the sky.

 This next photo shows what parts of the St. Clair River or Detroit River can be like, with many hundreds and even thousands of diving ducks scattered across the surface.

 When the ice gets a little more extensive on either river, the ducks are packed in a little tighter.

I talked to my supervisor and we made plans to rectify the situation. So in early January of 1987, it was my 'duty' to go out and do a more thorough survey during the week long count period. It took me the better part of three days to cover the shorelines from lower Lake Huron in Lambton Co, down the St. Clair River, the accessible parts of Lake St. Clair, down the Detroit River as well as the accessible parts of Lake Erie.

It was a tough job, but someone had to do it :-). I did have some help for areas specifically around Point Pelee, and even when someone was available in subsequent years, to look around the Pelee Island shoreline.

That first year helped to augment the area's reputation for wintering waterfowl. Including the ~34000 birds on the SCNWA CBC over 50000 birds of 21 species were submitted for the tri-county total, so it was a good start. For 25 years, until I retired at the end of 2011, I was the coordinator for the MWWS for the tri-county area of extreme southwestern Ontario. During those years the efforts were shifted to include at least some, or even all, volunteers to ensure as complete coverage as possible without relying on paid staff.

The weather in winter is always a factor. There were a few years that either:
-volunteers were unavailable;
-the severe cold of an early winter resulted in almost no open water and relatively few birds; or
-on one occasion fog was so bad for a few days one could hardly see the water at times, although I remember hearing them through the fog.

Under such conditions the numbers were not reflective of the number and diversity of birds that were likely around. Over that 25 year period we had a low one year (1995) of barely 13000 birds of 20 species, to a high another year (2007) of over 205500 birds of 33 species (including American Coot). Nonetheless even taking into consideration the poor years due to the conditions mentioned above, we averaged almost 60000 birds of 25 species. Clearly it was a big improvement over the years prior to 1987.

One of highlights that I recall was seeing and photographing a Harlequin Duck along the St. Clair River at Sombra, which at one point was resting on a post underneath a boat house and it was so dark I needed a bit of flash to brighten up the photo. Another highlight, although not of a waterfowl species, was while surveying at the south end of Walpole Island we came across a somewhat bulky raptor sitting in a tall shrub at the edge of a cornfield. It was puzzling at first as it looked bulky enough for a Red-tailed Hawk but clearly wasn't. When it took off and flew very rapidly and powerfully just a metre or so above the ground it became clear that it was a Gyrfalcon, my first for the tri-county area.

Harlequin Duck, Sombra, 2015

I passed the torch to someone else when I retired (thanks, Brett!) who continues to coordinate it. I still participate as a volunteer surveyor, as well as contribute the results of the SCNWA CBC.

And that leads me to the next part of the purpose of this post. This past Thursday, Marie and I went out and did my usual stretch of the survey. That included just west of the mouth of the Thames River at Lighthouse Cove, along the south shore of Lake St. Clair to the eastern edge of Windsor, where someone else picks up the waterfront to continue through Windsor and down the Detroit River, etc.
(Note: none of the photos on this post were actually taken during this outing, as the majority of the birds were not close and it would have taken much too long to work to a closer vantage point.)

We chose Thursday since it seemed to be the best day of the survey period for travelling and viewing, unlike the weekend which is looking like a washout much to the chagrin of certain birders/bloggers who are more or less restricted to weekends.......

Lake St Clair was completely open except for a fringe of ice along the shoreline. It was windy, and the increasing winds actually helped us tally a good number of birds. The winds were brisk out of the southeast, which meant any forested edge of the lake shore provided some shelter from the waves and white caps farther out. It was at Tremblay Beach Conservation Area where I first noticed this. There was a huge raft of birds out along the edge of the ice, spread in both directions as far as one could see. Any ice that was on the lake had piled up along the shore, so that a scope was necessary to identify and count the birds. It turns out that there were at least 2200 Common Mergansers here, with dozens more streaming in every minute from more northerly and exposed parts of the lake. It was probably an underestimate as there were always some birds which were diving. Somewhat surprisingly there were only a half dozen or so of three other species: Bufflehead, Red-breasted Merganser and Common Goldeneye.

Common Merganser, male

Common Merganser, female

Common Mergansers

Red-breasted Merganser

Bufflehead

Common Goldeneye

We continued westward, checking the lake where we could, but with all of the residential development that lined the lakeshore for almost the entire way, it was impossible to see everything. We did see a few small groups of Tundra Swans feeding/resting in some harvest corn fields along the way.

