Spring Birding Bonanza

 It has been awhile since my last post. Life continues to be a challenge in various ways, but fortunately I have been out and about these last few weeks, with a good variety of exciting birds to try and track down, as well as to watch for the arrival of normally expected ones.

Certainly one of the bird highlights of recent weeks has been the presence of a beautiful male Tufted Duck hanging out at Erieau. It is native to northern Eurasia, but as it is a bit migratory, it can show up elsewhere.

 This is actually the second one I have seen in the Rondeau checklist area. The first one was back in 1983 when I had one off the east beach of Rondeau, a day or two before the Christmas Bird Count in December. However it was the only time it was noted by anyone at the time. The one in the photos above remained in the Erieau harbour area for several days, allowing many birders from Ontario and beyond to have some excellent views.

Upon returning from Erieau to see this Tufted Duck, a male Yellow-headed Blackbird had been seen just before the village, and I stopped and got this highly cropped photo.

 It isn't super rare, as they do nest regularly in some of the cattail islands in Lake St. Clair, and I have been out in my kayak getting some fine shots of them perched on the vegetation. Nonetheless, they are always fun to find away from their usual nesting area.

Another extreme rarity was the occurrence of a Crested Caracara. One had been seen in southern Essex for a day or two, and then it disappeared. Then one was seen in Chatham-Kent, presumably the same bird, where the word got out and a dozen or more birders were able to see it. However only the two birders who first encountered it got some very nice photos. The bird then moved to the edge of a nearby forest, where it remained for an hour or so before moving on. Due to the distance, and the presence of some branches in front, it was hard to get good focus. The photo that follows was taken and cropped to the equivalent of about 100X, and was the best I could get.

This is the first one I have seen in Ontario, although I missed seeing one that quickly flew over Pelee Island back in May of 1994 even though I was on the island at the time. I have seen them in southern Texas and in Costa Rica years ago.

When the bird left this perch, it flew southeast, and right over the farm at Guilds where I was raised. It would have been a yard bird had I still been there and seen it! When it left, the birders present headed out in various directions to see if it could be re-found. It wasn't, but someone did discover a Townsend's Solitaire coming to some berry bushes in the front yard of some former high school classmates of mine. Fortunately there were enough berries to keep it around, and when I went out the next day, managed to get some photos.

It does show up in the area from time to time, although the last time I saw one was in April of 2011 at Rondeau.

Another couple of rarities have also been seen in recent weeks, although I haven't been out to see them. One species, a Varied Thrush which is a western species, was only seen by one other birder, and fortunately photographed, in spite of the quick arrival of several other birders who were not successful. This species has shown up before, and I remember seeing one coming to a feeder in the Cedar Springs area back in 1979. Another somewhat unusual bird was a female Harlequin Duck, another western species that does show up in the Great Lakes area on an almost annual basis, and one or more have been seen in the Erieau area periodically over the last few years.

Who knows what will turn up next? And that is a reason that birders like to get out to scour areas to see what might be around, especially during the early part of the migration season when things periodically get off course. Maybe my next post will have a few more to show!

But there has been a steady arrival of the expected species, which are always nice to see, and also to photograph, if only to capture the intrigue and beauty of the natural world around us. Here are a few of the ones I have managed to photograph in my recent outings.

 American Tree Sparrows are typically most abundant in the winter, and are infrequently seen this far south by this time of year. Some may linger, as did this one. 

Belted Kingfishers are present near quiet water, on the lookout for a meal. They will breed in the area.

Brown Creepers can occasionally be fairly abundant as they are passing through to points farther north. They are constantly on the move going up a tree trunk hunting for insects, and are often hard to photograph.

Waterfowl are plentiful, and some like this Blue-winged Teal, are more abundant these days. Some may remain to nest.

Female and male Blue-winged Teal

Warblers are one of the highlights of spring migration. I saw this Yellow-rumped Warbler, my first warbler species of the year, just a day ago, along the road near St. Clair NWA. 
 

Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers are fairly regular right now, but will be diminishing as May rolls around.

Turkey Vultures are frequently seen. Some even will remain in C-K for the breeding season.

Northern Flickers are increasing in number, and some will remain to nest.

