Rondeau....always a good choice!

I've been to Rondeau a few times lately, with varying number of photos to capture. The shoreline has definitely been changing. This first photo shows what the south end of the park looked like in mid-January before the cold, snowy spell.

Next is the same spot in late February, with the lake covered with ice.

 These next two photos show the lakefront, just a bit farther along the beach from the previous two. These were taken about two weeks after the previous one.

 Still some ice, but by now, even most of the ice is gone, and the birds are on the return, or at least more active! Some of the more cooperative birds were:

Song Sparrow

This Pileated Woodpecker seemed really intent on this tree trunk, a little way from the boardwalk, perhaps digging a nest cavity?

Cardinals are always fun, and sometimes cooperative.

Mute Swans, well they are attractive in their own way, although they play havoc with native species all too often.

Killdeer

Hairy Woodpecker

Fox Sparrows are nicely coloured and distinctive.

Not many flies around for this member of the flycatcher family, but I have known it to eat berries when necessary.

Eastern Phoebe

Black-capped Chickadee

Although there has been the occasional Robin stay over winter, they have returned in large numbers in the last week or so. On one day I looked out my kitchen window and counted 47 scattered around in the community park beside the house!

Some birds were playing a little harder to get, such as this Yellow-rumped Warbler, next....

....and this very active Golden-crowned Kinglet.

One of the bird highlights of the last week or so was the sighting of a Brewer's Blackbird in the park. It was associating with a mixed flock of blackbirds, which were always moving around. I saw the photo of the one, and it was convincing. However only one other person thought they saw it a day later. I checked flocks of blackbirds a few times when I was out, but never saw it. Brewer's Blackbirds are fairly rare in this area, although back in about 1978, a pair nested in a small tree along Erieau Road, across from McGeachy Pond. I didn't have the camera equipment then that I have now, but did photograph the nest.

In June of 2011, on one of my excursions to the Bruce Peninsula, I managed to get a couple of photos of a Brewer's Blackbird on its territory. They have a bit of a glossy head, like a Grackle, but they are smaller, and the beak is smaller.

At times, they can look a bit like a Rusty Blackbird, which is quite regular in southwestern Ontario, although on the decline. I photographed this one a couple of days ago. It is transitioning from its overall dark appearance, showing much more of the rusty appearance.

Of course as the weather fluctuates, there are even some warmer species of overwintering insects showing up.

Long-tailed Aphideater Complex

Black Blow Fly

Other things that captured my eye, include this Eastern Chipmunk, which had emerged on a sunny day. Its tail is still in the hole it emerged from, and although the critter was kindly cooperative for me, it didn't take long to get back down the hole.

Eastern Squirrels are active all year, but on some days they seem to be extra numerous.

Even fungi will survive the winter. This next photo is of a Splitgill Mushroom.

 There's always something! Can't wait to get back out there again!

 

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Roaming Chatham-Kent in early spring

The series covering Birds of Chatham-Kent, then and now, will continue soon. In the meantime, here is an account of more recent outings.

The short-lived taste of spring a few days ago was wonderful, but not to be sustained this early. And that is fine by me. I am a big enthusiast of spring, but once it arrives, it seems to quickly transform into summer.

I meandered up along the Sydenham River in northeastern C-K a few days ago, to see if a Bald Eagle's nest I encountered a few years ago was still there. I found one, but since I didn't make precise notes on its exact location, cannot be certain it is the same one. This time I took more careful notes of its location. It is in a very large Eastern Cottonwood.

It is quite visible from the road, but at a distance. This image was taken and cropped to the equivalent of about 50X, so if you come across it, don't expect to see the eagles' activities all that closely. In fact it wasn't until I got the photo on the computer and greatly cropped it that I could tell an adult was on it. If you look closely (click on it for a larger view), you may see the front portion of the head of an adult eagle just to the right of the largest left hand branch supporting the nest.

While some birds are beginning to nest, some winter birds are lingering. It was an excellent year for Snowy Owls in late December and into early January, but due to a lack of great habitat for them, most of them moved on to other areas. I have seen the occasional one in my travels, but seldom was able to get a photo until I came across this one.

