Sun, cloud, warmth, cold, wind, rain....it's all happening!

If you don't like the weather, wait 5 minutes, or at the most a day......the ups and downs lately are really spring like....all over the place, although maybe more like late March than mid April.

The burst of warmth for a couple of days recently has ushered in some action, especially with respect to spring wildflowers, butterflies and frogs. Birds....well it has been a start, but not nearly as well represented with rarities than some other places east and west of Rondeau. Maybe there needs to be more people out looking???

Regardless, some of these recent days have been wonderful to be out. On some days with a bit of warmth and virtually no wind, it has been most enjoyable. Although Rondeau sticks out into the lake which makes the weather cooler if the wind is off the water, there are some more sheltered areas where things are happening. Wildflowers started really popping up. One day last week there was nothing to be seen, and two days later, I noted Bloodroot, Sharp-lobed Hepatica, Spring Beauty and Dutchman's Breeches all showing up. Colt'sfoot, a non-native species, was also in flower.

Hepatica

Bloodroot

Bloodroot

A pair of Killdeer were acting suspicious near the parking lot of the churches, and I thought I picked out where a potential nest might be. After they left the immediate area, I checked and found these two eggs.

Knowing that the adults wouldn't start to incubate until at least the third of four eggs was laid, I checked a couple of days later, and sure enough there was an adult sitting on the nest. I didn't go too close and the next image shows not much more than the head of the incubating bird.

Along the Tuliptree Trail, an Eastern Phoebe was building its nest under the boardwalk. Note the bit of mud in this one's beak.

Chipping Sparrows are abundant. It is not hard to find 30-50 birds in various places over the course of a day.

Eastern Bluebirds are scattered about in small numbers or pairs. This one, or one just like it, has been in the vicinity of the east side of the campground for at least a couple of weeks.

Brown Thrashers and Eastern Towhees are widely scattered in the various open areas and forest edges. Towhees are particularly abundant.....it isn't hard to find a dozen or more at least via their song, if not actually seeing them.

Brown Thrasher

Eastern Towhee

White-throated Sparrows are appearing, and although there may be the occasional one that survived the winter in the vicinity of a feeder, they seem to be showing up in other places, and are likely migrants.

Turkey Vultures are abundant as well. It isn't uncommon to see a couple of dozen soaring over the park. I think in recent years they have nested somewhere in an old tree trunk. On the colder mornings, when there aren't many thermals to ride along on, they will be roosting in trees like this one.

Along the Erieau Rail Trail, someone has put up a couple of Wood Duck boxes. The Woodies haven't discovered them yet to my knowledge, but Tree Swallows have! It seems a bit odd to see a Tree Swallow investigating a Wood Duck box given the size difference, but this one was going into it on a regular basis!

Nearby this Wood Duck box, was a Painted Turtle basking in a sheltered part of the cattail vegetation.

 The warmest days brought out the frogs, too. There are still decent choruses of Wood Frogs and Spring Peepers, and Leopard Frogs can be heard giving their 'snoring' call. This shallow marshy spot at the beginning of the Marsh Trail had a lot of Leopard Frog activity. There was lots of calling, some actual mating, as well as evidence of egg masses. This next image shows a Leopard Frog with its calling sacs partially inflated while nearby, the reproductive efforts of a pair of frogs is evident by the cluster of dark eggs in a jelly-like mass. If the water remains long enough, the eggs will hatch in a few days, and numerous tadpoles will begin a more active stage of life. Of course many may end up as tasty morsels for a variety of predators, including raccoons, herons, water snakes, other frogs, various species of fish, dragonfly larvae and even larger tadpoles of their own kind!

Another frog species that so far I've only seen and not heard this spring is the Green Frog. I noted several out thermoregulating (i.e. basking) along the Spicebush Trail. Interestingly when I looked at this photo on the computer, I noted that in addition to the adult, there was a tadpole from last year's age class also in the photo....it is situated just a bit above the stick towards the upper left of this photo.

Also noticeable by their increasing numbers were butterflies, especially on the warmest and sunniest days. I saw at least a couple of dozen Mourning Cloaks, and about half as many Eastern Commas. Trees with a wound in their bark, causing the sap to run down the trunk were very attractive to butterflies and other insects looking for the sweet sap for sustenance.

