Eagles galore and a new species of squirrel confirmed for Rondeau!

 It wasn't so long ago, a mere 40 years more or less, when seeing a Bald Eagle was quite the unusual birding experience. In fact in about the mid-1970s, there was only one breeding pair of them along the north shore of Lake Erie between Long Point and the Detroit River. That was a pair at Rondeau, where even there, they did not produce young every year, and if they did, it was only a single eaglet. Historically there had been on average one nesting pair for every mile of the Lake Erie shoreline in that area. Bald Eagles were put onto the first edition of Ontario's Endangered Species Act, back in 1973. 

The resurgence of Bald Eagles is one of the good news stories of the last 40 years. In the hierarchy of rarity, it went from endangered status, to threatened status, and has for the past decade or two, been downgraded to the special concern status. New nesting pair are showing up regularly. As I have mentioned in a previous post, even about 4 years ago I knew of 26 nesting pairs in Chatham-Kent alone, with likely some others being around that I hadn't caught up with. In fact a couple of years ago I met up with an eagle enthusiast who knew of 30 nests in C-K, although I know that sometimes eagles have more than one nest that they move back and forth to, so the number of nests doesn't automatically reflect the number of nesting pairs. Regardless, they are definitely increasing and show no signs of that changing. And that is a good thing. The sight of an eagle always causes people to pause and enjoy.

It should be noted that it was 60 years ago in 1962 when Rachel Carson published her world-changing book "Silent Spring" that got people, including President John F. Kennedy, to realize what chemicals in the environment, such as DDT, were doing to birds like Bald Eagles. Of course the Bald Eagle is the USA's national bird, so that likely had something to do with any action to reduce the use of DDT. At any rate, the use of DDT declined, and eventually egg shells of eagles that had become so thin that they broke before getting to the stage of young hatching, became stronger and slowly but surely, more young were produced.

In my last post, I mentioned an eagle 'convention' of as many as 40 birds observed near or on a large private wetland area along Lake St. Clair. I went to the mouth of the Thames River and saw a few there, as expected. Since that visit to the lower reaches of the Thames River, I went out again, and there were at least 14 Bald Eagles, and this time I had some fly by giving me much better photo opportunities.

There were several adults, including the one at the top of this post. It landed in a tree right across the river from me.

There were more sub-adults than adults, mostly in the 1 or 2 year age range.

Bald Eagles have become so common that a birding site which I periodically send less common bird photos to, don't want to receive any more of eagles!

When I wasn't watching for eagles to photograph, there were at least half a dozen Great Blue Herons scattered along the river.

There were a few open spots here and there, so presumably they were finding enough to feed on, or were otherwise not energetic enough to move to someplace where there was.

A few days ago I heard about an unusual squirrel that was coming into a feeder at the north end of Rondeau. It was reported to be a Red Squirrel, which is not an expected species at all. It generally is more northern than what one should find in the Carolinian forests of southwestern Ontario. Nonetheless there have been a few observations in southwestern Ontario and closer to Rondeau, but never a confirmed one inside the park boundaries. Of course I had to check it out.

On my first attempt, it did not put in an appearance, so I moved on to other things and places to explore in the park. On my second attempt, late last week, I waited patiently for it but again, it did not show up at the feeder. The feeder area was busy with various birds, so I was able to put my photography urges in gear, and got these next three shots.

Northern Cardinals are fairly plentiful, and always nice to see. They always look their best and brightest in the later stages of winter.

Red-winged Blackbirds are not common anywhere in southern Ontario over the winter, but this one seemed to be content using what feed was available to it. It won't be long before many thousands are back.

I gave up watching this feeder area, and parked myself in my vehicle near another location not far away where it had been periodically seen. I didn't have to wait long. Within about 15  minutes, it appeared in some shrubbery and I got about three photos before another vehicle came along to dump some garbage. With that, the squirrel scampered up the trunk of a large White Oak, giving me a rear end look before disappearing. And this is, as far as I know, the first confirmed record of American Red Squirrel within the park's boundaries.

It is unknown how the squirrel arrived. It may have come along on a load of firewood, or it may have hitched a ride with a camper/trailer. Regardless, given that it is the only one of its kind in the park as far as we know, the population is not going to expand.

Yesterday I got word of a rare duck at Erieau, a male Barrow's Goldeneye. Shortly after getting the message I headed out, since I was planning to go out somewhere anyway. There were three others there when I arrived. It was very cold, at about -7C and quite windy with winds in the 30-50 k/hr range. Fortunately we had the wind at our backs, but it still made looking through the 'scope challenging with the vibration. Adding to the challenge was a bit of wave action, causing the birds to bob up and down when they weren't diving under. We eventually saw the bird out on the far bit of open water, but too far away to try for a photo. There was a much closer patch of open water we were hoping it would come to, but it didn't while we were there, so the only 'photos' we went away with were in our minds. Later in the day I heard that it did come in to the closer patch, briefly, but at least some that were there managed to get some record photos. I settled for a much more abundant species of waterfowl, which came in to the closer open patch.

