Autumn bird action and colours

 It continues to be an interesting time of year for various reasons. The bird contingent is changing, as are the forest colours, and lakes are going through their seasonal turnover.

While many bird species have moved on to more southern destinations, the autumn species are showing up in greater numbers.

White-throated Sparrows are fairly common.....

....and surprisingly, Fox Sparrows are as well. In fact, in my last few forays around Rondeau, I have seen far more Fox Sparrows than White-throats. On one outing, I saw a minimum of 35 Fox Sparrows. They were mostly in two loose flocks, but a few individuals were seen scattered about elsewhere.

If you can find a puddle in a quiet area, there is a good chance birds will stop by, such as this Fox Sparrow....

....as were these Cedar Waxwings. As I was partially hidden in some brushy vegetation, and remained quite motionless, I noted more than a dozen birds of several species coming and going quite regularly.

I liked this trio of waxwings, with the central one sipping a drink and being nicely balanced by the two others.

Golden-crowned Kinglets are becoming more abundant than their Ruby-crowned cousins, as expected for this time of year. They can be challenging to get a photo of, as they seem to be constantly in motion.

While Black-capped Chickadees can be found even during the breeding season, they are not plentiful at that time. However their numbers are increasing now as more northern individuals are passing through, or maybe planning to stick around for the winter.

Carolina Wrens are year round residents, most often found in tangles of vegetation. Their numbers fluctuate, depending on the severity of the winter.

Yellow-rumped Warblers are still around in small numbers, and some may stick around all winter if they can find enough berries and spiders to subsist on.

A late Blue-gray Gnatcatcher and Black-throated Blue Warbler have both been seen in the campground recently, but I have not caught up to them yet.

Waterfowl are quite abundant, with often several thousand of several species scattered across Rondeau Bay. In quieter ponds, such as at Keith McLean Conservation Lands, species like Hooded Mergansers can be abundant. On one outing a quick count resulted in 87 individuals that I could see, with likely more in some more out of the way areas.

Also at KMCL is this pair of Bald Eagles, with the male on the left, and the larger, female on the nest. It looks like the female is about a 4th year bird, given its dusky head.

One or both have been seen perched on this platform for a few days in a row. In southern Ontario, late November and into December is typically the time when eagles either repair existing nests, or begin to build a new one. It is possible that this pair is planning to make use of this platform in 2022, usurping the long-gone Osprey pair that used it in 2021. It may be a new pair that has come into the area, especially since it seems to involve a 4th year bird. Birds as young as 3rd year can pair up, but this is more likely to happen when the population is very low. Now that the population has grown considerably in the past 2-3 decades, birds that pair up and start to nest are likely at least 4th year birds. They don't get their full adult plumage of bright white head and tail until their 5th year.

Back on about the last day of October, Steve C, Mike B and I spent some time at Erieau, watching for gulls and other waterbirds to fly by on the brisk winds. While there wasn't anything all that unexpected, we did get distracted by this dark gull on the pier. What made it stand out was that it appeared a lot like a first year Herring Gull, but it had some definite differences. It was darker than a normal first year HEGU, as well as being smaller than those HEGU quite close by. It also has dusky legs and a smaller head and bill, additional characteristics that didn't quite fit. 

We puzzled over it and never quite came up with a definitive identification on the spot. Fortunately the photos that both Mike and I took ended up being helpful in order to study the bird and compare it with various gull reference materials. It was interesting that when I posted it on iNaturalist for its computer visualization process, it came up with various options, but Herring Gull was way down the list, so that added to the puzzlement. We eventually thought it must be some unusual type of Herring Gull, and at first thought it might be the Atlantic Coast type, as some characters fit. There had been several Atlantic seabirds show up in eastern Ontario, so why not an Atlantic Herring Gull?

I sent the photos to a gull expert in the Toronto area, who has had considerable experience with them along Lake Ontario and elsewhere, especially in the region of Niagara Falls which annually hosts thousands of gulls. He indicated it was a Herring Gull, but not one that was hatched anywhere in southern Ontario. Apparently birds hatched in the northern parts of Ontario and Canada are typically darker, smaller and with a smaller bill and dusky legs. Mystery solved.

The Sage Thrasher has continued, at least for a few more days, along the Mitchell's Bay South Lakeshore Trail, although not seen as regularly in the last few days. Views continue to be partial due to the branches, although there are fewer leaves to contend with as the days go by.

