Barrow's Goldeneye, Snowy Owls, Snow Fleas, etc

These last few days have been gradually warming from the bitter cold not so long ago. And with the sun out and the wind down to a tolerable level, I headed out. The Barrow's Goldeneye that Mike and Josh Bouman saw over the last couple of days clinched it....it was time to take a trip up along the St. Clair River!

It was only a couple of weeks ago when I was doing my route for the local Christmas Bird Count that there was virtually no ice. How times have changed, as the southern half or more of the river was plugged full of ice. The last few lake freighters could only get through with the help of both US and Canadian coast guard ice cutters, and even with that assistance, it took them about 5 days to clear the stalled ships.

The ferries were shut down, of course, and even the usual open water by the Sombra ferry dock was much reduced. It did have a few of the usual Mallard, American Black Duck, Common Goldeneye, Redhead and Canvasback mixed together. Birds were coming and going steadily, so if one sat and watched, there might have been others.

At the Sombra ferry dock

Some seemed to be content just to sit on the ice. Of course maybe this allowed them to keep their feet and legs out of the cold water, using the fluffed up feathers to provide that extra bit of insulation.

Mallards and American Black Ducks

I made it to a bit north of Cathcart Park, where the Barrow's Goldeneye was first reported and subsequently seen over the previous couple of days. Access to the river wasn't the greatest, but I did find an open spot in the trees and shrubs along the river which gave me a good view. There were a couple of open spots in the ice, probably a good 500 metres out. A 'scope was definitely a must! After scanning the mixed flock of ducks, which included most of the species seen at Sombra but also had Common Merganser, Bufflehead and Long-tailed Duck, I saw the Barrow's Goldeneye! A beautiful male.

Barrow's Goldeneye, back centre

Due to the distance, even with a 700 mm telephoto and being heavily cropped after I got home, it isn't a very close shot. But all the salient characteristics are evident: the crescent white patch, the less white on the folded wing, and the dark little spur at the front of the folded wing. I've seen very few of this western species in Ontario, and not for a long time, so that made the trip worth while in itself.

After viewing and photographing this beauty, I continued upstream to check out the conditions in the vicinity of Stag Island at Corunna, where last year there was an abundance of Bald Eagles. There was relatively little ice in the area on this day, and waterfowl were widely scattered. I did get a nice close look at this female Hooded Merganser.

Hooded Merganser

 Note the Mallard below. Most of the time, the head seems distinctly green, but with certain light, one can see an iridescent purple sheen to the head as well.

I saw a single adult Bald Eagle perched in a tree at the north end of Stag Island, but it wasn't on the move at all. A few Long-tailed Ducks were well out in the open water.

On the way back, I stopped in to look at a huge Red Oak tree that I have seen on several occasions. I am very interested in things that appear to be part of an old growth habitat, and this tree definitely fits into that category. Size isn't everything, but it helps.

This tree is within my territory on the local Christmas Bird Count, and I regularly get an Eastern Screech Owl responding to my whistling calls when checking out this woodlot. But I've always been intrigued by this huge tree, so I intentionally took my diameter measuring tape on this trip. Turns out this oak measures 158 cm in diameter.

Not even close to the largest Red Oak in Ontario (I came across a huge one in the back yard of a friend's place in southern Chatham-Kent a few years ago, and it measured 194 cm in diameter; it is the largest one in Ontario), but is still impressive. It is at the edge of the small woodlot, as indicated by its large lower limbs.

I thought that this bright sunny day with little wind would be good for Snowy Owls to be up on poles, rather than taking relative shelter in the middle of a field. Given that most fields are snow-covered, seeing owls is more challenging these days, so a sunny day definitely had some possibilities.

I found four Snowy Owls, and three were along Bear Line. Some were obviously adult birds, given their relative white appearance. This first one was on a pole, but due to the amount of truck traffic, moved off to another pole and then a barn, where it was still there several hours later.

Others were first year birds, with their much darker and more extensive spotting.

