Rondeau, then and now, Part II

 A few weeks ago I decided to share some photos of what Rondeau Provincial Park was like several decades ago. It seemed to get a lot of interest, so I have decided to do a second post.

Rondeau was known for its forest values even back in the 1800s, and was at least part of the reason it was established as a provincial park in 1894. The U of Toronto forestry class came to visit periodically. This first photo is one of the class members standing beside what was the biggest tree known for the park at the time, a Sycamore, which measured about 155 cm in diameter. This was dated 1908.

It was situated within sight of Rondeau Road, just a bit south of the current Spicebush Trail entrance and on the west side of the road, so it was relatively easy to keep track of it. Unfortunately it died in about 1968, and fell over in about 1972. This next photo show what it looked like in 1988.....

.....and in 2014....

....and in March, 2020.

With the continued decomposition of this massive tree, and the ongoing falling of branches of other trees, plus the growth of many new saplings, it is next to impossible to find any convincing sign of it now.

The park's vegetation wasn't always so lush. Deer were always a part of the ecosystem, and a crowd-pleaser for the public. The area just south of the maintenance area, adjacent to Harrison Trail, was set up as a deer enclosure, so visitors could always see one or more deer, and even feed them.

The increasing deer population outside the enclosure was eventually playing havoc with the vegetation. Deer culls were regular, to keep the population at a healthy level. But for political reasons at the time, the cull was stopped for several years, and the population expanded considerably. As the winter population approached 600 animals, the vegetation was severely impacted, with browse lines showing up everywhere. This next photo was typical of what much of the forest looked like in the late 1970s. The food availability decreased as you might expect.

Well meaning individuals would bring buckets of corn to spread along the road sides, making it look more like a feedlot.

If you drove slowly along the road, rolled down the window and put your hand out, you sometimes got deer coming right up to you! Clearly they were hungry. Some deer thrived, as this monster buck shows. It is a12 pointer, and had a massive neck, the latter likely due to the rutting season. I took this photo from my vehicle window along Harrison Trail, and the buck could hardly be bothered even looking at me it was that sure of itself and it status in the park, at least amongst the deer population.

Eventually a cull was re-instated in the mid-1990s, and ever since, the deer population is lower but much healthier now, as is the forest vegetation. Compare the third photo above, with these next few.

Harrison Trail

Harrison Trail

Black Oak Trail

Changes occurred in the area of the marsh as well. There was a single lane road established in the late 1950s to provide access for marsh maintenance as well as for duck hunters, but not open to public vehicles. It made a great hiking and biking trail. In four different locations, an observation tower was erected. They were quite handy to get a view of the marsh. Two of them were still accessible in the late 1970s. Here, I photographed one of my staff members enjoying the view and sunset.

They eventually got to the point of needing to be taken down for safety reasons. They were all well out along the marsh trail, and not all that accessible unless one was willing to bike or hike for quite a distance. So in the 1990s, this more elaborate one was established much closer to the trail entrance, only about a kilometer or so away. It was quite popular......

...and gave this kind of a view of the marsh, shown below, looking south. But to anyone who has been out along the marsh trail in recent years, the base of this observation deck was damaged by ice, and with the ongoing increase in water levels, the structural safety of this tower was in question, so it was removed as well. Given the sad state of the marsh trail over the last couple of years with the wash-outs, etc., it isn't surprising and the trail is officially closed. Quite sad to know it has gotten to this stage, as the marsh trail was one of my all-time favourite places to explore at Rondeau.

Related to the natural history theme, there have been some other changes as well. Nature interpretation became popularized in the 1950s. Since Rondeau had, and still has, a major natural history theme about it, a former ice house was converted to be the first museum.

It was located in the area more or less across from where the picnic area and swings are currently located. The next photo shows R. D. "Dick" Ussher, the first park naturalist, who was the driving force behind all things nature in that era. He was the park naturalist at Rondeau from about 1954-68. His education was focused on forestry, but in reality he was interested in many things of nature. I remember going on a guided hike with him out what was known as the 'Eagle's Nest Trail' when I was in about Grade 3.