However for those places that were accessible, the waterfowl were present only in very small numbers. That changed a bit when we got to the Belle River marina. It provides a very good view both east and west for several kilometres so the scope is really handy here. There were a lot of Canada Geese, and a few dozen of several duck species, including more Common Mergansers, some Mallards, Common Goldeneye and a single Redhead. Our limited section of the survey resulted in 2711 individuals of 8 species, but I expect there will be at least 25 species for the overall tri-county area. Even just for the SCNWA CBC a few days earlier we had almost 62000 individuals of 23 species.

Canada Geese

Mallard

Redhead

It had also been the intent of surveyors to keep track of Bald Eagles observed, especially in the early years when this species was in extremely low numbers and, at least in Ontario, listed as Endangered. It has rebounded considerably in the last 2-3 decades, fortunately. We only saw two adults on this day, one adult out over the lake and another at a nest in north Essex, but undoubtedly there were more around, since the SCNWA CBC had 39 birds.

That's it for bird surveys for now!

A new hiking & birding trail in Chatham-Kent

For anyone paying attention to the local media, you might already be aware of this new trail, which opened on September 19. It is officially known as the Mitchell's Bay North Lake Shore Nature Trail. As some of you will know, there is already a Mitchell's Bay Lake Shore Trail, which extends from Angler Line north to the village of Mitchell's Bay. There are plans to connect these two trails at some point, but for various reasons, that hasn't happened yet.

For more on the media coverage on the opening of this trail, read the article here.

A couple of days ago, I went to check this new trail out, getting some photos in the process.

But backing up a bit, this first photo is what part of it looked like in April, 1989. Given that it was taken in that era, it is a scanned image, of course. I was giving some new regional MNR staff a tour of the MNR interests along the tri-county area shoreline, describing the various features that they should be aware of or would find interesting. Even back then, I seldom went anywhere without my cameras and various lenses, so I rattled off several rolls of film over the three hour tour.  While passing by the eastern shoreline of Lake St. Clair, I noticed this property which really stood out. Had aliens visited it, leaving these strange shapes and lines as a hidden message visible only to viewers from the air? No, it was a wetland that had cookie-cutter equipment on site to create a more open wetland through the dense cattails, which is more conducive for wildlife in general and nesting waterfowl in particular. Little did I know at the time that I would be involved to some degree when this property would become open to the public for hiking and nature appreciation!

Trails have been a higher priority for the municipality in recent years. This is the latest result of the municipality of Chatham-Kent, along with the commitment and support by two local families in particular (the Cadotte family and the Allen family) and various community groups to make this trail available and open to the public.

Note in this first link the trail map from a publication put out by Chatham-Kent Recreation showing the location relative to Mitchell's Bay, and the configuration of the trail itself. The south part of it goes along a dyke which separates the agricultural land from Lake St. Clair, while the other part goes into the wetland itself.

Ontario NativeScape has been instrumental in the design of the trail through the wetland, as well as the restoration of prairie vegetation along the drier raised section of this trail. I was asked to provide ideas, text and photos for several natural heritage education signs for the trail. They are being prepared at this time, and will eventually be installed at various points along this trail.

There is only one access to this trail at the moment. It is at the corner of Winter Line and W. Lewis Line. An official parking lot has not been created yet, so one has to park along the road side.

With this trail's location along the Lake St. Clair shoreline and in a coastal wetland, there is bound to be some interesting wildlife, especially birds, that are recorded as time goes on. On the day I was there, I didn't see anything all that unusual, but did see expected species such as Great Egret, Common Gallinule, Green Heron and a dozen or so warblers feeding in the willows near the beginning of the trail. Here is my ebird list.

 This is a great area to see Great Egrets. There is a regular nesting colony or two of them at nearby Walpole Island, just a short flight from this trail, so birds from that colony are frequently seen feeding in this vicinity.

The trail itself is a wide gravelled pathway, making it accessible for hikers as well as wheelchairs. The vegetation along these slightly higher sections of the trail are predominantly tallgrass prairie, or will be once the restoration has matured. This is a wonderful thing, as at the time of settlement, depending on water levels in the lake, the shoreline and adjacent areas would be either wetland or tallgrass prairie. In fact a huge portion of the former Dover Township, where this trail is located, was tallgrass prairie according to some of the earliest surveys. It is also very productive agricultural land, and was easily converted so there is virtually no natural tallgrass prairie left. Re-establishing a bit of tallgrass prairie vegetation is perfect for this site.

 Most obvious at the moment is Indian Grass (Sorghastrum nutans) as well as Tall Sunflower (Helianthus gigantea).

 With the sunflower in prime condition, their bright yellow flowers are a-buzz with bees.

There are numerous channels through the wetland, and varying water levels, providing habitat for herons, waterfowl and other waterbirds as well as turtles, snakes etc.

 These logs will provide excellent basking opportunities for turtles and snakes.

