Birds of Chatham-Kent, Then and Now, Part III

 Part III of this series starts off with King Rail. 

 However rather than repeat myself, regular readers may remember that I did a complete blog post on this endangered species a couple of months ago. You can read all about it at this link.

Yellow Rail 

I don't have any images of this rare and reclusive species. I have heard them in their breeding habitat up along the sub-arctic lowlands in northern Ontario, but have never seen one.

Then: A rare spring and fall transient. There were a few spring and fall records from the very early 1900s and periodically to 1944. Most were in wetland areas near the mouth of the Thames River and some of the wetlands along Lake St. Clair. Baillie had one at Rondeau on May 11,1939.

Now: an even rarer transient. While this small, elusive species must still pass through southern Ontario on the way to the northerly breeding territories, it is very rarely seen. There have been three relatively records in the southern CK area, one in each of 1996, 2006 and 2020, all in the month of May.

Common Gallinule

Then: considered a common summer resident, breeding in coastal as well as inland marshes.

Now: considerably less common. It can be found regularly in some of the largest wetland habitats along Lake St. Clair, with occasional records at Rondeau. There is not much difference in breeding records between the first and second Ontario Breeding Bird Atlases. However with the more extensive invasion of the non-native Common Reed (Phragmites) in these wetland habitats especially in the last 2-3 decades, it is expected that with less habitat, there are likely fewer records, and the current third OBBA may demonstrate that.

American Coot

Then: an abundant migrant and a regular and plentiful summer resident, breeding in all of the large marshes. There were occasional early winter records

Now: certainly still an abundant migrant, especially in the autumn. For example, occasionally huge numbers may be seen in late autumn and very early winter. Depending on the amount of open water, typically several dozen to several hundred are reported on the Blenheim/Rondeau CBC, with a high of 4002 birds in 1999! Breeding records are fairly low, other than in some of the larger marshes along Lake St. Clair where they can be regularly found in small numbers. Fluctuating water levels and an increased presence of Phragmites has been at least partially the reason for fewer numbers in CK. However there is little to no difference between the first OBBA and the second.

Piping Plover

Then: a rather scarce transient and summer resident. One source in the early '20s indicated the species was numerous between Erieau and Erie Beach, with young seen. There were regular records on the Rondeau beaches as well.

Now: this is an officially endangered species, although the numbers have increased somewhat compared to the dire circumstances of the 1970s and 1980s. They have re-appeared and nested, sometimes successfully, at scattered Ontario locations in the last couple of decades or so. It is seen with a bit more frequency on migration in the southern Chatham-Kent area, although there have been no nesting records since about the late 1940s.

American Woodcock

Then: Formerly a common summer resident, but then becoming rather scarce. As a game bird, it was popular, with up to 60 birds shot by two market hunters in a single day. By the time of Wood's writing, it was increasing in numbers again.

Now: it can be a difficult bird to find, but that is at least partly because it arrives early in the late winter to very early spring and almost immediately begins its nesting cycle. Under good conditions (i.e. calm winds at daybreak or dusk) it can be more easily detected via its courtship display. It is cryptic and rarely even flushes from its nest, relying on its excellent camouflage. There is suitable habitat across CK, and while the first OBBA found it in most of the atlas squares, the second atlas resulted in it being present in all of the atlas squares that had terrestrial habitat.While there is still a hunting season for American Woodcock in Ontario, I do not believe it is very heavily hunted anywhere.

Upland Sandpiper

Then: considered a regular summer resident, never abundant but scattered throughout from April until August. However Wood quoted the Outing writer Ed Sandys as saying in 1897 "he saw thousands of these birds in southwestern Ontario". But certainly by the 1940s, they were restricted to pastures scattered across the county.

Now: I do not have any photos of this species. I don't recall even seeing or hearing one of these in CK during my digital photo era, which is about the past 15 years. The most reliable location in CK for several decades has been in the fairly extensive pasture lands southwest of Charing Cross. I used to see them regularly there if I made the effort. Unfortunately most of those pasture lands and those other scattered pastures in CK have been converted to crop land in the last couple of decades, as crops were more profitable than cattle. There were only about 8 atlas squares reporting it during the first OBBA, and only 3 during the second. Any recent reports of this species are primarily a result of birders hearing one passing through on migration.

Stilt Sandpiper

Then: considered hypothetical. While earlier writers had considered it a bird of the Rondeau region, there were no actual records to substantiate that. The closest known record that Wood was aware of was in Windsor.

Now: it is an uncommon, but regular migrant. It is seen annually most spring and late summer/early fall periods where there is shallow muddy water habitat. Sewage lagoons, not present during the time of Wood's writing, have good habitat, as do flooded field fields.

Hudsonian Godwit

Then: as was the case for Stilt Sandpiper, it was considered hypothetical. It was listed as a bird of the Rondeau region by earlier writers, with no specific records, although McIlwraith stated he had seen it in spring at the St. Clair Flats but again, with no specific dates.