He was also the driving force behind getting a new, modern museum, and the building shown below was opened in 1963. I started working there as a summer naturalist while attending U of Guelph in 1973, and continued after University as the park naturalist up until December, 1985.

The photo below is what it looks like in early 2023. The insides have undergone major changes since that time as well.

Just like in my early school years, school class hikes and nature education was offered regularly, any time of the school year. Here is what part of Tuliptree Trail, which starts at what is now the Visitor Centre, looked like. The boardwalks over the wetter spots were pretty basic, but functional.

In all of the hundreds and hundreds of school kids we took out on the trail, I don't think we ever had a student fall off into the water.

Kids would enjoy getting on their bellies and peer into the water, or whatever was below. These photos were taken in the 1970s and 1980s.

Fast forward to the mid-1990s, and extensive new boardwalks were installed, complete with railings. Kids don't have the ability to get down closer for a look, but I expect the teachers are a little more comfortable with taking their class across the slough areas.

Jumping back to a much earlier time, in the really early 1900s, you might have been able to spot an elk roaming around the park. An elk, you say?? Yep.

At the time, wildlife exchanges were not unheard of at all. In a previous post I mentioned about some of Rondeau's black squirrels being shipped off to Washington, D. C., where the colour of squirrels there were predominantly grey (and both blacks and greys officially are referred to as the Eastern Grey Squirrel) And a few Algonquin area deer were sent to Rondeau early last century. I'm not sure where this elk came from but it was present at the park for a few years, and known as Tommy the Elk. 

Going back in time even further, here is a scene from Erieau, looking across the channel to the lighthouse at the tip of the Rondeau peninsula. It was probably in the late 1800s, as the pier was initially build in the mid to late 1800s.

That lighthouse no longer occurs there. You can see that there were several buildings associated with it,  as part of the lighthouse operation, no doubt. The story goes, as I heard it anyway, is that the Harrison Trail that runs the length of Rondeau was the route that Thomas Harrison took as he traveled through the park and out the south beach to manage this lighthouse. That was at a time when the sand spit was connected to where that lighthouse was located. It would be at the north end of the channel, where the white V is shown in the next photo. I took this aerial photo in April, 1989, and clearly the tip of Rondeau has become separated from the short pier where that lighthouse was situated. It had been separated for quite a few years before, and was the result of decades of erosion caused by the main pier interrupting the water currents. But that is a topic for a whole other post or two.

At any rate, this is what the current view is from the same general vantage point.

Thus ends Part II of the Rondeau story. Maybe there will be a Part III.

If you would like to subscribe, or unsubscribe, to Nature Nuggets, send an email to: prairietramper@gmail.com

Eagles galore and a new species of squirrel confirmed for Rondeau!

 It wasn't so long ago, a mere 40 years more or less, when seeing a Bald Eagle was quite the unusual birding experience. In fact in about the mid-1970s, there was only one breeding pair of them along the north shore of Lake Erie between Long Point and the Detroit River. That was a pair at Rondeau, where even there, they did not produce young every year, and if they did, it was only a single eaglet. Historically there had been on average one nesting pair for every mile of the Lake Erie shoreline in that area. Bald Eagles were put onto the first edition of Ontario's Endangered Species Act, back in 1973. 

The resurgence of Bald Eagles is one of the good news stories of the last 40 years. In the hierarchy of rarity, it went from endangered status, to threatened status, and has for the past decade or two, been downgraded to the special concern status. New nesting pair are showing up regularly. As I have mentioned in a previous post, even about 4 years ago I knew of 26 nesting pairs in Chatham-Kent alone, with likely some others being around that I hadn't caught up with. In fact a couple of years ago I met up with an eagle enthusiast who knew of 30 nests in C-K, although I know that sometimes eagles have more than one nest that they move back and forth to, so the number of nests doesn't automatically reflect the number of nesting pairs. Regardless, they are definitely increasing and show no signs of that changing. And that is a good thing. The sight of an eagle always causes people to pause and enjoy.

