Mostly birds on the move

Southern Chatham-Kent, especially Rondeau, has been worth spending some time at. Not because of the weather, since it has been overcast, windy and rainy for much of the last few days, but this is a time to catch up with some mid-autumn migrants.

Last Friday there was a bit of sun, and some brisk north to northeast winds. Perfect for Golden Eagles, I thought, so I spent some time in the campground of Rondeau, which is now closed to camping until next April. There is lots of good views of the sky, and I had seen Golden Eagles from this location before, but not today. The only eagle I got was this immature Bald Eagle. I later found out that during the hawkwatch at Hawk Cliff farther east that day, they had 43 Golden Eagles go by! Hopefully some will still make their way by Rondeau.

I was surprised at how little raptor action there was, but I was kept busy with a few other species. American Robins were numerous, feeding on the abundant crop of Red Cedar berries.

They frequently came to a puddle on the road for a sip of water.

 At times, they were sharing the puddle with Cedar Waxwings.

 Pileated Woodpeckers are not normally found in the open campground, but presumably since the camping season is over....why not? There was a pair busily digging in a willow tree for some nourishment.

 Both Golden-crowned and Ruby-crowned Kinglets are quite common, but hard to photograph. This Ruby-crown paused just long enough this time.

 A few Rusty Blackbirds were also making use of the puddles.

 And what would a campground be without a Raccoon? This fellow was looking a little winsome, since his normal source of food was gone until next spring.

On Saturday morning, I met up with Steve Charbonneau and Blake Mann for a couple of hours at daybreak at the Dog Beach access, scanning for waterbirds going by. It was very overcast and quite windy, but at least the brisk east wind off the slightly warmer water kept the temperature at about 9C, not the 3C it was when I left home. Birds were fairly plentiful, but hard to photograph under such dark and windy conditions, especially since most of the birds were out beyond good camera range. We did get a few loons, and all three scoter species, along with a few other ducks. Two Long-tailed Ducks flew by, but I only got one barely decent record shot.

 There were several small groups of Red-breasted Mergansers zipping by.

A couple of Bald Eagles came by....the bland sky made it challenging.

Several flocks of Sanderling as well as a few Dunlin flew by, with some of them landing briefly on the shoreline for a snack.

A bit of time was spent later along both the South Point Trail as well as the campground, but with the wind, birds were not abundant. On the way home that day I decided to check out the Erieau pier area, since the east winds were favourable to provide shelter on the west side of the pier. It would be a good time for a Purple Sandpiper or Red Phalarope to show up. At least one Purple Sandpiper was seen heading that way a few days ago, but neither the sandpiper nor the phalarope were noted on Saturday. I only got 4 Dunlin at the edge of the pier. This image has been cropped, but I didn't crop the feathers on the bird's forehead....it was like that already!

Today was cloudy to begin with, but the winds were moderate from the north, and there was a promise of some sunshine as the day went on. I decided to set up along one of the open road areas near the Morpeth Cliffs, hoping that raptors on the move would be blown down close to the lake shore and follow it along. Turns out it was a good decision. Over the course of almost three hours, I ended up with eight raptor species (including Turkey Vulture....technically not a raptor, but it migrates along with them) plus the two Sadler brothers and a flock of about 15 Tundra Swans that appeared to have just arrived from points farther north. Highlights included Peregrine Falcon, Red-shouldered Hawk and lots of eagles! In fact of the 160+ birds I noted passing by, I got 13 Bald Eagles and 6 Goldens! A lot of the raptors were moving quickly, or at quite a distance, which made getting decent photos difficult. I would guess that the two Golden Eagles below were at least one kilometre away, perhaps two. So some were at least greatly cropped record shots.

Cooper's Hawk

Golden Eagle (subadult)

Golden Eagle (juvenile)

Red-shouldered Hawk

Things were quietening down by around 2:30 so I decided to check out the Ridgetown Sewage Lagoons on the way home. There was the usual complement of Canada Geese, a couple of Cackling Geese, Snow Goose, some more Tundra Swans, Norther Shoveler, etc.
And for anyone planning to drop in there, some construction activity is going on, so part of the northern lagoon area was inaccessible.

