Snow birds and big trees

Some 'snow' birds are showing up here in southwestern Ontario. A Snowy Owl was seen by Jim Burk a few weeks ago, but it seemed to disappear. Then a few days ago, Irene Woods reported one on a pumphouse near the corner of Bisnett Line and Lagoon Road. It apparently likes this vantage point....far enough away from any road to minimize disturbance, and in a slightly lower portion of the ag field where it is less breezy. I've seen it on this pump house on several occasions. This is a highly cropped image from a photo taken with lens giving the equivalent of a 22X binocular. Fortunately this is a species that even at a distance is easily identified under less than ideal conditions.

Snow Geese are not common in this area. In eastern Ontario, they can number for a few days in the tens of thousands in a single field. Here, we are lucky to see a few individuals each fall. In checking the database of the Blenheim/Rondeau Christmas Bird Count, which has been going for 75 years (and most often between Dec 15-21 so at the very tail end of fall), we've recorded them only about a third of the time, and even then, mostly in numbers less than 10. The blue phase of the Snow Goose is even rarer here. In those same 75 years, we have recorded them on only 7 occasions. So it was a nice treat to see this blue Snow Goose hanging out with several hundred Canada Geese along the east side of Rondeau, which is off limits to hunting and the birds are fairly tolerant.

A juvenile white phase Snow Goose is still in the area, but I didn't get photos of it. It has sometimes been seen along the east beach of Rondeau, but yesterday I saw it with several hundred Canada Geese along the lake shore off of Erieau.

Another mostly snowy white goose is the Ross's Goose which I saw, got decent photos of, and posted about recently. Those two seem to have left the area, as several birders have been diligently looking for them without success.

Right at the beach edge of Rondeau I noted this:

I don't think it will be in high demand for picnicking any time soon, but it might be useful for small kids to put their beach toys on next year. That is if it survives the winter ice, etc.

Sticking with the snowy white bird theme, these large majestic birds are frequently seen, unfortunately in increasing numbers, around Rondeau Bay.

Mute Swans are popular with the general public, but most of the public are not aware (or perhaps don't care) that these birds are some of the most vicious, nasty and damaging species of waterfowl we have to contend with. They really play havoc with almost all of our native species of waterfowl, taking over large areas of wetland and refusing the presence of other species.

Owls are also popular with almost anyone, whether it be a Snowy Owl as shown above, one of the largest of our owls, or the smallest of our owls, the Northern Saw-whet Owl. The Northern Saw-whet is the smallest owl species in Ontario, being only 20 cm (8") although when you see them they usually look even smaller. Just a few days ago one is thought to have flown into a window or something and was sitting in a rather vulnerable place, being threatened by a cat. The landowner brought it to the park. Nothing seemed to be broken, so it was put on a safe branch of a pine tree and left to recover.

A few days ago I purposed to explore part of the Keith McLean Conservation Lands (KMCL), just north of Rondeau, that I had never been to. I was encouraged to do so after having had a conversation with Ken Bell, who had earlier seen one or more very large trees near the far northeastern corner of the property. So I ventured out. En route I crossed a portion of the wetland/creek system that was still free of ice. Some Mallards, Gadwall and this Ruddy Duck were enjoying the respite from the waterfowl hunting going on around Rondeau Bay.

One of the plants that stand out at this time of year is Pokeweed (Phytolacca americana). The dark purplish blue berries against the reddish purple stems are quite obvious. They aren't edible for humans, but birds love them!

 I eventually got back to where some big trees were. I came across a Shagbark Hickory that measured 87 cm dbh (dbh is the official height for measuring tree diameter. It is 1.3 metres above the ground which is about 4.5 '). That makes it one of the largest Shagbark Hickories I have ever seen. But larger trees were in store. Near a cluster of woods where some older farm buildings and a residence formerly occurred, I came across this tree that Ken had told me about. It is a Sugar Maple, and measured 125 cm (almost 50") dbh.

