Lingering shorebirds and more at KMCL

Don't these shorebirds know that it is winter, or at least almost winter like? Certainly the autumn period did not last long, given that we had mid-summer like temperatures into early October, and after a couple of weeks of normal autumn temperatures, the winter conditions arrived.

The shallow wetland area of the Keith McLean Conservation Lands, just north of Rondeau Provincial Park, has been a real boon to birders this year. The high water levels of Lake Erie and Rondeau Bay are partly responsible, since portions of the KMCL adjacent to the two creek systems are so close to the water levels of the lake that flooding occurs and therefore have remained wet for the entire season. Rarer water birds such as Am Avocets, Willet, Red Knot and Snowy Egret as well as dozens of more typical species have all made use of it. From a bird perspective, one hopes these conditions persist. These conditions are not typical, however. I used to live right across the road from Keith McLean and knew him fairly well. He told me that on more than one occasion in the past, the larger wetland along the causeway just before entering the park was so low that he farmed it!

Although the general temperatures have been close to freezing, or even below, on numerous occasions, being close to the lake has provided the 'lake effect' resulting in slightly warmer temperatures and therefore less ice along the shoreline or mudflats. Shorebirds that are lingering for whatever reason have definitely taken note of it. A few days ago I decided to spend several hours at KMCL to see what I could find in proximity to the wetlands as well as some of the woodland component elsewhere on the property. It was a good decision.

Sandhill Cranes are occasionally seen either feeding or in flight.

When I first approached the wetland, it was plain to see that ducks were taking refuge here from the hunting action on nearby Rondeau Bay. Hooded Mergansers were fairly plentiful, as were a few dozen 'puddle ducks', a.k.a. Mallards, Am Wigeon, Gadwall, etc.

 Nonetheless they were nervous and took flight to another part of the wetland.

I checked for sparrows along the way, hoping that a Nelson's Sparrow or two might still be around. They might be, but all I saw were Am Tree Sparrows, Song Sparrows and Swamp Sparrows.

Swamp Sparrow

Along the far shore of the wetland were mudflats, and there were several shorebirds busily searching for food. After manoeuvring myself to a position with better lighting and letting them get used to my cautious approach, I got some good close-up photos. This first photo shows a couple of Dunlin along with a smaller, Semipalmated Sandpiper, the latter species with its leg up.

 A Lesser Yellowlegs came scooting by.....

 ...as did a Pectoral Sandpiper.

 I also saw a White-rumped Sandpiper, obvious by its size and white rump in flight, but I did not get any photos of it. Dunlin are to be expected this late in the season, but all of the other species are not.

All of them were constantly on the move, until at one point all of them froze. I was a little surprised  and immediately thought that there must be a raptor within view.

Sure enough, I looked behind me and although it was at least a couple of hundred metres off, a Cooper's Hawk was perched in a tree.

Whether it was looking for food or not, I couldn't tell, and I presume the shorebirds were not taking any chances at being an opportunistic meal for this particular predator. The shorebirds remained motionless, hardly even closing an eyelid. Their rigid posture and unwillingness to move and give themselves away gave me opportunity to get a bit closer for some better photos. I guess they figured I was less dangerous than a raptor, and they were right.

Dunlin

Semipalmated Sandpiper

Semiplamated Sandpiper

The hawk flew off, and for a few seconds the shorebirds became a bit more active, then froze again. The hawk had moved, but not that far off, landing in a tree a bit farther away. Once the hawk left the area altogether, the shorebirds carried on with their frenzied feeding. Just to add to the shorebird theme, I noted a Greater Yellowlegs feeding on the washed up vegetation mats along the shoreline of Rondeau Bay.

Greater Yellowlegs

I also spent some time checking out some of the grassland and woodland edges of the KMCA, and saw birds such as:

Black-capped Chickadee

Carolina Wren

Tufted Titmouse

I ended up with about 56 species of birds for my time there, not bad for the time of year and considering the majority of the KMCL is still in agricultural use. It just goes to show what even smaller natural areas can support on occasion.

Kontinuing Kiskadee, etc

The Great Kiskadee, which first showed up at Rondeau in early September, continues to be seen daily, at least if there are a few folks out looking for it. The first few days of its known presence resulted in many hundreds of people visiting the park to see this first for Canada occurrence. After about a week, it seemed to have disappeared, but after several more weeks went by, it was seen again in much the same place.

Typical spots for it during the last few weeks include the old canal between the cottages along Water Street and Rondeau Bay.

It has also been seen along Water Street, sometimes at the very south end bend by the last cottage, where sloughs are adjacent to the road. With all the rain of recent weeks, the sloughs have quite a bit of water in them, so there is a lot of habitat for the Kiskadee to search for tadpoles as it was seen doing in September along the Marsh Trail.

