Cedar Waxwing....ABA Bird of the Year

The American Birding Association annually selects a Bird of the Year. Sometimes it is one that lives somewhere in the USA, but far away from Canada, such as the Iiwi, an Hawaiian bird, in 2018. But other times it is a species which also occurs in Canada, such as the Ruddy Turnstone in 2017, or the Green Heron, in 2015. I post a blog about the Green Heron, which you can see here.

There are various reasons why a bird is chosen by the ABA. If you are a member of the ABA, you will likely have read all about it in the April 2020 issue of Birding. You can read a little about this process at this link.

There are many potential candidates, but for 2020, it is the Cedar Waxwing. It is always a highlight to see this species, either singularly or in flocks. They are so distinctive that even many non-birders will recognize them.

Here are some of my favourite photos of this striking species that I have managed to capture over the last few years.

 They love berries! In fact their preference for berries is one of the reasons they don't start nesting until a little later in the season compared to many other birds. Seldom do they begin nesting before the end of June, so that by the time their young have hatched and require an abundance of food, berries are in good supply. One of my early experiences with this species was photographing a nest full of half-grown young at the end of the first week in September.

As the season progresses, the fruit of trees such as Red Cedar, shown in the next two photos, are sought out.

 Or the berries of a rose bush.

 Sometimes you see them travelling in groups, perhaps two or three family groups together with lots of first year birds.

The Cedar Waxwing is certainly a memorable bird!

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.

Spring sightings away from the traditional hotspots

As the travel restrictions get tighter and tighter, exploring natural areas has diminished considerably. However before the latest restrictions, I did manage to get out to a few local places where there was no one else around to speak of. And it was nice to get a little more evidence of spring happening 'out there' rather than being limited to the back yard.

A drive out through parts of the former Dover Twp enabled me to see this occupied Bald Eagle's nest across the field from St. Clair NWA. The NWA is closed, so other than peeking over the berm along the road on the south side of the NWA, there wasn't much to see other than the usual mix of waterfowl.

A Snowy Owl was lingering along Mallard Line a few days ago. A more recent trip in the area did not turn up any Snowies, so presumably the few that were around all winter have moved northward. Of course there has been a fair bit of farming activity in the area where they were most often observed this winter, so that may have caused them to move elsewhere.

A walk along the edge of Lake St. Clair brought this quite distant Great Egret into view.

Painted Turtles were out by the dozens, basking in the sunshine. I looked for other turtle species, but it seemed that only Painteds were to be seen.

There were oodles of boaters out on Lake St. Clair, and most were fishing, as were quite a few people on the banks. I didn't see anyone actually catching anything, but I did see this Pumpkinseed floating by. It was still alive, and eventually wriggled out of view. It was a fair size for the species, so I don't know if it just was able to escape the hook it was trying to get the bait off of, or whether it was tossed back in the water since it wasn't the target species of the particular fisherman. Maybe it will survive, or maybe it will end up as a meal for something like a Snapping Turtle.

I managed to see several Tree Swallows and my first of year Bank Swallow along the trail, but didn't get any photos.

In a local woodlot, I caught up to some Mourning Cloak butterflies.....

 ...several Northern Flickers.....

 ....and Bloodroot, one of my favourite early spring wildflowers.

Another early spring wildflower is this Spring Beauty.....

 ....which had a type of Lady Bird Beetle was busily exploring it.

I came across a single Common Hackberry, a Carolinian tree species with very characteristic bark that is largely restricted to extreme southwestern Ontario. I hadn't recalled seeing this species in this woodlot in the past.

While checking out Paxton's Bush for any more Great Horned Owl activity, Marie and I came across an Eastern Garter Snake....

 ....and this Groundhog which quickly scampered back into the forest once it caught sight of us.

 ...as well as the local Mallards. While Mallards are very common and it is easy to not pay a lot of attention to them, they really are quite an attractive duck especially at this time of year.

We didn't see any owl activity on this warm day, so we assume that the adult decided to take a break from looking after the young in the nest since they are growing fairly quickly and don't need constant attention.

I was at another woodlot in eastern Chatham-Kent for awhile one day, and came across a spring wildflower called Skunk Cabbage.

There were several Yellow-rumped Warblers checking out some Staghorn Sumac berries. While Yellow-rumps occasionally over winter, the 5 I saw here were the most I had seen at one time since last fall. I'm sure they were here all winter anyway, given the large number of sumacs that still had lots of berries for easy pickings.

It won't be long until a lot more diversity of warblers will be showing up. In fact a Pine Warbler, one of the first warbler migrants to arrive, was reported in the area just a few days ago, and a Louisiana Waterthrush was reported from Rondeau several weeks ago. The unfortunate thing, at least for birders, is that the migrants will have hot spots like Rondeau and Point Pelee all to themselves this spring it seems, given the current closure of these and other parks, NWAs etc.