And as I gazed across the field towards the wide creek system at the eastern edge of the KMCL, I noted some oak trees that were impressive even from a distance. I had to see them. One of the first Red Oaks I encountered was almost exactly one metre (~40") dbh, but that one was small. One not far away was 155 cm (slightly more than 5') dbh.

Red Oak, 155 cm dbh

 The Red Oak that is almost a metre dbh is in the background of the photo above.

This one isn't in great shape, but that is typical of trees that have been around for a couple of centuries or more and qualify as old growth specimens. It is hard to tell how old this one is, but is likely at least 200 years old.

Old trees often have hollow sections, which are quite popular with wildlife. When I first saw this raccoon, I thought it was just basking in the sun, but in very short order, I realized it was dead. There has been an outbreak of distemper amongst raccoons this year, which often happens when populations are high, so this individual might have been a victim of that.

As I continued along the top of the creek system, I encountered a real behemoth: this Red Oak, although it was difficult to measure using the exact protocol of the Ontario Forestry Association for the Ontario Honour Roll (OHR) of Trees.

Those standards require measurement at 1.3 m in height from the highest point of land the tree is growing on, which in this case is at the left hand side of the photo. This specimen is on a slope, and measuring at the 1.3 m height means that the large branch on the creek side will interfere with the measurement. So I measured a bit below at about the narrowest diameter, and it came up at about 190 cm (which is almost 6.24 feet across!). It is likely even older than the previously shown one, and it is not impossible for this tree to be ~250-300 years old. It does seem to be in better shape than the 155 cm one, based on outward appearances. I noted afterwards that there were other very large specimens elsewhere along this creek system, perhaps even larger than the ones I've seen already.

This is not the largest Red Oak in Ontario, however. That bit of notoriety is claimed by a specimen growing on private property closer to Blenheim which I measured and proposed to the OHR in 1984 at 194 cm. I intend to get back to measure it again. No doubt it has grown even larger in the 30 years since!

Even bigger trees, herps and dragons

The last few days have been quite nice to be out in. Regular readers will know that I am trying to document as many of the largest trees in Rondeau that I can get to. At the moment, I have documented over 200 individual trees. The main details I've included are species name, diameter at breast height and the GPS coordinates.

On the weekend I came across the biggest tree I've measured so far. It is an Eastern Cottonwood, but instead of its normal open habitat setting, this one was in one of the deeper parts of the Rondeau forest.

 This individual measured 163 cm dbh at first, but since I had to go around a large Poison Ivy vine, I decided to reduce the diameter to 158 cm. This is more than 20 cm dbh larger than the next largest one I had measured to this point in the project. I had my tripod with me this time, and with the delayed shutter, I was able to get myself into the photo for scale. I purposely converted it to black and white....the reason being that an historically well known and significant tree was photographed in B&W back in 1908, and is shown below. It is of a huge Sycamore tree. I posted this one a few weeks ago. Big Syc, as it was affectionately known, died in 1969, fell over in 1972, and even today is still a large decaying log on the forest floor. At its peak, it measured about 165 cm dbh, which is just slightly larger than the Eastern Cottonwood I came across a few days ago, so the similarity in size, and the similar wet woods habitat, gave me the idea to put myself in a similar pose. The big difference, however, is that Eastern Cottonwoods grow relatively quickly and seldom live more than 100-125 years. Sycamores, on the other hand, grow more slowly and may live for more than 300 years. Given the normal growth and longevity for Eastern Cottonwood, it is possible that this individual may not be any more than 125 years. However I think that the figures normally quoted for their growth and longevity are for open grown trees under very good growing conditions. In my opinion, growing in the middle of a wet maple-oak-beech type forest, the growing conditions may be somewhat different, and it is possible that this individual may be quite a bit more than 125 years of age. We will probably never know, since the inside of the tree is likely mushy and there is no way to count the rings even with a good increment borer tool. Nonetheless, since cottonwoods apparently grow about 2 cm diameter per year, it may just surpass Big Syc in a few short years. You can bet I will be out remeasuring it to see!