When the Kiskadee is in the shrubby and vine covered habitat, it invariably is perched so that a branch or three are partially obscuring it. At these times it becomes almost impossible to get a decent photo.

 As the season progresses, there will be fewer and fewer tadpoles and frogs to feed on, so it may not be as needful of these small bodies of water. Recently the bird has been seen feeding on berries, of which there are many kinds in the profusion of shrubs and vines that Rondeau has to offer. Dogwood, spicebush, Virginia Creeper and poison ivy are all abundant, although the myriad warblers and thrushes that have already passed through have picked off many of the berries. Nonetheless, there are still oodles of berries which may provide sustenance for the Kiskadee for awhile yet.

Just yesterday, Steve Charbonneau who has been at Rondeau almost daily for weeks and weeks, reported seeing the Kiskadee over on Harrison Trail south of the pony barn, feeding on berries! He speculated that the bird may have spent a fair bit of time wandering elsewhere in the park during its several week hiatus from the Marsh Trail from mid September to early October, including by the log pond along Harrison. That area does not get much coverage by birders at this time of year, so could have easily been missed. There are hundreds of hectares of what appears to be suitable habitat of this type available to the bird, so maybe it will survive until the Christmas Bird Count on December 16. If it does, the challenge for birders will be to be able to track it down on that day, so stay tuned.

There are lots of other birds still around, or recently arrived. American Goldfinches seem to be abundant.

A few more northern winter finches have appeared in small, and widely scattered numbers. These include Evening Grosbeak, Common Redpolls and Pine Siskins. I haven't seen any in the last time or two I've been at the park, but others have reported them. Of course most of the birders reporting them have much better hearing than I have, so that can make a difference.

American Tree Sparrows, many of which will remain for the winter, are showing up in increasing numbers.

There are non-bird things to see along the way, such as squirrels busily scrambling around for more seeds and nuts to put away for the winter.

In other news, the shorebirds at the Blenheim Sewage Lagoons are fast disappearing. Only a week or so ago there were hundreds of shorebirds of at least 10 species. The Hudsonian Godwits were a major attraction with as many as 5 present for a few days. It was hard to get more than three in the camera frame at any one time.

HUGO trio

HUGOs with yellowlegs for comparison

 It was getting late for Semipalmated Sandpipers, but at least two or three remained until a few days ago.

The last visit by anyone, as reported on eBird, resulted in only 4 species of shorebird, totalling a mere 16 individuals.

Snowy Owls are reappearing. Of course an occasional one from last winter was still found somewhere in Chatham-Kent at least until the end of July, an unheard of event. But for the last couple of months or more, they have been nowhere to be found. That is until the last few days, when Snowies have appeared in the Pain Court area, where this photo was taken.....

....as well as northern Chatham-Kent and just north of Erieau. Perhaps another invasion of Snowies is in the works.

While driving around, there have been other things along the way, including this immature Bald Eagle feasting on a dead critter well out in a field.

 And now that more and more fields are being harvested, leaving at least a bit of grain scattered on the ground, sometimes there are huge flocks of blackbirds on the move and swirling around. This one flock I encountered while out looking for the above pictured Snowy Owl I estimated to be at least 35,000 birds. The majority were Red-winged Blackbirds and Brown-headed Cowbirds, but I also saw Common Grackles and European Starlings mixed in. I was hoping to get at least a glimpse of a Yellow-headed Blackbird, and there may well have been one or two, but I did not pick any out this time.

A small portion of ~35000 birds

Peep conundrum and other late autumn shorebirds

Birders will be aware of the recent conundrum surrounding a small peep seen at the Blenheim Sewage Lagoons in the last couple of weeks. Peeps, for the benefit of non-birders, are those smaller shorebirds of the genus Calidris, and are sometimes difficult to identify to species due to their general similarity as well as their various stages of moult which seem to overlap.

Peeps are fairly rare as the autumn progresses. Certainly by late October and early November, any peep is quite rare in southern Ontario. Indeed, the majority of them have made their way to South America! So the presence of a peep at the sewage lagoon, mixed in with larger, more distinct shorebirds known as Dunlin, was out-of-the-ordinary to say the least.

One of my first shots of this peep, between two Dunlin

Two of the 40+ Dunlin present Nov 18, 2016

Steve Charbonneau was one of the first to notice this peep at the lagoons during his almost daily visits there.