Mourning Cloak

Eastern Comma

There were at least a couple of Red Admirals flitting around, but did not stick around long enough to be photographed.

FYI, all of the above images were taken with my new Canon 100-400 mm II lens. My older, first version of the Canon 100-400 lens which served me faithfully for a few years and is in very good shape, is still available for sale.

At one of the main camera dealers in Ontario, a used one is listed on their site for ~$1300. I am willing to sell mine for $950, which  also includes a Pro 1 77mm UV filter.

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.

More northerly water falls

Water is falling, and it's not just liquid precipitation!

A few weeks ago (March 8) I posted about some of my favourite waterfalls in southern and southwestern Ontario. I gave a bit of detail on how I go about photographing the various falls, and some of the danger to be aware of.

On this post I want to share some of the waterfalls a bit farther east and north.

This first one is High Falls, northeast of Peterborough. Several years ago I went in with others to see it. It was at least a kilometre from the road and I don't think I could get to it again since it wasn't along any particular access trail.

More than one waterfall is called High Falls. This is one also known as High Falls, in the Bracebridge area, another municipality which like Hamilton, has a lot of waterfalls in the vicinity. It has a large volume of water going over it most of the time. A small park and picnic area is nearby.

Also in the greater Bracebridge area is Wilson's Falls. It isn't as impressive from a distance, but a trail leads right to the falls itself.

A short distance north of Huntsville is one of the more accessible and impressive falls that one can get quite intimate with. I visit it several times a year in various seasons.

Brooks Falls in February

Brooks Falls in October

A short distance downstream from Brooks Falls proper

 If you go to Manitoulin Island and come from the north via Espanola, you actually drive over these next falls, which are not visible from the highway. You have to get off at the small community of Whitefish Falls to find it. Once you get onto Manitoulin, at the village of Kagawong, is the impressive plunge falls known as Bridal Veil Falls. You can walk right around it, and even swim in the plunge pool.

Whitefish Falls

Bridal Veil Falls

Just west of Espanola, at the village of Massey, is Chutes Provincial Park. The numerous waterfalls there are mostly not plunge type, but more likely to be the cascade type, as shown in the next two images. Cascade types are longer but do not usually have as much of a vertical drop.

A bit northeast of Sudbury is Onaping Falls, which drops about 150 feet in a series of drops. One of the Group Of Seven, A. Y. Jackson, used this site for the subject of a painting on canvas. The next image was taken from the A. Y. Jackson lookout.

East of North Bay, half way to Mattawa is the Eau Claire Gorge Conservation Area, which features the Eau Claire waterfall. It is difficult to photograph, since about the only vantage point is right at the top and much of the cascade goes too close and under the viewing point. Nonetheless it is impressive to see, especially with a large volume of water flowing.

In the North Bay area is a very impressive and accessible falls, known as Duchesnay Falls. It is visible from the Trans Canada Highway, but it much more appreciated from the trail system.

View from the highway

Spring flow at Duchesnay Falls

 This next one is actually one of my favourite parts of Duchesnay Falls, but it is most impressive when the larger falls has a large volume of water, which spills over to this smaller side falls.

Big trees, birds, butterflies.....and snakes!

The last couple of days have been more spring-like, and great to be out! On Wednesday, I went out to Rondeau in search of Big Trees, and found some :-). On this day, I concentrated most of my time in the vicinity of the south half of the campground, as well as the day-use area between the campground and the maintenance area.

There are some big trees there. You've probably driven by this first one on many occasions. It is right along Rondeau Park Ave, immediately south of the campground. It is an Eastern Cottonwood, a fairly fast growing species. It measured 135 cm dbh, which is exactly the same diameter as the huge Red Oak I posted about previously.

Eastern Cottonwood, 135 cm dbh

A large Black Walnut was nearby, but measuring a mere 113 cm dbh.

Both of these two, although they appear to be open grown, are quite tall without any large lower branches. The next two are oaks, and are open grown and the one in particular shows the remains of two very large lower branches, which have been cut off for some reason. Since it was in the campground, maybe they were cut off to prevent interfering with camping trailers.