It should be noted that it was 60 years ago in 1962 when Rachel Carson published her world-changing book "Silent Spring" that got people, including President John F. Kennedy, to realize what chemicals in the environment, such as DDT, were doing to birds like Bald Eagles. Of course the Bald Eagle is the USA's national bird, so that likely had something to do with any action to reduce the use of DDT. At any rate, the use of DDT declined, and eventually egg shells of eagles that had become so thin that they broke before getting to the stage of young hatching, became stronger and slowly but surely, more young were produced.

In my last post, I mentioned an eagle 'convention' of as many as 40 birds observed near or on a large private wetland area along Lake St. Clair. I went to the mouth of the Thames River and saw a few there, as expected. Since that visit to the lower reaches of the Thames River, I went out again, and there were at least 14 Bald Eagles, and this time I had some fly by giving me much better photo opportunities.

There were several adults, including the one at the top of this post. It landed in a tree right across the river from me.

There were more sub-adults than adults, mostly in the 1 or 2 year age range.

Bald Eagles have become so common that a birding site which I periodically send less common bird photos to, don't want to receive any more of eagles!

When I wasn't watching for eagles to photograph, there were at least half a dozen Great Blue Herons scattered along the river.

There were a few open spots here and there, so presumably they were finding enough to feed on, or were otherwise not energetic enough to move to someplace where there was.

A few days ago I heard about an unusual squirrel that was coming into a feeder at the north end of Rondeau. It was reported to be a Red Squirrel, which is not an expected species at all. It generally is more northern than what one should find in the Carolinian forests of southwestern Ontario. Nonetheless there have been a few observations in southwestern Ontario and closer to Rondeau, but never a confirmed one inside the park boundaries. Of course I had to check it out.

On my first attempt, it did not put in an appearance, so I moved on to other things and places to explore in the park. On my second attempt, late last week, I waited patiently for it but again, it did not show up at the feeder. The feeder area was busy with various birds, so I was able to put my photography urges in gear, and got these next three shots.

Northern Cardinals are fairly plentiful, and always nice to see. They always look their best and brightest in the later stages of winter.

Red-winged Blackbirds are not common anywhere in southern Ontario over the winter, but this one seemed to be content using what feed was available to it. It won't be long before many thousands are back.

I gave up watching this feeder area, and parked myself in my vehicle near another location not far away where it had been periodically seen. I didn't have to wait long. Within about 15  minutes, it appeared in some shrubbery and I got about three photos before another vehicle came along to dump some garbage. With that, the squirrel scampered up the trunk of a large White Oak, giving me a rear end look before disappearing. And this is, as far as I know, the first confirmed record of American Red Squirrel within the park's boundaries.

It is unknown how the squirrel arrived. It may have come along on a load of firewood, or it may have hitched a ride with a camper/trailer. Regardless, given that it is the only one of its kind in the park as far as we know, the population is not going to expand.

Yesterday I got word of a rare duck at Erieau, a male Barrow's Goldeneye. Shortly after getting the message I headed out, since I was planning to go out somewhere anyway. There were three others there when I arrived. It was very cold, at about -7C and quite windy with winds in the 30-50 k/hr range. Fortunately we had the wind at our backs, but it still made looking through the 'scope challenging with the vibration. Adding to the challenge was a bit of wave action, causing the birds to bob up and down when they weren't diving under. We eventually saw the bird out on the far bit of open water, but too far away to try for a photo. There was a much closer patch of open water we were hoping it would come to, but it didn't while we were there, so the only 'photos' we went away with were in our minds. Later in the day I heard that it did come in to the closer patch, briefly, but at least some that were there managed to get some record photos. I settled for a much more abundant species of waterfowl, which came in to the closer open patch.

There were numerous other species of waterfowl as well as a couple of Bald Eagles off in the distance.

I meandered a bit after leaving Erieau, but didn't find anything to photograph. However when I was just around the corner from home, and stopped at an intersection, this adult Bald Eagle flew almost right overhead! I got a couple of quick shots just opening the window and sticking the camera lens out. It isn't quite as crisp as I would have liked, partially because one seldom gets a crisp photo using a camera/lens that has been sitting inside a warmish vehicle and pointing it out into the frigid cold.

If you want to subscribe, or unsubscribe, to Nature Nuggets, send an email to: prairietramper@gmail.com

Mid-winter birding

 Birding has definitely quietened down, which is typical for the mid-winter period. There are a few lingering species, but most of what is around are fairly typical wintering species. Getting out and about does provide a few photo opportunities, however.