Steve C on the prowl for birds at the Blenheim lagoons

There are a number of useful birding references that we used to attempt to sort out this bird:
-Sibley Guide to Birds (Sibley)
-Advanced Birding (Kaufman)
-The Shorebird Guide (O'Brien, Crossley and Karlson)
-Shorebirds: An Identification Guide (Hayman, Marchant and Prater)

In addition to using these references, other birders got photos of various angles and in various light. Some of these photos were sent off to other birders, most of whom had more experience with these peeps than Steve and I had.

What follows does in no way attempt to consolidate all the detailed information found in these references pertaining to these two species!

Given the subtle differences, and decent but perhaps less than ideal views, it was first called a Semipalmated Sandpiper (SESA). SESA are some of the most abundant smaller shorebirds in eastern North America. Now had some of us, myself included, clued in to the fact that SESA are almost unheard of anywhere on the North American continent this late in the season, we might have given it a bit more careful scrutiny. We certainly had entertained the thought of it being a Western Sandpiper (WESA), which is one the most abundant smaller shorebirds in western North America, but not seen very often in the east. But in spite of our considering WESA, some of the features didn't seem quite right.

For example, WESAs have a longer, finer tipped bill than the shorter, somewhat chunkier bill of a SESA. In addition, the bill tip of a SESA is often slightly enlarged, not finely tipped, and the bill of a WESA usually has a slight droop to the tip.

Peep on the right has a slightly bigger tip?

bill doesn't have much of a drooping tip, if any

Complicating this 'bill' issue is that the bills of females are typically somewhat longer than that of a male, and there is some overlap even between the species. Even at that, the comparative length differences is a matter of millimetres. So using the bill characteristics is not all that reliable.

The shape of the head is marginally different, with some field guides suggesting that a SESA is more rounded compared to a slightly more squarish look to the head of a WESA.

WESA is slightly slimmer and longer looking than a slightly chunkier looking SESA. Of course given the time of year and the relative cold temperatures (it got below freezing on more than one occasion, and ice had formed around the edge of the cells), perhaps the bird was cold and has fluffed up its feathers, given the appearance of being a bit more chunky looking.

Since WESA have slightly longer legs, they are more often found feeding in deeper water, often belly deep, compared to SESA which is more likely to be found in shallower water and closer to the edge. There is some variability, of course. This bird seemed to stay in shallower water than the larger Dunlin, however.

What might have been especially helpful is having one of each species side by side, since the differences are somewhat relative, and this bird was only in the vicinity of the much larger Dunlin.

Dunlin and presumptive WESA

Dunlin and presumptive WESA

Moult is important to consider. The young WESA apparently begin their moult as early as August, even when they are on their breeding ground before they head south, whereas young SESA often do not moult much until they get to their wintering ground in the southern hemisphere.

SESA August 24, 2016

SESA, Sept 4, 2016

And that leads us to the feature that perhaps was the deciding factor in the consensus of this bird being a WESA. Under certain light conditions, especially in close-up views, there is a slight but distinctive rufous colour on their scapular feathering. SESA does not have this rufous colouring this late in the season.

A bit of rufous on the scapulars

So given all of the above, it seems the collective opinion of this bird is that it is a WESA. Some field guides state that distinguishing a winter WESA from a winter SESA is one of the more difficult birding challenges, and that certainly was the case with this bird.

Check out Blake's blog for some additional details as well as some of the November and December records of WESA in Ontario.

When trying to ID this bird, I even spent a bit of time trying to determine if it was one of the other even rarer small Calidrids that are Asiatic in range, but have been recorded in North America on extremely rare occasions. The two closest in appearance would be the Red-necked Stint and the Little Stint. One of the most distinct differences, if it is visible, is that the two latter species do not have any webbing between their toes, whereas WESA and SESA both have some webbing. I noted that one of my photos showed the feet and webbing, so I could not make this into a Calidrid from Asia!


Other shorebird species can linger or even turn up in November. As mentioned earlier, Dunlin are around, and more than 40 were seen accompanying the WESA a few days ago. The colder weather in the last couple of days seems to have encouraged them to move on, as only half a dozen or so were seen earlier today.

One rare but regular shorebird that always attracts attention is the Purple Sandpiper. It is a medium-sized, dark and chunky shorebird that shows up in late fall. I had been looking for them at Erieau on Tuesday of this week, but was not successful in finding any. Yesterday morning, I got word from Jim Burk that one was seen at the pier at Erieau. Unfortunately I had to go off to Burlington and would not have a chance to look for it yesterday. When I got home in the evening, I discovered that several birders were able to get some excellent close photos of this species, and in at least one case, actually captured two of them in one image.

Check these out:
Garry Sadler's ebird list and image here.

Steve Charbonneau's ebird list and images here.