Painted Turtle basking

 Bullfrogs are by far the largest frog in Ontario. I remember being amazed by the intensive chorus of their 'jug-o-rum' call on a late spring evening in some of the Lake St. Clair wetlands, but they have been in serious decline throughout their range over the past couple of decades. Retaining quality wetlands are very important to their survival.

Bullfrog

 Towards the farthest point of the trail, in the section going through the wetland, there are larger ponds.

At the farthest point, there is a raised mound to get a better look at the marsh closest to the lake. That is Walpole Island First Nation in the distance to the right.

Although wildlife can be seen from the trail, sometimes they are seen on the trail.

Leopard Frog

Differential Grasshopper

Some hikers who came along just as I was leaving had even come across a young Eastern Fox Snake, an endangered species. The lands adjacent to Lake St. Clair is one of the hot spots in southern Ontario for this beautiful creature.

Eastern Fox Snake (photo taken previously)

So put this trail on your list of places to explore in Chatham-Kent. Whether you are birding or just wanting to see a different part of the municipality and go for a hike, it is a very welcome addition to the trails and natural areas in C-K!

Yellow-headeds galore, and a whole lot more

Marie and I spent part of today exploring the shoreline of Lake St. Clair, in the Mitchell's Bay area. First off was the west end of Angler Line, where Yellow-headed Blackbirds have been showing up this spring. As you can see, I wasn't disappointed! The males were sitting up quite visibly, keeping watch over their staked territory. Every once in awhile, a female would pop into view, but not long enough for me to get a photo. The females have only a little bit of dull yellow in the face, throat and upper chest area, otherwise they are a mottled dark black and brown colour.

The next photo shows an adult male in full song. It isn't musical as humans would normally describe song, with various coarse sounding grunts and other noises. But for the Yellow-headed Blackbirds, it works!

They can get into some awkward positions on occasion, depending on what they are grabbing on to.

They were all in view from the road side, and sometimes quite literally on the road edge. I took this photo from the car as the adult was hunting for a bit of grit or something right on the edge of the road. It did not seem to be bothered by me at all, but hastily retreated into the marsh vegetation when a mini-van went by at medium speed.

I would estimate that there were at least 6-8 males here, all within a fairly small area. I presume there is an equal number of females, but only saw them on occasion. Yellow-headed Blackbirds are typically much more common in the central and western part of the country. They used to be regular in small numbers at St. Clair National Wildlife Area, but have moved northward along the shoreline marshes of the lake. Usually they are in private marshes that are a lot less accessible than this one.


If you want to find them, go towards Mitchell's Bay and along Angler Line, which is the road immediately south of Mitchell's Bay, go towards the west (lake) end and look into the marsh on the north side of the road, as shown in the map below.

Just a few hundred metres east of this spot is southern entrance to the Lake Shore Trail, which goes between Angler Line and Mitchell's Bay.

This trail opened up just under a year ago, and goes along a drainage canal, wet woods and the marshy edge of Lake St. Clair. There is also a short boardwalk leading to an observation platform looking out over the lake. On the eastern side of the trail it is all farmland.

The early hours of the day should be good for observing birds, as the morning sun will highlight the bird activity. I was hoping for some songbird activity, but of the warbler group, I only came across about 15 Yellow-rumped Warblers feeding in the willows and cottonwoods which are coming into flower.

I heard a Sora in the marsh, had two Wood Ducks fly by, and saw a Greater Yellowlegs feeding along the shallow water at the edge of the lake. There were several Great Egrets....probably at least 8 altogether, and included the occasional one that did a fly-by. Great Egrets have a nesting colony on Walpole Island.

Well out in the lake, but visible from the observation platform there are some islands made up primarily of cattail vegetation. I saw a lot of gulls and terns flying about them, but they were too far away to identify. I must get the kayak out and head on over....it looks like a great spot for Forster's Terns and possibly Black Terns or other gull/tern species to be nesting.

Several Forster's Terns were passing by, occasionally diving for a minnow.

In the drainage canal were numerous Painted Turtles......at least 20......basking in what little bit of sun there was to increase their physiology. Basking is particularly important for the females, as egg-development and laying is highly dependent on this increase in physiology. With the way the spring has unfolded to date, I am sure they are behind in their schedule! Hopefully they won't be too far behind, as it might affect the eventual hatching of the young which is ordinarily in late August to early September. If they are delayed much later, it could affect their ability to survive over the winter.

Marie and I were particularly taken with the swirly nature of this log the turtle had chosen to bask on.

In another pond along Angler Line were several American Wigeon, Gadwall and Green-winged Teal. From Mitchell's Bay itself, I checked the north end of the lakeside parking area where a small sandbar produced various terns, gulls, a Snowy Egret and shorebirds including up to 3 Marbled Godwits in the fall of 2013. The water levels are currently higher, and there was no sandbar to be seen.