The bird was not reported for a day or two, but when I was out on Nov 18, after about two hours and checking an area a little way from its usual tangle, I spotted some movement, determined it was the bird in question, and managed this one photo. All of my other attempts were messed up with branches and leaves. There have been birders out there since, but to my knowledge, no one has seen it since, at least according to eBird.

It likely isn't too far away as there is a long stretch of shrubs and berries along that dredged ditch. Given how furtive the bird has been even at the best of times, it may be very difficult to find again.

On one occasion after I left the site of the Sage Thrasher, I meandered down the back roads towards St. Clair NWA. I noted a large falcon flying low and around a cedar hedge, but couldn't quite catch up to it for a photo. I sped up to the end of the cedar hedge and waited, with camera in hand. The falcon didn't quite get to the end before it peeled off and headed across a field, continuing to fly quickly and relatively low. I got off a couple of distant photos, but didn't manage to capture much detail. What follows next is the best I could do, and it really wasn't very helpful. When I posted it on iNat, the CV came up with Prairie Falcon, which would be quite unusual but not impossible. Prairie Falcon is a western species, of course, and moments ago I had come from viewing a definite western species, the Sage Thrasher, so why not a Prairie Falcon. However the detail is just not sufficient to make any kind of accurate ID, and it is most likely a juvenile Peregrine Falcon. Probably.....or not.

November happens to be one of the windiest months of the year, as is March. It is not unusual to see this along the lake front.

And now this cement structure has become visible again. It is part of where the camp office structure was located, back in the day when there was a south campground in operation at Rondeau in the 1960s and very early 1970s. Eventually the sand will shift and it may be covered up again, but for now it is at least partially exposed. Such is life on a sandspit.

There have been some mighty fine colours to enjoy in places at Rondeau.

It is obvious why this one is called Red Maple.

Closely related is Sugar Maple. It was in prime condition for a very short time, as a brisk wind blew most of the leaves off a couple of days later.

More subtle are the seed heads of an uncommon prairie plant, Cylindrical Blazing-star, which is widespread across the southeast beach dune area.

On one of the days I was roaming Rondeau and it was pleasantly warm, I saw a few Eastern Garter Snakes basking on the pavement. Unfortunately more than one had been schmucked by a vehicle of some sort, but this individual was still okay when I last saw it.

And finally, some of the oaks were in fine shape. I had been particularly focusing on Black Oak for a photo project I was working on, paying close attention to several that were especially photogenic for various reasons. This first one is along the southeast beach, and was looking promising on this occasion.

Five days later it looked like this, showing the golden brown colours this species is known for.

The campground has a lot of Black Oaks, and were relatively colourful on one of my last visits, but by now most will have turned to a deep dark brown, or will have fallen off altogether.

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A not so 'Sage' Thrasher?

 Many readers will be aware of the presence of a Sage Thrasher here in Chatham-Kent. It has been reported on eBird daily for slightly over a week, and given its furtive nature spending lots of time amidst some fairly dense shrubbery, might have been here for quite a few days before that. 

I have been out to see and photograph it a couple of times, and even got some fairly good photos in spite of it furtiveness.

This first one is a typical setting: in the shadows and amidst many branches. The image is unprocessed, but it is a start, and sometimes one like this is as good as it gets.

Waiting for it to get into a better lit situation pays off, and one has to maneuver the camera to reduce the branch distractions.....

....but there are still shadows to contend with. However the side profile is useful to get the overall shape and the relatively short beak, short, at least for a member of the thrasher family.

Here is a side profile of the typical thrasher of this area. The size of the bird, the reddish brown colour, the large beak and long tail make it easy to separate the two species.

Brown Thrasher

A frontal view of the Sage Thrasher shows a heavier and slightly different dark streaky pattern.

Catching it out in a more open spot where it is picking away at some berries and in good light, makes waiting for it all the more worthwhile. There is a slight shadow at the back of the head, and continuing down onto the back. The shadow was caused by an over hanging leaf.

There are quite a few berry producing shrubs along this trail. One of the most abundant is Staghorn Sumac. However the berries are covered in small bristly hairs, probably making them less palatable.

Staghorn Sumac

Honeysuckle is not all that abundant, and most berries are gone by now.

Honeysuckle

Climbing Bittersweet is scattered along the trail, but most have not opened up yet. They still have their hard outer shell protecting the smaller berry inside. The second photo shows the exposed berries which may be suitable for this thrasher.