American Robins are back in rather large numbers, typical for this time of year. I see them everywhere, sometimes seeing several dozen or more each outing. Most are males, with the darker head. Females will be arriving soon, if not already, and then nesting will begin.

I've been out to Rondeau a few times, not surprisingly, in part to photograph whatever birds I can find, such as the recent arrival of many Song Sparrows......

....and watching Downy Woodpeckers going through some courtship ritual in establishing territories and attracting a mate.

Golden-crowned Kinglets are fairly plentiful, moving about the park in small groups. They are always a delight to see, but due to their constant motion, are difficult to get a photograph of. My finger pressing the camera shutter has to coincide exactly with the 1/500th of a second the kinglet is relatively motionless!

European Starlings are not the favourite bird of many. It certainly isn't my favourite either. But in their own way, they are an attractive bird as their feathers wear off to show the heavily speckled pattern. This one was feasting on some well-ripened berries of Staghorn Sumac.

While wandering the trails, I often hear the early spring drumming of Pileated Woodpecker. This impressive Rondeau resident is much less often seen, however.

Now that the ice is completely gone from Lake Erie and Rondeau Bay, there are hordes of waterfowl making use of them as most will be traveling farther to get to their nesting grounds. On one trip, as soon as I got out of the vehicle I could hear the distinctive "owl-owl-omelette" call of the Long-tailed Duck. They were a long way out, but in the calm conditions, their calls were heard easily. It is always a highlight of spring to see and hear them. This individual was relatively close, at least within a photographic distance even with extreme cropping.

From one vantage point at the south end of the park, I could see a huge raft of ducks, well out from shore. I estimated that there were around 10,000 birds scattered in a raft that stretched for more than a kilometre. Most were Greater and Lesser Scaup, Redhead with both Common and Red-breasted Mergansers mixed in, along with Bufflehead, Common Goldeneye and Mallards.  This photo just shows a very small portion of the large raft.

The woods are quiet, other than the periodic drumming of a Pileated Woodpecker as noted above. There are few, if any, hikers on the trails. It is peaceful, soothing and quite an enjoyable aspect of roaming Rondeau.

Well soothing can occur in more ways than one! And clearly someone else had been using the trail before. It is a bit surprising how often I find one of these along the trails.

But the sunny, warmish days are quite soothing in other ways, just to enjoy the tranquil nature of such forested habitat.

There were a few Red-winged Blackbirds working the sloughs, but I didn't see any Rusty Blackbirds on this trip. It is a declining species, but hopefully there will be a reasonable showing of them this spring before they move on to northern forested wetlands.

 

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A little known natural area in eastern Chatham-Kent

Even though things are locked down tight, I still try and get out to some of the more remote, or at least lesser known, areas periodically to see how spring is unfolding and get my 'nature fix'. I rarely come across anyone else, so physical distancing is easy. One of the sites I decided to track down was the Sheldon property, currently owned by the Nature Conservancy of Canada, and part of the Turin Paw Paw Woods. I hadn't been to that complex since about 2005, which was about the time that the Sheldon property was donated to NCC. It was time for another visit!

It is about 100 acres, about half of it was formerly farmed, with the remainder in an upland/lowland deciduous forest mix. The farmed part had been restored to various things, including some prairie, with other parts into wetland/ponds. Overall it is a very nice mix. There aren't any formal trails, but pedestrian access is permitted.

There weren't a lot of birds. It is relatively isolated compared to the large natural area complexes of Clear Creek Forest and Rondeau. Regardless, it was an excellent way to spend a few hours. I think I got about 30 species of birds, including this Song Sparrow living up to its name shortly after I started along the access path.

 There is a hydro transmission corridor going through the restored part of property. I found this female Green-winged Teal dead at the edge of a pond, and immediately below the hydro lines. I did not check the bird thoroughly but I suspect it may have collided with the wires.