Now: also as was the case for Stilt Sandpiper, it is a fairly regular but uncommon spring and late summer migrant. Sewage lagoons and flooded fields provide suitable feeding habitat for this species on its north and south journeys.

American Avocet

Then: considered an accidental visitant. While early writers of the 1800s considered it slightly more common, at the time of Wood's writing there had been no recent records, and was still considered an accidental visitant.

Now: shorebird habitat has definitely increased since the 1940s, especially with the presence of sewage lagoons. That, and flooded fields during the migration period, have caused an increase in the records in recent decades. It is seen almost annually, with sometimes several records in a year. What makes this mostly a mid-western breeding species a bit more likely here, compared to more northerly breeding migrants, is the fact that extreme southwestern Ontario, and the western portion of CK in particular, has always attracted mid-western species due to the historic prairie habitat.

Wilson's Phalarope

Then: considered an accidental visitant. There was the occasional record in the 1880s, and Sandys listed it as a bird of the Rondeau region but without any date records.

Now: it is a regular migrant and occasional breeding species. As is the case for many shorebird species, the presence of sewage lagoons has affected their presence, as the above photo illustrates. As is the case for American Avocet, this is a mid-western breeding species that is present in southwestern Ontario due to its historic prairie habitat which was present. It is at sewage lagoons where an occasional breeding record has been noted. Here is one I photographed on a nest at the Blenheim Sewage Lagoons back in about 1979, a time when the grassy berms were much less frequently mowed, and there was cattail vegetation allowed to grow in the lagoon ponds themselves.

Birds of Chatham-Kent, Then and Now....to be continued.

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Black Rail tale

Rails are always a treat to come across, and some of them are the most elusive species of birds in our area. It doesn't help that they occur in wetlands that are difficult to access, or at least see through. You've probably heard the expression 'thin as a rail', which refers to the fact that you can be staring through some of the dense cattail vegetation and all of a sudden a rail partially appears, and then just as suddenly, it is gone again, and you didn't even see the vegetation move. The birds aren't really thin, just really adept at getting through sometimes really dense vegetation.

 On occasion if you get a good vantage point and are very quiet, a rail might come out and spend a fair bit of time in the open, like this Sora did for me one time. It helps that it is probably the most common of all the rail species.

Probably less common, but still fairly widespread and abundant, is the Virginia Rail. Like all rail species, they are a lot easier to hear than to see. I think I've only photographed them on one or two occasions in more than 40 years but hear them regularly when I am in their habitat at the right time of year.

The rarest rail species that nests in Ontario is the King Rail, which is officially Endangered and protected by both provincial and federal legislation. It was never common, but restricted to some of the largest and best quality wetlands of southwestern Ontario. Nowadays, it is extremely rare, with probably fewer than a dozen or so pairs in the entire province. It is a difficult species to survey for, so we don't really know. It initially looks like a much larger version of the Virginia Rail. Even some of its calls are somewhat similar, although the King Rail is noticeably deeper and throatier.

 While the King Rail is occasionally heard in some of the larger marshes, actual breeding records are few and far between. Once in awhile one may spot a family of King Rails wandering along a dyke of a large marsh. But finding a nest is even less likely. I photographed this nest at McGeachy Pond Conservation Area, near Erieau.

The water levels there were not as controlled as they are now, and the habitat was better for King Rail. A photographer friend and I came across this nest and got some photos. This was back in about 1978, and as far as I know, that is the last time an actual nest was recorded in Ontario.

Yellow Rail is the smallest, regularly occurring rail species in Ontario. While historically they nested in some wet grassy areas in southern Ontario, if they do so now, observers are keeping quiet about it. The only place where they nest with any regularity is in the wet grassy areas of the Hudson Bay Lowlands, which are next to impossible to get to for the average birder. I was fortunate to have spent a couple of weeks in those areas on two successive years, conducting wildlife surveys in the very early 1990s. While I did not actually see a Yellow Rail, I did hear them on a couple of occasions.

Which brings us to the rarest and smallest rail in Ontario, the Black Rail. In my most recent issue of Birding magazine, which I get as a member of the American Birding Association, there was an excellent article on getting a youth nature club in Louisiana involved in trying to capture Black and Yellow Rails. It was supposed to be a special event to get young birders to see some of the rarest denizens of the grassy marshes, all the while helping out with the bird banding process. The article was quite intriguing, and reminded me of a very special time when I was able to hear, although not see, a Black Rail in Ontario.

It was during my years as the park naturalist at Rondeau Provincial Park. I spent a lot of my spare time roaming around the various habitats looking for things of interest, whether it be birds, plants, reptiles, amphibians or whatever. The Rondeau marsh was one of my favourite places at any time of the day, but particularly in the early morning or early evening hours when wildlife was more likely to be active.