Climbing Bittersweet

Autumn Olive is quite abundant, and while the berries likely would have served the Sage Thrasher well, I expect, at this time of the season virtually all of those berries are gone. Many warblers and thrushes have already passed through, feeding on the abundance of these berries.

Autumn Olive

The main shrub that seems to interest the thrasher for feeding on is Multiflora Rose. I'm not sure whether it is the size of the berries, the taste or the general availability of these rose hips, but for some reason the thrasher is most often seen in the vicinity of a Multiflora Rose bush where there is an abundance of the berries.

At least there was an abundance, but as the days have gone by, the number of berries has definitely diminished. And that begs the question, where will this bird go when this food source runs out? Will it just move along the shrub row searching for more berries, or will it finally leave the area altogether and head for where it normally would be at this time of year?

I used the term 'sage' in my title. That was because I'm not so sure this bird was 'wise' in its decision to fly to southwestern Ontario at this time of year. Sage Thrashers are a mid-western to western species, and are named because the habitat they occupy normally has a lot of sage growing in it. In Canada they can be found breeding in southwestern Saskatchewan, for example in the Grasslands National Park area, and farther west into the drier open habitats of southern Alberta and British Columbia. Normally this species would migrate south, not east. Perhaps this bird got its internal compass bearings misaligned, and in combination with the periodically strong westerly winds, ended up here. It appears to be a young bird, hatched this year, so likely hadn't had any previous experience with respect to the species' normal migration. Regardless, it is here.

Yesterday I took a small branch of Multiflora Rose out to add to the thrasher's favourite bushy setting. There were still a few berries lingering from rose bushes that grew there, but I didn't think that a few more added to its dining area would hurt. And close to the parking lot, but well away from where the bird was normally found, I noticed quite a few other berry laden rose bushes, so snipped off a couple of branches and added them as well.

This isn't the first, second, third or even fourth record of Sage Thrasher in Kent/Chatham-Kent. It is the fifth!

The first record was one I found back in late April, 1981, at Rondeau, while on the search for another rare species. I had seen a Louisiana/Tri-colored Heron flying south, along the east beach of Rondeau, on April 25. I thought it might drop in to the Rondeau marsh, so on Apr 27, I headed out the Marsh Trail looking for it. As rare as the Louisiana Heron was, I got distracted by a bird which I had no idea what it was. I took notes, and then called out to some of the best known Ontario birders about it, including Alan Wormington and Norm Chesterfield, the latter of which had the biggest life list of birds in the world. There were others that came out as well, and although we got some decent looks, no one could definitively say what it was right off. After more looks and discussion, someone came up with Sage Thrasher, and then it all fit together. This was only the third record for Sage Thrasher in Ontario, with the two previously accepted records being in the mid-1960s and only seen by a very few. While my camera gear wasn't great at the time, I managed to get a few acceptable photos, all on film of course. This is a scan of one of them.

Fortunately for many birders, this thrasher remained along the southern half of the Marsh Trail for almost exactly three weeks. As it occurred right at the peak of spring birding, resulted in many hundreds of birders trekking down the trail to see it, as it was a lifer for almost everyone.

There was another record for Rondeau, and the second for Chatham-Kent, in early July of 1985, but only seen for a short time. A third record was in the winter of 1997, in Wallaceburg. The fourth record was one I had, again along the Rondeau Marsh Trail, on the Christmas Bird Count, in mid-December, 2008. And now this one. Five Sage Thrashers in C-K, and I've had at least one in each of the four main seasons.

Stay tuned as this particular bird may be around for awhile yet, and be the subject of another blog post.

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Mega bird rarities of the Rondeau checklist area

Back to the rare birds series, and here is hoping that the production of this blog post is a little smoother and less problematic than the previous post! Nonetheless, I need to do a bit of revising since some of my birding friends have pointed out some things that I should have considered in my first version. Thanks, guys!

With 365 species of birds on the Rondeau checklist, there are some birds that are extremely rare, with maybe only one or two appearances in spite of the intensity of birding there over the past century or more. There are some species that I just don't have any photos of that fit into this mega rarity category, including species such as Passenger Pigeon or Eskimo Curlew, obviously, but also others that are not extinct and would include White-collared Swift, Thick-billed Murre, Northern Gannet and Northern Wheatear. The swift was seen by a single observer. The murre and the gannet were way before my time at Rondeau, and when the Wheatear showed up, I was out in southern Alberta. Maybe someday I will get have the privilege of seeing these species and get photos as well.