Big Syc in 1908

A short while after discovering this huge cottonwood, I came across another, not quite as large. It was a mere 142 cm dbh. I expect I will find more, and when I get around to measuring some of the large Silver Maples, another fast growing species of wetland habitat, there may be some trees that supersede the cottonwoods I measured this day. I will probably have to wait until a drier time of year to get the right height for measuring at the standard breast height....right now most are sitting in up to a metre of water.

Oak trees grow much more slowly than cottonwoods do. I was pleased to find this large Red Oak, measuring 123 cm dbh. Right close by and in the background of this next photo is a White Oak, which is just shy of a metre dbh. The Red Oak shows a decided lean, a typical characteristic of an old growth tree. Undoubtedly both of these oaks, even though they are smaller than the big cottonwood, are considerably older.

While covering the section of forest I had planned for, there were a good number of birds out and about. No warblers, however, but lots of Northern Flicker, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Brown Creeper, Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers as well as smaller numbers of Eastern Phoebe, Pileated Woodpecker (I think one was creating a nest hole), Hermit Thrush, Winter Wren and the like. Turkey Vultures were plentiful, and an adult Bald Eagle floated overhead.

It was a rather warm day, the kind where it makes one think of a tasty ice-cream treat, which made me think of the caption for this next photo.

Baskin' Robin

I noted a couple of Mourning Cloak butterflies, as well as Eastern Garter Snakes and a Northern Brown Snake.

Eastern Garter Snake

The Northern Brown Snake was on the move and did not want to stick around for my photography efforts.

The sunny warm conditions encouraged amphibians to get busy. There were lots of Wood Frogs vocalizing throughout the sloughs, along with a few Spring Peepers. A single American Toad was noted dead on the road.

Wood Frog

Today I went to check some areas along Lake St. Clair, specifically the Angler Line wetland where Yellow-headed Blackbirds were found last year, as well as the Lake St. Clair Trail and the waterfront of Mitchell's Bay. It was another warm day, but much windier.

The land birds were not of a great diversity, but I did see things such as Eastern Phoebe, lots of Tree Swallow, Northern Flickers, etc. There were still lots of waterfowl on the lake, but well out from shore since the wind speed and direction made it popular for wind sailors/surfers.

In the quieter areas of the old canal that goes along the trail, I found a lot of Painted Turtles.....about 46 in all. I'm sure they were trying to play catch up on getting their internal physiology going, now that at least for the short term, the weather is warming up.

'Tired' Turtles

I also saw my first dragonflies of the year. This pair of Common Green Darner were already 'in wheel', so the reproductive phase of their season is now underway!

I didn't see any Yellow-headed Blackbirds.....they may be out there but the wind might have kept them lower.

At the northeast corner of the waterfront parking lot was this quite large Eastern Cottonwood. It is open grown on a very good site. It measured 143 cm dbh.

National Take A Walk In The Park day

Yesterday, March 30, I was on my way out to Rondeau. On my way out, I overheard the radio DJ say that it was national Take A Walk In The Park Day.......hey....it sounded like a great idea, so I kept on going. As if I needed an excuse.....

My intent for this visit wasn't necessarily to check off as many birds as possible, although I am always on the lookout for them. I went out the South Point Trail at first, but with the southerly winds off the frozen lake, it was quite cold, and birds were few. There were a handful of ducks in some of the open leads well out from shore, but virtually no land birds put in an appearance along the trail.

Later I went along the Tuliptree Trail....it was considerably warmer and out of the wind. There were a ton of grackles, cowbirds and redwings around, and even a few Rusties, the first I had seen this spring.

Red-winged Blackbird

This upturned mossy Silver Maple root along the western most part of the trail often gets my attention.

At ground level there isn't much greenery these days, which makes things like this moss stand out. I'm not sure exactly what kind it is, but it may be Rock Spike Moss.