Another snowy creature is quite a bit smaller...Snow Fleas. They aren't actually fleas, but are named as such because they are so tiny (only a few mm in length) and have the ability to jump like a flea. They are consumers of mould in the soil, and on sunny days, especially a day that is closer to the freezing temperature, will migrate up through the soil to the snow surface. From a short distance, they can look like specks of dirty soil on the snow, but up close they are definitely insects and surprisingly mobile considering the temperature.

North Lambton and southern Chatham-Kent combination

I'm playing a bit of catch-up here. I've been up to a private site in north Lambton County a few times lately, doing some inventory and enjoying some terrific forest landscapes. The most recent time was a couple of days ago. Even late in the season, the woods are interesting, and the solitude is worth the effort. The rolling topography of Hemlock-American Beech-Sugar Maple forest, with lots of Tuliptree, is quite impressive. And once on the unofficial trail, there is often no other sound but that of a woodland.

Woodland birds are relatively few at this time of year. But sometimes you can see evidence of them, and be able to identify what was there. The following image is a case in point.

This is the typical workings of a Pileated Woodpecker, which has a massive bill for tearing into tree trunks to go after carpenter ants and such. The deep, oblong holes are very characteristic.

An unexpected highlight during this trip was to find evidence of a fairly rare orchid. It is S2 in Ontario. It may come as a surprise, given the time of year, but this orchid, unless it is flowering, is more obvious from late fall through the winter (if the snow is not covering the leaf litter) and into the early spring. It is known as Puttyroot (Aplectrum hyemale).

The leaves are quite distinctive, with their green colour complete with a hint of gray, especially on the underside. And the leaf veins go the length of the leaf, which is typical of Monocots (includes orchids and lilies). Most other plant families, known as Dicots, have different leaf venation.

There are very few individuals in a population that send up flowering stems....usually less than 10%. So when there is lots of greenery in June, the period when it flowers, and there aren't any flowering stems, it is almost impossible to see this plant. But the leaves at this time of year are quite perky and upright, making them more visible when most everything else has dried and fallen. This plant was historically known from Lambton, but the official database indicates the last record was before the 1920s, so it was quite an important discovery. I plan to look for other populations in Lambton and elsewhere at this time of year. There is lots of forest to look through!

Today, I spent a bit of time checking out the Erieau area. My previous post showed some of the unusual gull and tern observations that I had, and I wanted to see what else there was a few days later.

As it turned out, the gulls were relatively few. There were several hundred gulls feeding off the south beach area, mostly Bonapartes. There were a few in the main channel and next to the marina. Even though they are quite common, I always enjoy watching and photographing them and listening to their calls.

And there were dozens of Horned Grebes. I saw at least 65, but I heard a higher number from another birder (Steve) who was there a bit before me.

I was just ready to leave the marina area, when a Spotted Sandpiper flew into view and landed on the edge of the pier. It was rather skittish, and I had to photograph it through a chain link fence as it darted amongst some of the pipes and other things along the edge of the slip.

This is quite late for Spotted Sandpipers. They are normally gone by late September or early October. A few may linger well into October. This is the first November record for the Rondeau area that I am aware of. It is interesting that there was an individual counted on the local Christmas Bird Count on December 22, 1952, by far the latest record for the Rondeau checklist area. Perhaps it was injured, or there was a really mild spell?

Will this one linger for a December record, or better yet, another record for the CBC? Time will tell.

I also had three Sanderling on the big pier sticking out into the lake. I didn't get any photos of them, as when the gulls were flushed up, the Sanderling left also. We've had them on the CBC on at least 3 occasions.

Recent North Lambton travels

I've been out a lot these last few days, so it is time to catch up on some blog posts.

A few days ago I was doing some inventory type of field work with a couple of colleagues at a site in northern Lambton County. The weather was great, and we found some interesting things, including a small tallgrass prairie type of site. There wasn't anything really exceptional in the site.....it hadn't burned for quite some time, and a regular occurrence of fire is absolutely essential for the long-term and short-term health of the prairie and its inhabitants. Nonetheless, we did find a few stems of a rather rare orchid called Great Plain's Ladies'-tresses (Spiranthes magnicamporum), which is provincially ranked as S3. I look forward to re-visiting the site at another time of year to see what other goodies might be present.