Rear view of Snow Goose (blue phase)

Raptors and more

There has been some great weather for watching raptors on the move.....north northwest winds, a mix of sun and cloud all work together for pushing raptors down towards the Lake Erie shoreline. They follow the shoreline to southwestern Essex County before travelling across the Detroit River and continuing their way south.

These past few days, the usual hawkwatch sites here in the southwest at Hawk Cliff, Holiday Beach and across the Detroit River at Lake Erie Metropark/Brownstown have had some impressive lists and numbers of raptors and Turkey Vultures. But you don't have to go to those places to see good numbers. Anywhere along their usual route under the aforementioned weather conditions can be worthwhile.

This past Saturday I was at Rondeau and was starting to check for passerines in the campground feasting on the Red Cedar berries, but I quickly got side-tracked by moving raptors and other birds passing across the blue sky. A few Turkey Vultures were noted at first, and they were fairly low down.

Then came a flock of Gadwall heading from the lake over to Rondeau Bay.

A few Red-tailed Hawks moved through, including one fairly low.

And waaaay up in the blue were some tiny specks that warranted closer inspection. They were almost too high to identify with only binoculars, but I grabbed a few shots with the equivalent of an 800mm lens and heavily cropped them on the computer to confirm the ID.

A pair of immature Bald Eagles.

An immature Red-shouldered Hawk.

The bonus bird of the time there was this immature Golden Eagle soaring way up! But even at this altitude, the large sized dark bird with the tell-tale white patches in the outer part of the wing and at the base of the tail are classic Golden Eagle. This species is just starting to show up in southern Ontario on their autumn migration. The above mentioned hawkwatches have each recorded one or two so far, but there will be more on their way, and late October is the perfect time to see them.

I did check out other things during my time in the park, but towards the end of the day as I was getting ready to leave, I noticed a large swirl of vultures, and they just kept coming. And coming. And coming. The sky was getting a bit cloudier, and I suspect this large group was looking for a place to descend and roost for the night.

A portion of a group of ~600 Turkey Vultures

When all was said and done, I estimated there to be a good 600 birds in this group. I looked for other birds mixed in, as sometimes happens, even hoping for a Black Vulture, but all I saw were Turkeys. I did notice that at upwards of 4000 or more Turkey Vultures were observed at a couple of hawkwatch sites the next day, so presumably this group was part of that event.

80+ Turkey Vultures

In other news.....October is the time of year when gentians are in bloom, and there are two species which can be found at Rondeau: Bottle Gentian (Gentiana andrewsii) is fairly common but scattered in tallgrass prairie and old field edges. Fringed Gentian (Gentianopsis crinita) only occurs in a handful of locations in the park. Neither are particularly rare in Ontario, unlike other gentian species that are fairly restricted to high quality prairies, but great to see just the same.

Bottle Gentian

Note the closed nature of the Bottle Gentian. That is as much as they open up. They are pollinated by bees which are large enough and strong enough to cut their way through the outer part of the flower. By forcing their way inside in this way, they gain nectar and in the process, pollinate it.

Fringed Gentian

Fringed Gentian typically grow in clusters as shown in the image above. Note the close-up of the flower below, showing the fringed edge of the petals illustrating why it gets its name. They are usually tightly closed on cloudy days or during the period that they are in the shade, so if you want to see them at their finest, you have to go out on a bright sunny day.

Recent North Lambton travels

I've been out a lot these last few days, so it is time to catch up on some blog posts.

A few days ago I was doing some inventory type of field work with a couple of colleagues at a site in northern Lambton County. The weather was great, and we found some interesting things, including a small tallgrass prairie type of site. There wasn't anything really exceptional in the site.....it hadn't burned for quite some time, and a regular occurrence of fire is absolutely essential for the long-term and short-term health of the prairie and its inhabitants. Nonetheless, we did find a few stems of a rather rare orchid called Great Plain's Ladies'-tresses (Spiranthes magnicamporum), which is provincially ranked as S3. I look forward to re-visiting the site at another time of year to see what other goodies might be present.