 One of my goals this trip was to start surveying the big trees that might qualify as old growth. There are a number of characteristics of a woodland that indicate old growth. Size matters, of course, in the context of trunk diameter. Age of the tree matters as well, but is difficult to determine unless one cuts a cross section to count the rings or has a tool called an increment corer, which drills a very small core out of the trunk. Age and size are not always directly related, as the site a tree grows on makes a huge difference, depending on the growing conditions. But the growth habit also matters, as do the bark characteristics, the amount of fallen log material on the ground in the general area, as well as the lack of disturbance on the ground and the diversity and abundance of ferns. Of course there aren't many ferns visible so early in the season. But on many of my previous hikes, I have noticed an abundance of large diameter trees. So I have taken it upon myself, with the park's blessing and encouragement, to begin to document as many large diameter trees as I can. And since it is much easier to see them when there are no leaves to contend with, and the snow is mostly gone from the forest floor, now is the time to make progress.

I had made up a template to record information such as species name, diameter at breast height (officially at 1.4 m above ground) and GPS coordinates. In many cases, large diameter trees that might qualify for old growth status in the current era would be anywhere from 50 - 100 cm dbh. Anything that would be in that range historically would be considered small, however. Here is one of the largest trees of the last century, a Sycamore. Just before it died in the late 1960s, it measured over 167 cm dbh. The photo was taken in 1908.

 This next one was a White Pine that measured about 152 cm dbh at the time it was cut. Three people were able to sit inside the stump.

I thought that looking for trees in excess of 150 cm dbh might be a lost cause, so I decided that anything over 60 cm might qualify. I knew I could find a few that would be greater than 100 cm since I had noted a few during some hiking last fall.

Checking along roads, trails and such is the easiest way to cover the territory most efficiently. But there are a lot of specimens not visible from any road or trail. That is when it gets even more fun, because it gets one into areas that few people have spent much time in. And so my first area to target was along a wide ridge north of Gardiner Ave where an old access trail from many decades ago occurred. It hasn't been used for anything for at least 30 years, and for all intents and purposes, doesn't exist as a trail of any sort. I had gotten wind of a particularly large tree about a kilometre in from the nearest road, and so that is where I headed.

There were lots of decent sized trees along the way, many of which qualified, and I began measuring. I found American Beech, Basswood, White Oak and Tuliptree that were in the 65-80 cm range, so I duly recorded their vital statistics, And I came across a huge Red Oak. This one measured 134 cm! It was actually in pretty good shape, too. To get an idea of scale, you can see my notebook at the bottom. Next time I will take a tripod and get myself in it for a better sense of scale.

This Red Oak is the largest tree I have measured in the park so far. I did come across a Tuliptree last December that measured 125 cm, although I think there are larger ones of this species, as well as Silver Maple, which don't live long but grow to large size in a relatively short time.

Tuliptree, 125 cm dbh

 I knew there were some large trees in the campground, and thought there might be a few birds as well. This very large Black Oak caught my attention. It measured 102 cm dbh. And there are larger ones that I didn't get to yet.

There were a few birds in the campground, but the brisk cold wind kept them under cover for the most part. A few robins were around, as were many Song Sparrows, and this Red-bellied Woodpecker.

I came across a couple of Eastern Bluebirds, a male and a female. But they didn't cooperate for a photo. While trying to get close enough for a photo of the bluebirds, I came across this colourful nest of a Baltimore Oriole that persisted from 2014. Apparently someone from the campground must have left some deteriorating tent or tarp material behind last year, and the oriole added a few long strips to the nest. It was in remarkably good shape, especially considering how exposed to sun, winter winds, snow and rain it would have been subject to for most of a year. It is certainly testament to the durability of this species' engineering skills.

I hadn't actually been aware of National Take A Walk In The Park Day before, but now I will put it on my calendar!

Barrow's Goldeneye, Snowy Owls, Snow Fleas, etc

These last few days have been gradually warming from the bitter cold not so long ago. And with the sun out and the wind down to a tolerable level, I headed out. The Barrow's Goldeneye that Mike and Josh Bouman saw over the last couple of days clinched it....it was time to take a trip up along the St. Clair River!