There were numerous other species of waterfowl as well as a couple of Bald Eagles off in the distance.

I meandered a bit after leaving Erieau, but didn't find anything to photograph. However when I was just around the corner from home, and stopped at an intersection, this adult Bald Eagle flew almost right overhead! I got a couple of quick shots just opening the window and sticking the camera lens out. It isn't quite as crisp as I would have liked, partially because one seldom gets a crisp photo using a camera/lens that has been sitting inside a warmish vehicle and pointing it out into the frigid cold.

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Grasslands, wetlands and other odds and ends

 I've been out intermittently these last few days, depending on the weather, and trying to mix my day time excursions satisfactorily with my night time black lighting.

Grasslands are always intriguing. Most of the ones I've visited lately aren't really tallgrass prairie types, at least not yet, but they have some long term potential. But even hayfields can be worth checking out.

One spot a bit west of Chatham has been a hayfield for a few years, although it is periodically pastured or cut for hay. But it is suitable for attracting grassland birds, and has had Dickcissels there on a somewhat regular basis in recent years. There were 2-3 males there recently, although they seldom come within good photogenic range from the road. Given that it is private property, that is as close as one can get. A visit to it a few days ago enabled me to get a couple of decent record photos.

It isn't super sharp and is heavily cropped, but at least the sun was at the best angle and the background worked well. I went back to this spot a couple of days later hoping for better success, but by that time the cattle had been moved into this area and had trampled a lot of the vegetation. Given how dry the weather had been, the cattle had to be moved somewhere from their other pasture, so it wasn't a total surprise. Unfortunately there were no Dickcissels to be seen or heard.

In a more encouraging scenario, some friends of ours had purchased an agricultural field next to their woodlot, and had a mix of pond/wetland, prairie and hayfield established over the several hectares of this new acquisition. I've had the pleasure of advising them on the tallgrass prairie portion of it, and even scattered some native prairie seed that I had available to me to help it along. So I get to visit it on occasion, and a few days ago I went out to see if any grassland birds had taken to it. I was pleasantly surprised to see a few, including lots of Savannah Sparrows, 

....and at least 3 Dickcissels. It was well away from the road, and I was able to get some better shots of this species in various spots. Sometimes they were sitting up on a tall Dock (Rumex sp.) species as this first photo shows.

At other times they would be on a developing sunflower, singing away and advertizing their territory. I noticed a couple of times when one male would be chasing another one, so it looks like they have found this spot to their liking. Both of these Dickcissel photos are heavily cropped as well. I plan to get out again, and see more evidence of their approval of this site.

I went out to the Dealtown Crown Land, which back in the '90s, was planted into tallgrass prairie to be the source of seed for future restoration projects. After a few years, a better location for the prairie seed nursery was found so this ceased to be a priority for managing for that purpose. As a result, much of the site is quite shrubby, although there are some good sized open grassy areas, and I was hoping that some Dickcissels had shown up as they had in previous years. But none were to be found on this visit. There were lots of other birds, but nothing unexpected. I managed to get some photos of other species, just so it wasn't a complete wash. There were several Cedar Waxwings, which will be in nesting mode by now....

...and a few Mourning Doves. This one had a nest with two eggs, in a Red Cedar tree.

I've been out to St. Clair NWA on occasion as well. There is always something to see and photograph here.

Evenings are great, as the daytime temperatures cool a bit, the bird activity seems to pick up. And the golden light of late day conditions work well. This Tree Swallow was using a nest cavity just below where it was sitting.

Canada Geese are abundant, not surprisingly, but are also photogenic at times.....

...Mute Swans, well they are an invasive nuisance species, but also photogenic. One can see why they were imported decades ago to dress up gardens and ponds.

Unfortunately they do create havoc to many native waterfowl species.

There is a pair of Northern Harriers, formerly known as Marsh Hawks, occupying a territory at this NWA. Once in awhile, one might get a fairly decent photo of them as they flyby, like this female did.

Of course wetlands are heavily occupied by Red-winged Blackbirds. There is no shortage of them here, and one can get some pretty decent photos of them in the golden glow of the evening.

On other occasions, I have been there in the morning, and had some photographic fun. Again, Red-winged Blackbirds can be easy subjects....

...but capturing them in flight is a much more challenging proposition.

Great Egrets are more predictable with their flight lines.