 Not far away from another wetland was this egg. It was quite large, and typical of a goose egg. I saw more than a dozen Canada Geese scattered around, paired up. This egg was likely predated, since I don't think the opening is large enough for a gosling to get out, and typically there is bits of downy material still clinging to the edge of the shell when it hatches. A skunk, 'possum or raccoon likely had a meal.

 Once I was in the woods, there was a pair of Pileated Woodpeckers a little distance off. Clearly they aren't as used to people as many of the ones I've encountered at Rondeau, as they were quite skittish. This is a heavily cropped photo.

At least one Red-bellied Woodpecker was around.

It is excellent habitat for Wild Turkeys. However this feather is the closest I came to seeing one.

It was a sunny day, and there were a few Mourning Cloak butterflies around.

 As I was concentrating on getting a good close-up of the Mourning Cloak, I noticed an Eastern Garter Snake less than a metre away. And then another one, and another one, all within half a metre of each other, and one was still emerging from a hole in the ground. Whether it was their over wintering hibernaculum or just a convenient temporary hole in the ground, it wasn't clear.

 There were lots of leeks, mostly the common Wide-leaved kind. However I did see a few scattered individuals of this Narrow-leaved Leek (Alllium tricoccum var burdickii) which is apparently quite rare, and officially listed as Imperilled in Canada. The green basal part of the stem, and the narrow (~2 cm wide) leaf is distinctive from its much more abundant, wide-leaved relative. I double-checked it to make sure it wasn't a similar but different early season species. Sure enough, after snipping off a bit of the leaf, it had the distinctive onion fragrance.

 I came across this small tree. At first I wasn't sure what it was. The terminal buds looked a bit like Paw-paw, which does occur in this forested complex. However it turns out to be Witch-hazel, which has similar looking terminal buds. Maybe next time I will find the Paw-paw.

 On the more upland sandy area there were clusters of this Fan Clubmoss. It used to be known as Lycopodium digitatum, which is the way I learned it many years ago. However its taxonomy has changed and it is now Diphasiastrum digitatum.

 Various species of fungus are here, and quite visible early in the season. This one is a type of Scarlet Cup, of the Sarcocypha genus. There is another one almost identical to it that is best separated via microscopic features, so this will only be identified to genus.

There are some really nice slough/swales throughout this woodland complex. While it makes it a little challenging to get around unless you have good rubber boots, it makes for an enjoyable wooded landscape. There are Wood Ducks nesting here. At least there are a couple of nest boxes up, and I did see a pair of them near one of the boxes. The shrubby things at the back of this next photo is mostly Buttonbush, and that makes it a rather rare and special woodland swamp. It also makes for excellent Prothonotary Warbler habitat, although records of them in such a relatively isolated location and well away from its stronghold at Rondeau makes it highly unlikely they will be found here. But one can always hope....

 With such an abundance of woodland pools, it makes sense there are numerous frogs. I heard and saw several Wood Frogs, shown next. I expect Spring Peepers and Western Chorus Frogs would be fairly common, but I didn't see or hear any on this occasion.

I expect that there is an abundance of salamanders in this upland/lowland natural area as well. I did check under a few pieces of rotting log type material but did not find any sign of them, but surely they are hear in good numbers.

After leaving this site, I wandered a bit further, stopping briefly at Clear Creek Forest before ending up at the Keith McLean Conservation Lands. I hadn't been there in over a month. The water is really high, and rubber boots are a must even trudging along the muddy path. I made it to the bridge that crosses the creek. The creek is overflowing into the adjacent field, as shown in this next photo. A year ago last fall, I was able to walk across the berm that separated the creek from the field. Bits of that berm are visible going across on an angle in this next photo, where the small shrub is. I don't think anyone is going to get across it anytime soon. Kayaks or canoes only!

 With the high water level it is great for water birds, and there was no shortage of them although they were mostly distant. But the usual Canada Geese, Mute Swan, Northern Shoveler, Bufflehead, Ring-necked Ducks, Green-winged Teal, and various gulls were all present. A Sandhill Crane came out of nowhere and flew by, landing in the cornfield across towards the eastern part of the property. Sandhill Cranes are becoming a lot more common. I even had one or more at the Paw-paw Woods earlier in the day.