It was only a couple of weeks ago when I was doing my route for the local Christmas Bird Count that there was virtually no ice. How times have changed, as the southern half or more of the river was plugged full of ice. The last few lake freighters could only get through with the help of both US and Canadian coast guard ice cutters, and even with that assistance, it took them about 5 days to clear the stalled ships.

The ferries were shut down, of course, and even the usual open water by the Sombra ferry dock was much reduced. It did have a few of the usual Mallard, American Black Duck, Common Goldeneye, Redhead and Canvasback mixed together. Birds were coming and going steadily, so if one sat and watched, there might have been others.

At the Sombra ferry dock

Some seemed to be content just to sit on the ice. Of course maybe this allowed them to keep their feet and legs out of the cold water, using the fluffed up feathers to provide that extra bit of insulation.

Mallards and American Black Ducks

I made it to a bit north of Cathcart Park, where the Barrow's Goldeneye was first reported and subsequently seen over the previous couple of days. Access to the river wasn't the greatest, but I did find an open spot in the trees and shrubs along the river which gave me a good view. There were a couple of open spots in the ice, probably a good 500 metres out. A 'scope was definitely a must! After scanning the mixed flock of ducks, which included most of the species seen at Sombra but also had Common Merganser, Bufflehead and Long-tailed Duck, I saw the Barrow's Goldeneye! A beautiful male.

Barrow's Goldeneye, back centre

Due to the distance, even with a 700 mm telephoto and being heavily cropped after I got home, it isn't a very close shot. But all the salient characteristics are evident: the crescent white patch, the less white on the folded wing, and the dark little spur at the front of the folded wing. I've seen very few of this western species in Ontario, and not for a long time, so that made the trip worth while in itself.

After viewing and photographing this beauty, I continued upstream to check out the conditions in the vicinity of Stag Island at Corunna, where last year there was an abundance of Bald Eagles. There was relatively little ice in the area on this day, and waterfowl were widely scattered. I did get a nice close look at this female Hooded Merganser.

Hooded Merganser

 Note the Mallard below. Most of the time, the head seems distinctly green, but with certain light, one can see an iridescent purple sheen to the head as well.

I saw a single adult Bald Eagle perched in a tree at the north end of Stag Island, but it wasn't on the move at all. A few Long-tailed Ducks were well out in the open water.

On the way back, I stopped in to look at a huge Red Oak tree that I have seen on several occasions. I am very interested in things that appear to be part of an old growth habitat, and this tree definitely fits into that category. Size isn't everything, but it helps.

This tree is within my territory on the local Christmas Bird Count, and I regularly get an Eastern Screech Owl responding to my whistling calls when checking out this woodlot. But I've always been intrigued by this huge tree, so I intentionally took my diameter measuring tape on this trip. Turns out this oak measures 158 cm in diameter.

Not even close to the largest Red Oak in Ontario (I came across a huge one in the back yard of a friend's place in southern Chatham-Kent a few years ago, and it measured 194 cm in diameter; it is the largest one in Ontario), but is still impressive. It is at the edge of the small woodlot, as indicated by its large lower limbs.

I thought that this bright sunny day with little wind would be good for Snowy Owls to be up on poles, rather than taking relative shelter in the middle of a field. Given that most fields are snow-covered, seeing owls is more challenging these days, so a sunny day definitely had some possibilities.

I found four Snowy Owls, and three were along Bear Line. Some were obviously adult birds, given their relative white appearance. This first one was on a pole, but due to the amount of truck traffic, moved off to another pole and then a barn, where it was still there several hours later.

Others were first year birds, with their much darker and more extensive spotting.

Another snowy creature is quite a bit smaller...Snow Fleas. They aren't actually fleas, but are named as such because they are so tiny (only a few mm in length) and have the ability to jump like a flea. They are consumers of mould in the soil, and on sunny days, especially a day that is closer to the freezing temperature, will migrate up through the soil to the snow surface. From a short distance, they can look like specks of dirty soil on the snow, but up close they are definitely insects and surprisingly mobile considering the temperature.