But here are 17 species that I would place in the mega rarity category that I do have photos of. Some of them will appear near the end, in what I consider a "mega-mega rarity" category due to their very unexpected presence. A quick note here: as often as possible I have included photos of the birds actually seen at Rondeau, but in a few cases, which will be noted, they were taken elsewhere.

This first photo is of a Cinnamon Teal. There are about three records for the Rondeau area, and two of them are from birds that were shot during the autumn waterfowl hunt. Identification of them in the autumn is much more challenging, and it is possible that there are records that have been missed. There has been only one record of this species in the spring breeding plumage, in the 1990s. The photo here was taken in southern Saskatchewan in July, 2018, with a single bird surrounded by Wilson's Phalaropes.

There have been a few, scattered records of this next species, Glossy Ibis. In fact one of my earlier birding memories at Rondeau was seeing 4 of these out along the South Beach while on a birding trip with the park staff, back in about 1966. The bird shown here was taken in May, 2019, at the Keith McLean Conservation Lands just outside the park.

Lark Bunting, shown next, has only been recorded on 2-3 occasions. I have not seen this species in the Rondeau checklist area, but did see one in Essex a few years ago. This photo was taken in July, 2018, near Grasslands National Park in southern Saskatchewan.

 Little Blue Herons show up in Ontario from time to time. However there have been very few records for the Rondeau area, less than half a dozen. The one below showed up along the causeway just outside the park in late August, 1982 and stayed around for a little more than a week. There have been a few records since, usually in late summer, but nothing that I have come across since 2000, where one was seen from August 26 until September 14, during which time it was reported by numerous birders.

 There have been a few records of this next species, Sabine's Gull but it is often very hard to come by. Records across Ontario are not plentiful, but with all of the waterbirds that come through Rondeau, it is a bit surprising that we only had the first record in November, 2007 following some stormy weather. I didn't see my first one in the Rondeau area until 2015, shown below. It was seen in the Erieau area, and the south beach of Rondeau is in the distant background here.

This next species, Sage Thrasher, could almost be considered in the mega-mega category. Prior to this one that occurred in April, 1981, I believe there had only been one accepted record for Ontario. I discovered this bird well out along the Marsh Road while I was trying to track down a Louisiana Heron. I did not immediately identify this bird, and even after I got several far more experienced birders to check it out, (e.g. the late Norm Chesterfield, Alan Wormington) and we all scratched our heads, did we decide it was a Sage Thrasher. The bird stayed around for at least three weeks along the southern half of the Marsh Trail, and since it was the first real opportunity for Ontario birders (and many birders beyond Ontario) had a chance to see it, there were probably well over a thousand people who trekked out to look for it. It isn't the greatest photo as it has been scanned from a slide. Due to its rarity and celebrity status, I didn't want to venture too close and risk scaring it. Of course the photo equipment I had at the time was not as high a quality as I eventually acquired. The likes of the late Dennis Rupert and Jim Flynn, both expert photographers with high end equipment, got better photos. An interesting little side story to this bird record is that because of its fairly extended presence, about a month later I had the opportunity to spend an hour or so birding along the Tuliptree Trail with none other than Roger Tory Peterson and one other Ontario birder.

 While the bird in the previous photo was the second Ontario record, Chatham-Kent, and specifically Rondeau, was to enjoy the presence of other Sage Thrashers over the next few years. This next photo was taken at the southern end of Rondeau in the early summer of 1985, of a bird that was only present as far as we know, for a couple of days. A few years later, a bird showed up in the winter in the Wallaceburg area. And in 2008, I had one on the Christmas Bird Count out on the Marsh Trail! I think I can safely say that I am the only one who has seen 4 Sage Thrashers in Chatham-Kent.

Members of the Flycatcher family are well known for their sometimes erratic migration, and they can show up most often in the late summer. Our first record for this next one, a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, was in 1987 not far from Blenheim. Another record was in the early 2000s just outside of Rondeau, which is the bird that I saw briefly. The bird shown here is of a nice adult which I photographed in southwestern Missouri in 2009, a place where they are much more likely to be seen than in southern Ontario.

There have been a handful of records for Yellow-crowned Night-Heron in the Rondeau area, but for some reason, none in the last two decades. This first photo shows an adult that appeared along a slough on the Tuliptree Trail in May of 1990 and was seen by at least a few folks.

 This next one is a photo of an immature bird that spent some time in a slough just south of Gardiner Avenue and was seen by many over the course of the day or so it remained.