Today, Thursday, I made a point of heading to Erieau. Unfortunately the first couple of hours were unsuccessful in finding this species. There were several other birders in the area looking as well, and we did console ourselves with decent looks through the 'scope of the bright male Harlequin Duck that has been around the rocks on the far side of the breakwall for a few days. The other birders eventually left, but since I didn't have anything pressing, I drove over to where the fish tugs often are moored, as it gives a better angle of view to the rocks on the east side of the breakwall across the main channel. I scanned back and forth for awhile through the 'scope, and all of a sudden a Purple Sandpiper hopped up on a rock in excellent view but only for about three seconds before dropping down, not to be seen again. So no photos this day. This next photo is a scan of a slide that I was able to get of a very cooperative Purple Sandpiper back in my film days. It was taken on the main pier heading out into the lake.

With the relatively mild weather continuing, it is only a matter of time to see if any of these shorebirds are around for the Blenheim/Rondeau Christmas Bird Count less than a month away. Over the years, I have had about 10 species of shorebird in my area, so I am hoping for some shorebird activity!

Shooting cormorants....

I was out kayaking on Saturday to explore the southern end of the Rondeau Bay/Marsh. There are a couple of small sandy islands where gulls, terns, shorebirds and cormorants make lots of use of. The water is higher this year, so the size of the islands are considerably smaller than they were the last couple of years.

But along the way I noticed some logs resting at the edge of the marsh.....they were covered with some big mothers.......turtles that is:-). Some logs had at least 15 turtles on them, where others had a smaller number. Altogether I must have seen at least 40 turtles, and they were all Northern Map Turtles, a species of Special Concern. Of the eight species of turtle that occur in Ontario, seven of them are at some level of risk.

Since turtles are cold-blooded, it is especially important for the females to bask and soak up the sunlight energy, to warm themselves and maintain their physiological activity so the eggs inside can be laid early enough in the season, so that the developing embryos will be able to hatch early enough in the season (typically late August/early September) so they can prepare for the dormant season. Whew! Timing is everything.

Where basking spots are not too plentiful, they will sometimes overlap one another.

They are fairly tolerant, especially when one drifts up quietly in a kayak with very little movement, But at some point, they will topple into the water, and stick their noses and eyes up and as soon as the way is clear again, they will climb back on the log.

While I was glad to see so many turtles, my real intent was to see what was making use of the islands at the south end. There weren't too many surprises.

A few shorebirds were present, including Dunlin (4), Semipalmated Sandpiper (~15) and Baird's Sandpiper (~6). I thought there might have been some White-rumped Sandpipers, but even though they flew around from time to time giving great views of the rumps, there were no White-rumps.

Dunlin and Semiplamated Sandpiper

Resting Dunlin

Dunlin peering up in the sky, checking a flying bird

Semiplamated Sandpiper

Baird's Sandpiper

Double-crested Cormorants are an increasing species wherever you go. It is hard to believe that as recently as 1970, it was a species being considered for inclusion on the Endangered Species list!

Over the last couple of years, with the sandy islands being somewhat larger than they are today, there were ~55-60 nests of cormorants present, jammed in quite close to one another. It was hard to get an accurate count this day, but I estimated there were at least 45-50 nests. Some were still at the egg stage, with others with recently hatched young, and still others had half-grown young.

Fortunately for me, the best angle for shooting these birds was on the upwind side of the colony. When for a brief time I was downwind, the stench of excrement and dead fish was considerable.

Perhaps what was a bit of a surprise, is that a short distance to the north, is a larger island that is mostly covered with various types of vegetation, including some young trees. Over the last few months, this area was treated for Phragmites, that scourge of wetlands. And for the first time, it was evident that the cormorants were making use of these trees. I counted at least 20 nests in those trees, so altogether, the cormorant colony has grown, unfortunately.

I was on the lookout for Neotropic Cormorant all the time I was out there, but given the 2-3000 birds present, most of which were reluctant to let me get very close, I was not able to find one.

Herring Gulls and Caspian Terns were loafing on the island with fewer cormorants.

Although the Caspian Terns were in full breeding plumage, I didn't see any evidence of them nesting. Herring Gulls, however, were nesting on one of the more vegetated islands.

But most surprising was to see a pair of Herring Gulls nesting in a tree! I don't recall having ever seen this species nesting in a tree before, but a check of the literature indicates that on rare occasion, they will nest in a tree. The evidence was now before me.

Nearby, was a 21st century gull, making use of a solar panel, sort of....I'm not sure what the solar panel was powering...perhaps a light to mark a boat hazard just off shore, but regardless, this particular gull found a use for the pole.