Hermit Thrush is one of the earliest of the Thrush family to arrive, and will be continuing to their more northerly breeding grounds so as to be almost entirely gone from the southwest by mid-May.

Great Egrets can be seen in some areas, especially those wetlands adjacent to Lake St. Clair, as they nest in some of the high quality wetlands in that vicinity. 

The following two owl species are year round residents. This first one, the Eastern Screech Owl, can sometimes be seen in a hollow in this American Beech tree along Bennett Ave in Rondeau. It has been somewhat irregular there this winter.

Great Horned Owls are more often heard than seen, and their nests aren't always easy to find. This one nests regularly in a woodlot at the edge of Chatham, and although its nest site varies from year to year. can sometimes be found. I didn't see this one at first as the adult blends in well from a distance, but noted the round, whitish fuzzy head of the young moving around at the edge, which gave it away.

There have been a few non-bird highlights in recent outings. I saw my first Mourning Cloak butterfly a few days ago. It was just flitting along the trail, so I didn't get a photo, but used one from my archives to show here.

I did manage to see and photograph this Spring Azure. Some butterfly specialists have lumped the Spring and Summer Azure into one species as they are difficult to separate and their seasons overlap. Apparently one needs to have a specimen to look at under a microscope to see how the wing scales overlap. However given that the season at Rondeau is delayed due to the lake effect of the cold water, keeping the temperatures at the park several degrees cooler than the mainland, this is about as early as one could expect, and so I choose to call it a Spring Azure.

 

 

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Some of the even rarer migrant birds of the Rondeau checklist area

Before I get to the mega/ultra rare migrant birds of the Rondeau checklist area, there is still a group of birds that are merely quite rare, and in fact I expect a number of relatively keen birders of Ontario have seldom if ever seen them. As in the past post, the ones on this list below are based on my opinion, not on any official list. Some will be on the Ontario Bird Records Committee (OBRC) list of birds requiring documentation.

This first species could arguably be in the previous post. It wasn't that long ago when seeing one in southern Ontario was quite a noteworthy event, and it still is to some extent. However the population in Ontario has been expanding from its more limited northwestern Ontario range, and in the last year or so has been documented nesting on one of the islands in the western end of Lake Erie. Both of these birds were photographed in the Erieau area.

Harlequin Duck is still quite rare, although once in awhile one or more can be found staying around for a few weeks such as these two that were off the tip of Rondeau and quite visible from Erieau in the winter and very early spring of 2016.

 Hudsonian Godwit is a pretty impressive large shorebird, only seen occasionally on migration. It nests in the north as well as the northerly prairie provinces. It is most frequently encountered at sewage lagoons later in the summer as post breeding birds are more likely to wander. It could also be included in the previous post of rare migrants, rather than in this post.

The Hudsonian Godwit's larger relative, the Marbled Godwit, shown next, nests regularly in the lower part of the prairie provinces and is not as commonly seen here in southwestern Ontario. The species is very seldomly seen in the Rondeau area. This bird was one I photographed from a kayak at Mitchell's Bay on September 24, 2013.

Staying with the shorebird group, the Black-necked Stilt is a western species found most often in the vicinity of prairie potholes. It seems they are most often seen in southwestern Ontario during the spring migration when they get blown off course. They don't stick around for long, however. There have been a few records over the years, and the pair shown next was photographed at the Keith McLean Conservation Area just outside of Rondeau in 2019. Most records are at sewage lagoons, but the high water and excellent shorebird habitat at KMCA was beneficial for birds and birders last year.

 A rare shorebird due to the decline of its migration and wintering habitat is this next one, the Red Knot. The one shown in the foreground of the next photo is an immature bird I photographed from my kayak along one of the sandy islands at the south end of Rondeau on Sept 27, 2012. It has a chunky body like a dowitcher, but with a relatively short bill. That is a Black-bellied Plover in the background.

 A small shorebird that may be more common than reports indicate is this next one, a Western Sandpiper. It migrates late in the season, and without careful study, could be passed off as the much more common Semiplamated Sandpiper. It was photographed at the Blenheim Sewage Lagoon in mid-November, and I had one on the Blenheim/Rondeau Christmas Bird Count at a mud flat at the south end of the marsh trail a few years earlier.