 Western Grebe is a species that for some reason is not often encountered in the Rondeau area. In fact this is the only record, and it occurred off the south beach of Rondeau in mid June of 2013. I trekked out the South Beach to get this photo. It was also seen by a few birders from Erieau, but only with 'scope views. This species likely passes through on rare occasion but is just missed, as it is seen with more frequency at the eastern end of Lake Erie and the western end of Lake Ontario.

The next few bird records are what I would consider to be "Mega-mega" rarities, although it is a personal choice as some of them aren't really any more rare than ones in the first part of this post.

There are relatively few records of Black Skimmer anywhere in Ontario. I believe there are no more than three, including the one shown here. It was present at Erieau and the south beach of Rondeau for several days in September of 1981. I think the only previous Ontario record was a flyby along Lake Ontario, and only seen by one or two birders. The bird here was seen by many especially since one could drive up to the edge of the pier and 'peer' across the channel to see it surrounded by various gulls.

There is only one or maybe two records for Brown Pelican at Rondeau. I have not seen it in the Rondeau checklist area, although the one shown here I photographed in Chatham-Kent at Wheatley harbour in late August, 2013.

There is one record for Burrowing Owl, a bird which showed up at the McGeachy Pond area back in late June of 1977. It was around for a couple of weeks. I saw the bird, but did not get any photos. The photo shown here is one I took at Grasslands National Park, in southern Saskatchewan, in June of 1986.

 The following dead specimen is of Cassin's Kingbird. I found it along the southeast beach in late November of 2013. Although it is now on the park's checklist, no one can count it since it was already dead when discovered. As mentioned previously, members of the flycatcher group are known for showing up well out of their range following, presumably, a mis-direction in their migration. I seem to recall that this bird was only the second or third record for Ontario. I think there has been one since.

 Still on the mis-directed theme associated with flycatchers, this next one fits as well. It is a Say's Phoebe, a western species found in late September of 2018, in a farm yard a bit north of Erieau. Interestingly this was the second one of this species for the Rondeau area, and credit goes to the Burks, Jim and Keith, who found both of them. The first one was in another farm setting only a couple of kilometers or so east of this one. I only got some distant photos of the first one, so will use photos of this second sighting which turned out much better. Way to go guys!

I'm not sure how many Western Tanagers have been discovered in southern Ontario, but they are very few and far between. The one shown here occurred at the southern end of Lakeshore Road at Rondeau in mid-May of 2011. Fortunately it was in prime time for many birders, so although it didn't stay around for a long time, it was seen by a fair number of birders.

During the general mid-summer lull of birding, this next one was discovered in very early July of 2012. It is a Magnificent Frigatebird, and it was present in the Rondeau area for a few days. The best views were from a boat off shore of the South Beach (thanks Ric & Anne!) as it perched at the top of an Eastern Cottonwood tree for several hours. It was apparently first seen a few kilometres east of Rondeau during some Canada Day celebrations the day before. There have been a very few records of this species showing up briefly in southern Ontario in the years before and after this record. It is likely that such birds got caught up in some severe hurricane type storms that arrived from the south and got blown well north of their normal more tropical range.

Last, and certainly not least, of the Mega-mega rarities is this next one: Great Kiskadee. It is not a species known for meandering beyond their normal range of the extreme southwestern USA and Mexico and even farther south. So for this one to show up and cooperate/tease/tantalize thousands of birders for a week to ten days at a time, off and on from early September until early December of 2018, was nothing short of phenomenal. It is the first Canadian record, and since it spent its entire known time at Rondeau in the north end, including the beginning of the Marsh Trail, and the southern end of the campground, birders who put in a bit of time were guaranteed to have satisfying to excellent, if not crippling, views.

There will be a couple of articles in an upcoming issue of Ontario Birds, the official publication of the Ontario Field Ornithologists, so for any member of OFO, be on the lookout for it. One article has been written by Laura Rainbow Dragon, the finder of this incredible bird, while I have written a related article discussing a bit of background on this species and some extralimital records.

There are a few other species which I would love to feature as part of this series, including Tropical Kingbird, Black Rail, Lazuli Bunting, Gyrfalcon, Bell's Vireo, Bewick's Wren, Swainson's Warbler, Black-throated Gray Warbler, Painted Bunting, etc. but I have yet to get photos of them. Perhaps in a future post if I am so fortunate to photograph them!