There is still a good number of geese and even swans around, and as long as there is a bit of open water and not too much snow on the fields, I expect that trend to continue. In checking out some of the flocks of geese and swans, one comes across an occasional less expected lingering species. Such was the case when I was checking out the waterfowl at St. Clair NWA recently. After scanning a lot of birds, I came across this Snow Goose. Fortunately it was even on the closest side of the flock making this quite clear photo relatively easy.

As expected, there was a mix of geese and swans.

A closer look at the flock had the bird in the lower right hand side of the photo get my attention. It was a little smaller than the usual Canada Geese, and the bill was a bit smaller as well. At first I was considering Cackling Goose, but it didn't look quite small enough, and the bill looked a bit too large for a typical Cackler. Also the upper chest was light coloured, rather than the darker colour of a typical Cackling Goose. There are many races and sizes in the Canada Goose complex, and I ultimately decided it could be a Richardson's Canada Goose.

There had been quite a few Bald Eagles, up to 40 individuals, reported from the same general wetland complex along Lake St. Clair. That is a notable number, but not entirely unexpected. A couple of years ago on the SCNWA Christmas Bird Count, we tallied at least 58 birds, and there could have been more. In fact there were more reported by all of the observers that day, but I suspected there was some double counting since they are a large bird that would have potentially crossed into more than one observer's territory, so downgraded the total to a mere 58. That was a record for that CBC, and almost unheard of anywhere in Ontario. However eagles migrate here to the southwest, and since there were still lots of waterfowl around to feed on, especially with the ongoing hunting season that might have resulted in crippled ducks and geese, the eagles would likely take advantage of it. And why not if the food is there for the taking.

In some years, Lake St. Clair is almost completely frozen over, and any eagles that persist this far into the winter are scattered far and wide across the ice and along the lake shore areas. With no ice to rest on, and still a fair bit of food to partake of, they are more likely to be found along the shoreline areas.

Since the large number of eagles reported were on an extensive private marsh, I didn't try and attempt to see them. However I did travel to the Jeanette's Creek boat launch area, which provides a good look upstream and downstream along the Thames River, and I have regularly seen a few eagles there. On this occasion when I checked it out, I saw at least a dozen, and since some were on the move a bit, there were likely more. Especially since a lot of the riverine habitat was upstream from where I was able to see, and certainly much closer to where the aforementioned 40 birds were reported.

I managed to get a few photos, but most were quite a distance away, and so were difficult to get good shots of without a lot of cropping of the photos. Some young birds were cavorting in the sky, practicing for when they got old enough to attract a mate or defending a territory. Or maybe they were just enjoying the wonder of flight.

Most were sub-adults, and once in awhile a bird would get a bit closer.

And sometimes this was about the only view.

When I wasn't looking for eagles, I saw and photographed some of the 5 Great Blue Herons that were scattered along the river edge.

This Northern Harrier came upon me quite suddenly, and I was unprepared with the proper camera settings, so this is the best I could do.

I have been out to Rondeau on occasion (big surprise!), primarily to go for a good walk and photograph a few things that I will deal with in a future post. The woods are fairly quiet this time of year but I still marvel at the forest complex as I walk along. I have managed to see one of the resident Eastern Screech Owls on occasion....

...and a few Northern Cardinals here and there.

Yesterday I purposely stopped by the Blenheim Sewage Lagoons, hoping to see a Ross's Goose that appears either there or in the Erieau area on occasion. There were no geese in the lagoons themselves, but a couple of Mute Swans gave a good photo opportunity. I had to photograph something to show for my time there.....:-)

...and then I realized that there were several hundred geese out on a wheat field adjacent to the lagoons, so drove around to check them out. I wasn't certain I would be able to find a small white goose if it was a long way out on a snow-covered field, but fortunately it was in one of the closer groups of geese.

It was still probably 250-300 metres from the road, so only got a distant and highly cropped shot, but good enough for identification purposes.

If you want to subscribe, or unsubscribe, to Nature Nuggets, send an email to: prairietramper@gmail.com