An Osprey was perched high on a dead branch overlooking the NWA.

....and a pair of Northern Flickers were busily chiseling out a hole, and taking time out for some copulation.

Getting flight shots of Barn Swallows was even much more challenging than for the Red-wings. Swallows are smaller, and fly quickly and erratically, so even with the capabilities of my camera having multiple focus spots specifically for this type of photography, I deleted far more photos than I bothered to save.

I also checked out the Fletcher Ponds, which can sometimes be good for a few birds. It is like an island in a sea of agriculture, so can be a magnet for birds in on occasion. However on this visit it was surprisingly quiet. The only thing of note was not a bird at all, but a Species At Risk plant: Climbing Prairie Rose. It looks a lot like other species of rose, but a couple of the main features to differentiate it is the three leaved arrangement, and the stem of the leaf has a couple of wide wings at the base, with each wing resulting in a separate pointy look to it. These can be seen to the left of the flower.

Another botanical highlight of the last few days is to come across a new population (to me) of a provincially rare orchid: Purple Twayblade. I found a loose cluster of 7 plants at Clear Creek Forest Prov Park, 5 of which showed evidence of flowering. However they were all well past their best, and this single flower shown below was the best example remaining. Now that I know where they are, I hope to check them out more strategically next year.

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Late winter explorations and hints of spring

 Spring is teasing us a bit more lately. I've been out exploring a few places around Chatham-Kent, intermixed with things going on at the home front.

I often have stopped in at the warm water outlet along the Thames River right at the downstream side of Chatham. The cold weather had kept the opening in the ice quite small up until a few days ago. There has been a periodic change of water bird species, but not a lot of diversity this late in the season. One of the things I always look forward to in a cold winter is the great photo ops of even some of the more regular species.

Of course the ubiquitous Mallard is the most abundant....

...and the female Bufflehead continued for awhile.

The numbers of Redhead has varied from 1-10.

Canada Geese are always somewhere around Chatham in winter, numbering in the several hundreds. There seems to be a constant movement of small groups from one location to another, and this provides some great photo ops.

Pied-billed Grebes are seldom very common in winter, but this one has persisted for weeks now.

With the recent warm spell and moderate rainfall, the Thames River drainage has resulted in a significant change. The once frozen over Thames River is completely open, with only a few scattered bits of ice clinging to the shoreline. Therefore waterbirds are widely scattered, and unless there is a prolonged cold spell (I hope not!!) that will put an end to photography at this location.

Hints of spring are showing up on the landscape. Killdeer have been reported in various locations over the past week or two. Red-winged Blackbirds are always a good sign, although given their general abundance over the next few weeks, will cease to be as much of a novelty as they are now. I saw more than a dozen along a shrubby corridor not far from one of the larger marshes in Chatham-Kent a few days ago.

American Goldfinches were frolicking in a nearby cedar hedge. Some of them were looking a bit more colourful than they were a few weeks ago. They are a far cry from their vivid breeding plumage, but any change is a nice hint of what is to come.

A quick check of a Wood Duck box at St. Clair NWA resulted in seeing the resident Eastern Screech Owl show itself.

 Horned Larks are fairly abundant, scattered far and wide along roadsides and fields.

I stopped in at the cemetery along Owen Road, where there are numerous cedars amongst the hardwoods. A Red-breasted Nuthatch, not an abundant species this winter, was there to greet me and posed politely for me.

I've only been to Rondeau on a couple of occasions lately. House Finches are fairly common in certain localities.

But the birds can be quite few and far between at this stage of the winter. On my most recent visit, yesterday, I wanted to take advantage of trekking along the west South Point Trail. Trails in general have been tricky lately, as the snow packed surfaces have turned into very uneven ice, making hiking a bit of a challenge. So with the recent mild weather and rain, a lot of the ice was gone, and the walk to the south end of the park was quite enjoyable, although the birds were few. The ice formations along the lake can be interesting and photogenic.

A bit of milder weather and the brisk winds that March is known for will spell the end of these types of features in fairly short order. There were a few open water spots barely visible with the binoculars, and a few rafts of waterfowl were scattered about, mostly scaup and Redhead, along with some Common Mergansers. But the bird highlight was to see at least 6 Bald Eagles perched on some of the ice mounds well out in the lake, while two more, both adults, soared overhead.

FYI, I am planning a short series featuring some changes in the birds of Chatham-Kent over the last century or more. I have an unpublished manuscript by A. A. Wood, entitled The Birds of Kent County, Ontario, which he prepared back in the 1940s. It was based on his research of notes and articles from birders over the previous 75 years. In reading some of the descriptions, I found it interesting to compare with today. So stay tuned!

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