There are several other Ladies'-tresses types of orchids, but this is one of the later flowering species, and it is distinctive by its larger size compared to most of the others. It also has a very distinctive fragrance reminding me of a combination of hot plastic and vanilla!

On our lunch break we observed several Sharp-shinned Hawks, a 3rd year Bald Eagle, a Red-shouldered Hawk, a Red-tailed Hawk, one or two common Nighthawks and a couple of Sandhill Cranes.

Back on site, we found a few snakes (Northern Brown and Eastern Garter) as well as frogs (Leopard and Green) and American Toads, but nothing exceptional. Some of the plants we were on the lookout for we encountered, including American Ginseng, Green Dragon and Butternut, all officially Species At Risk. Due to their significance and legislated rarity, I will not divulge their locations. 

This next image features a fruiting individual of American Ginseng. It was not taken at the site we found it, but is one I had in my photo files. I did take a photo with my cell phone, but on the chance that someone could obtain the location from the cell phone pic via some internal GPS reading, I decided not to use it here (aside from the fact that it is a relatively poor quality). I do not have my main camera connected to any GPS coordinate software, partly so no one can track the location where I have taken my photos. American Ginseng is highly sought after by collectors for its apparent medical benefits, and the major illegal collecting problem is the reason it is now a Species At Risk.

Towards the end of the day, we were travelling near Kettle Point, and noted an obvious movement of raptors. In a matter of minutes we recorded several kettles (appropriately near Kettle Point!) of Broad-winged Hawks totalling more than 500 birds, a juvenile Bald Eagle, 2 or more Red-tailed Hawks, more than 20 Sharp-shinned Hawks and 20 Turkey Vultures. Later in the day, I read where a resident of the area had reported a total of 15,600 hawks passing through between 1-4 p.m., just to the north of where we saw our birds a bit later.

Broad-winged Hawk

I had heard from another birding friend that large numbers of hawks can be found migrating along the Lake Huron shoreline during periods of brisk east to northeast winds. The brisk southeast winds of this particular day had pushed migrating hawks up along the Lake Huron shoreline, so we were at the right spot at the right time to view this phenomenon.

Before heading back home to Chatham, I stopped in at one of my favourite places in north Lambton to view one of the area's relatively well-kept secrets. 

One doesn't normally associate waterfalls in the extreme southwestern flatlands of the province. If one wants to see such landscapes, one has to go to the more rugged part of the country along the Niagara Escarpment or central/northern Ontario, right? 

Not!! 

This waterfall is located at Rock Glen Conservation Area, at the NE edge of Arkona. The Ausable River Conservation Authority manages this site which is famous for its fossils in the sedimentary rock that are exposed along this stream. There is a parking area, picnic area, rustic washroom facility, museum and best of all, a hiking trail compete with stairway to reach the bottom of the gorge to see the falls up close. The first photo shown above was taken from 2/3 of the way down the stairway.

Side views are generally my preference, but one can get downstream a bit to see it from different vantage points and angles. One has to be cautious, of course, because the wet rocks are slippery!!!

Venturing a bit farther downstream, one can get intimate views of some of the minor sections of the falls.

A few days earlier, I had noted a plea for help posted on ONtbirds to track down a certain Great Egret which had been spotted in the Petrolia area. This egret had a blue wing tag, but the tag number was not easy to determine. So while travelling down hwy 21, I stopped where Black Creek flows under a bridge immediately north of Oil Springs. My primary goal was to photograph the flooded creek, overflowing with water from recent rainfall events. 

As I looked at the flooded pasture, I noted a Great Egret, and upon a closer view, noted it had a blue wing tag. Out came my 'scope and telephoto lens.

Part of the individual identification alpha/numeric code was visible, but even in looking at the bird for several minutes with my 'scope, it was clear that the letter was hard to discern. I sent the photos to the individual with Environment Canada who did the banding. We agreed that it was likely bird 95K rather than 95R. This bird was banded this year on June 26. The colony was on an island in southern Georgian Bay and the bird was too young to fly when it was banded.