The fluctuating water levels of Lake Erie, and therefore the adjacent Rondeau Bay and marsh, made a difference in what vegetation was dominant. For a few years in the early to mid 1980s, it was a time when Wild Rice, an annual species which depended on declining water levels and exposed mud flats later in the summer to grow well, was quite abundant. And it was in these extensive stands of Wild Rice where Soras could be quite abundant. I remember on more than one occasion taking a few small stones with me as I walked the marsh trail. Every once in awhile I would toss a stone into the stand of Wild Rice, and instantly there would be a chorus of Soras peeping. Over the course of my walk, I estimated on one evening that there must have been over 100 birds that responded.

Dense stand of Wild Rice along the Marsh Trail

It was the evening of August 17, 1985. I had walked the marsh trail and took the side trail over to Long Pond. The wild rice was not as thick there, but still fairly plentiful, and the water was quite shallow. All of a sudden the quiet evening was broken with "kik--ee--do, kik--ee", the distinct call of a Black Rail! That is all I heard, but the call of a Black Rail is one of the most distinctive bird calls there is, especially of any wetland species. You can listen to it here. I knew instantly what it was. Although I had never heard one in real life before, I had listened to recordings since I had been involved with a marsh monitoring program as well as been a regional coordinator for the Breeding Bird Atlas, where these recordings were available.

At this point, Black Rail had not officially been added to the Ontario Bird list. There had been reports, but none had met the criteria of any committee accepting records. The criteria were fairly stringent, as they should be. To accept a new species for the provincial list, the record should be well documented independently by at least two people, or there should be a specimen or a distinctive recording. The more evidence, the better. So although I knew that is what I heard, I was reluctant to report it since I knew it did not meet the criteria for acceptance.

Open water and Wild Rice along Long Pond trail

Eventually I did submit the record, thinking that even though it did not meet the criteria, at least the record would be in the books besides just my field notes and local records. After the bird records committee reviewed all of the submitted records, they reported on the outcome. Not surprisingly, my record was not accepted unanimously. It was a split vote. But at that time, people who submitted records usually got a summary of comments by committee members that decided the vote. While I was not surprised that my record was not accepted, I was both frustrated and amused at some of the comments. One of the most amusing, and in a sense outrageous, comments was "perhaps someone was playing a recording." I found this comment ridiculous for several reasons:
-I reported that the bird was about 40-50 metres away in a stand of Wild Rice. If someone was going to play a tape recording to attract rails, why would they leave the perfectly good trail to tromp and slosh through the Wild Rice a short distance away? Such noisy action would surely scatter any wildlife.
-the Wild Rice was not super dense, but growing on mud. If there was someone out there, they would have been easily seen at that distance;
-if someone was going to try calling for rails with a recorder, why would they be doing it in mid August, at a time when rails seldom call since it is after the breeding season? Calling in late May or in June would make sense, but mid August?
-if someone was going to try calling for rails, why would they play a call that only made the call once?

Nevertheless, such a comment by a committee member added to the debate about accepting the record or not.

Please note that the purpose of this part of the post is not to bash the bird records committee. Their job is to be skeptical, consider only the facts and weigh the information they have to deal with against the criteria that the committee has to work with. And they are human just like anyone else, so a committee will usually outweigh bias or a lack of reason in reviewing the many reports that are submitted. The members of the committee are absolutely some of the most knowledgeable and careful birders in Ontario. They should be congratulated for doing a job that requires a lot of knowledge and skill in analysis.

In retrospect, I could have included information that would explain the conditions and site specific circumstances so that this committee member's comments would not have been made. And I certainly recognize that by hearing the bird call only once, as distinctive as the call is, it was not enough evidence for officially adding the species to the Ontario list.

As much as anything, the purpose of this post is:
-to recognize that the committee members have an enormous task. Of course in this digital day and age, it is easier to get high quality photos and/or recordings of birds than there was back in the 1980s when most reports were only written submissions. But even at that, some photos just aren't clear enough (if only birds were considerate enough to be in those perfect lighting conditions.....), and certainly the written evidence is not always adequate to be 100% convincing;
-to encourage birders to make sure when they are submitting a report, to ensure that as much realistic detail as possible is included. The committee can only review what they are given;
 -to recognize that not all records submitted will be accepted, for various reasons. I expect that anyone who has submitted records, may have had some rejected. That is frustrating, to be sure, and in many cases it isn't because the bird was incorrectly identified, but the level of detail submitted may not have been sufficient for the committee to accept it. And let's face it, on occasion we may see a bird well enough that we are convinced of its identification, but because the observation was fleeting or some critical features were not noted, we can't include information that we didn't see or hear, and therefore the report just doesn't have enough convincing evidence. That is life, and that certainly is birding!
-it just so happens that today, April 7, the current committee met to consider the reports submitted over the course of this past year.

So next time you see one of the committee members, give them a thank-you for a task that isn't always easy.