Black Oak, 120 cm dbh

 Clearly this is not a forest grown tree where the trunk would be straight and unbranched for 6-10 metres or more. The extra bulges where the lowest branches used to be happen to be at the height where official measurements are to be made (1.4m).

Red Oak, 131 cm dbh

Overall I managed to measure about 70 trees, most of which were in the 80 cm to 135 cm range, and would qualify them as representing older growth. So far I've measured about 100 trees, and have barely scratched the surface......the more I look around specifically for trees in that size range, the more I see from one end of the park to the other......I probably have only a couple of thousand more to go! And I am intentionally not measuring anything below 70cm dbh, unless it is a species which seldom grows that big even at the best of times (e.g. Sassafrass), or I would have a lot more to do. While some references on Old Growth indicated that any tree bigger than 50 cm might be an indication of old growth, there are a huge number of trees at Rondeau which are in the 50-70 cm range.

In spite of the snow still on the ground in patches, when the sun was out it was fairly warm at ground level. But I was a bit surprised to see these two Eastern Garter Snakes out basking. I suspect they must have just emerged that day. I noticed a small hole about a metre away, going into an old tree root where they might have accessed a suitable cavity below the frost line.

In addition to these two snakes, I saw my first butterfly of the season...an Eastern Comma, but it was so active and flying steadily away, I didn't get any photos.

This Killdeer was a bit more cooperative, and it was successful in getting some small worm-like creatures to feed on.

Yesterday, I decided to take a break from measuring trees (although in my travels, I certainly was on the lookout for them). I figured with the clear skies the previous night and the southerly winds, some new bird migrants might have shown up. I was successful in finding a few, and even got a few photos of some.

There was a significant arrival of Northern Flicker, as I saw at least 11 in various places.

Eastern Phoebes were widely scattered. I saw at least 9.

There was the typical mix of Brown-headed Cowbirds, Red-winged Blackbirds and Common Grackles in various places.

Brown-headed Cowbird

This immature White-crowned Sparrow was near the Visitor Centre. It might have been the one that was seen coming into the feeder most of the winter, but I hadn't seen it for a couple of weeks. Turkey Vultures have been around for a few days; some were roosting in trees rather than soaring around.

imm White-crowned Sparrow

Turkey Vulture

I also saw a single Tree Swallow flying low over the still frozen Rondeau Bay, and heading south! There were more Golden-crowned Kinglets around than I've seen in awhile, and a Brown Thrasher was scratching around in the leaves at the side of the trail. Black-capped Chickadees and Tufted Titmice were singing away, and it seemed like there were more Brown Creepers around.

I stopped in at Erieau at one point, hoping that with much of the bay and lake still frozen, waterfowl might be a little more concentrated, providing some photo ops. There were lots of Canvasback in flooded fields just outside of the village, with a few other typical species also present.

Gadwall

Red-breasted Mergansers

Bonaparte's Gulls were around in greater numbers than I have seen for several months. There were at least 40, and some were sporting some darker head feathers.

While scanning the marina slip for different gulls, I noticed some movement on the far side. A little distant for a good shot, but still identifiable as a mink.

Camera equipment for sale
A few posts ago, I mentioned that I have a new Canon 100-400mm L II lens. It has been working extremely well, and I am looking forward to using its close focus capabilities for birds, butterflies, dragonflies, etc as the opportunities present themselves along the trails. But this means that my faithful older Canon 100-400mm L lens is no longer needed, and I am willing to sell it. Many of the butterfly, dragonfly and even bird shots of the first year of this blog were taken with it.

In looking at some of the main camera dealers, a brand new version of this lens is $1870.00, plus tax. A used version of this lens on their web site is $1300.00, plus tax.

I am willing to sell my lens, which is in very good shape, and includes a Pro 1 77mm UV filter, for $950.00.

I also have a Canon 1.4X II tele converter. A used one retails for $320.00 plus tax. I am willing to sell mine for $250.00.  Update: this item is now sold.


If you are interested in either piece of equipment, just let me know.