 Barred Owl might seem to be an odd one for this category. Nonetheless although it is not rare in most of Ontario, it is quite rare in the very southwestern part of Ontario. It shouldn't technically be classified as a migrant, although this one moved well south of its normal Ontario range and wintered at Rondeau. There hadn't been a record for Rondeau for more than 20 years until Josh, my birding partner, and I encountered this one on the 2018 Christmas Bird Count. It stuck around for a couple of months around the northern part of the park where the local squirrel population kept it well fed. Numerous birders attempted to track down this individual, and were mostly successful in finding it.

 Black Vulture used to be a considerable birding highlight in Ontario, but in the last decade or so this species has been seen in the eastern end of Lake Erie/western end of Lake Ontario on a fairly regular basis. I am only aware of 3-4 records for the immediate Rondeau area. The first one I came across was feeding on the carcass of a Virginia Opossum, so this generally southern species of vulture probably felt quite at home feeding on a familiar carcass. This bird was seen just northeast of the park boundary, but only for a couple of days. I photographed it on March 3, 2009.

 Bohemian Waxwings are more common in the Boreal forest region, and seldom have any need to come as far south as the Rondeau area. I have only seen them here on a couple of occasions in the winter. This bird was photographed along the McGeachy Pond trail, on Dec 3, 2016.

 Cave Swallows are somewhat erratic. If they are going to be encountered in Ontario, it is most likely to happen in the mid to late autumn when the weather conditions help them along. For awhile they were on the OBRC list requiring documentation, but for a short time were taken off due to the regularity of them being seen in the autumn. Their occurrence has dropped off so one again the OBRC is requesting documentation. This bird was photographed flying over Erieau on Oct 31, 2010, where a few had been seen the day before and they spent the night under the docks of the fish tug harbour area.

 Eurasian Collared-Dove shouldn't really be called a migrant. It was introduced from Europe a number of years ago and has been gradually expanding its range in North America. Nonetheless, it has only been recorded in the Rondeau area on a couple of occasions. This one was photographed at Rondeau along the southern end of Lakeshore Road on September 24, 2017.

 Fish Crow has sort of the same story as the Black Vulture, above. A small population of this more southerly crow has become established in the Niagara peninsula area and a bit beyond. On occasion the species will show up elsewhere. I only know of a couple of records for the Rondeau area. This one I photographed at the south end of the South Point Trail on May 29, 2011.

 Laughing Gull, shown here in the lower middle of the photo, is quite irregular. The bird here is a first year bird which showed up with a large group of summering gulls out along the south beach of Rondeau, back in the early 1980s. It is scanned from a slide, so not the best clarity, and it does blend in with the gravel beach making it even more difficult to see clearly. There are a few records for this species over the years.

 Neotropic Cormorant has been showing up a bit more in the last few years. One might get caught up with a movement of the very abundant and larger Double-crested Cormorant, and end up well out of its normal range. It is more abundant along the southern and eastern shores of the Atlantic. There are at least 3 records for the Rondeau area. The one shown here, on the left of the two Double-crested ones, was in the Rondeau/Erieau area off and on for a few days in May of 2019. I photographed it on May 23.

 Townsend's Warbler is a western species that occasionally gets blown way off course. For some reason Rondeau is a place where it is most apt to show up in Ontario, as there are 5 records, more than any other location in Ontario. I found the park's first one in the spring of 1983, near the west end of the old Dillon Trail. Only a handful of birders who were in the park got to see it, as it was before any kind of bird alert was available and cell phones were non-existent. Word of mouth was the only way to advertise its presence. All of the records are either in the early spring or the late autumn. The one shown here I photographed on Nov 11, 2017 in the Bate's subdivision just north of the park. There were a lot of birders that came to see it, and since it stayed into December, a lot of birders arrived again to get it on their winter list. The bird even stayed around long enough to be added to our Christmas Bird Count list.

 Townsend's Solitaire is a species that is relatively common in the montane region of western North America. On occasion, one ends up heading east rather than southward or northward on their migration. There have been very few records at Rondeau, but when it shows up, will be found either in spring or fall. This one was photographed along Lakeshore Road just north of the Visitor Centre on April 30, 2010. It was first recorded about a week earlier at the south end of Lakeshore Road, but was not seen during the in between days.

Even rarer birds will be featured in a future post!