There are several other Ladies'-tresses types of orchids, but this is one of the later flowering species, and it is distinctive by its larger size compared to most of the others. It also has a very distinctive fragrance reminding me of a combination of hot plastic and vanilla!

On our lunch break we observed several Sharp-shinned Hawks, a 3rd year Bald Eagle, a Red-shouldered Hawk, a Red-tailed Hawk, one or two common Nighthawks and a couple of Sandhill Cranes.

Back on site, we found a few snakes (Northern Brown and Eastern Garter) as well as frogs (Leopard and Green) and American Toads, but nothing exceptional. Some of the plants we were on the lookout for we encountered, including American Ginseng, Green Dragon and Butternut, all officially Species At Risk. Due to their significance and legislated rarity, I will not divulge their locations. 

This next image features a fruiting individual of American Ginseng. It was not taken at the site we found it, but is one I had in my photo files. I did take a photo with my cell phone, but on the chance that someone could obtain the location from the cell phone pic via some internal GPS reading, I decided not to use it here (aside from the fact that it is a relatively poor quality). I do not have my main camera connected to any GPS coordinate software, partly so no one can track the location where I have taken my photos. American Ginseng is highly sought after by collectors for its apparent medical benefits, and the major illegal collecting problem is the reason it is now a Species At Risk.

Towards the end of the day, we were travelling near Kettle Point, and noted an obvious movement of raptors. In a matter of minutes we recorded several kettles (appropriately near Kettle Point!) of Broad-winged Hawks totalling more than 500 birds, a juvenile Bald Eagle, 2 or more Red-tailed Hawks, more than 20 Sharp-shinned Hawks and 20 Turkey Vultures. Later in the day, I read where a resident of the area had reported a total of 15,600 hawks passing through between 1-4 p.m., just to the north of where we saw our birds a bit later.

Broad-winged Hawk

I had heard from another birding friend that large numbers of hawks can be found migrating along the Lake Huron shoreline during periods of brisk east to northeast winds. The brisk southeast winds of this particular day had pushed migrating hawks up along the Lake Huron shoreline, so we were at the right spot at the right time to view this phenomenon.

Before heading back home to Chatham, I stopped in at one of my favourite places in north Lambton to view one of the area's relatively well-kept secrets. 

One doesn't normally associate waterfalls in the extreme southwestern flatlands of the province. If one wants to see such landscapes, one has to go to the more rugged part of the country along the Niagara Escarpment or central/northern Ontario, right? 

Not!! 

This waterfall is located at Rock Glen Conservation Area, at the NE edge of Arkona. The Ausable River Conservation Authority manages this site which is famous for its fossils in the sedimentary rock that are exposed along this stream. There is a parking area, picnic area, rustic washroom facility, museum and best of all, a hiking trail compete with stairway to reach the bottom of the gorge to see the falls up close. The first photo shown above was taken from 2/3 of the way down the stairway.

Side views are generally my preference, but one can get downstream a bit to see it from different vantage points and angles. One has to be cautious, of course, because the wet rocks are slippery!!!

Venturing a bit farther downstream, one can get intimate views of some of the minor sections of the falls.

A few days earlier, I had noted a plea for help posted on ONtbirds to track down a certain Great Egret which had been spotted in the Petrolia area. This egret had a blue wing tag, but the tag number was not easy to determine. So while travelling down hwy 21, I stopped where Black Creek flows under a bridge immediately north of Oil Springs. My primary goal was to photograph the flooded creek, overflowing with water from recent rainfall events. 

As I looked at the flooded pasture, I noted a Great Egret, and upon a closer view, noted it had a blue wing tag. Out came my 'scope and telephoto lens.

Part of the individual identification alpha/numeric code was visible, but even in looking at the bird for several minutes with my 'scope, it was clear that the letter was hard to discern. I sent the photos to the individual with Environment Canada who did the banding. We agreed that it was likely bird 95K rather than 95R. This bird was banded this year on June 26. The colony was on an island in southern Georgian Bay and the bird was too young to fly when it was banded.