It's snowing geese!

With the warm spell of a few days ago, the waterfowl returned in considerable numbers. Geese in particular are getting a lot of attention, but not the usual Canada Geese. We've had a ton of Snow Geese, including lots of the darker morphs known as blues, to enjoy. Numbers as high as 200 have been seen, but since there are so many and they are often on the move to some extent, it is hard to know exactly how many are around. I know that number pales in comparison to the tens of thousands that show up in extreme eastern Ontario in the fall, but it is a very good number for this area. The only time I remember a larger number in the Rondeau checklist area was back in the very late 1960s, when there were a couple of thousand that came through for a few days in the fall. A hard north east wind had blown them off their usual course, and they were making use of the corn stubble fields in the south Chatham-Kent area. They would fly almost right over the house that I grew up in on their way from the bay to the corn fields. That was back in my hunting days, and a couple of my buddies and I were successful in getting two or three birds.

On Tuesday of this week, they were coming to their usual field along New Scotland Line, which they had been using for at least a week. Often they were a kilometre or more back from the road, but every once in awhile, at some point in the day, they would come fairly close....sometimes less than 100 metres from the road. They did this on the second time that I stopped that day. Just as I pulled off the road, I noted several groups of them headed straight for me, and some landed as close as about 80 metres! Unfortunately, it was a dull, snowy, drizzly day, and even at that relatively close distance, the images were not as clear as I would like. But you have to take what you get.

And when they got close enough, and I looked at some of the images more closely on the computer, I realized I had captured some of the Ross's Geese as well as some Snow X Ross's hybrids.

Snow Geese

Snows and Ross's and Canadas

 There could be as many as 4 or 5 Ross's or hybrid Snow X Ross's in this next image.

A Ross's Goose looks like a smaller version of a Snow Goose, with the following differences: smaller of course, about the size of a large Mallard; shorter legs, a rounder head, a stubbier bill, no 'grin' patch on the beak; bluish purple colouration at the base of the bill; a more vertical feather line at the base of the bill.

Of course unless you see things really clearly and from the best angle, not all of those characteristics are necessarily visible. A photo only shows that singular fraction of a moment in time when the shutter clicked, and you can't get multiple angles from one photo. To make things even more complicated, Ross's Geese hybridize with Snow Geese, so any or all of those characteristics can be more like one species than the other.

Unfortunately these images which were taken on that snowy, drizzly day are less than clear. But they do seem to fit a decent version of a Ross's

 This next one shows the closest goose to be about the size of a Mallard, shown in the foreground at the right. It maybe a little pudgier, but most characteristics fit compared to the Snow Goose just behind it.

 And a similar one with a Mallard and Snow Goose for comparison.

There have been Greater White-fronted Geese at the Ridgetown Sewage Lagoons, which I showed on my previous post. And lots of ducks on the mostly open water of Rondeau Bay, including large rafts of Canvasback.

But that was earlier this week, and with the arrival of very cold weather again, it is a different story out there. A trip today, under brighter and clearer conditions was in order. The bay is mostly frozen. The swans were still around, but widely scattered along the far edges of the ice. The Snow Geese were all packed in to a tight group, but a long way out. This group was at least a kilometre away from the closest viewing point at the end of the LTVCA trail. I counted 142 Snow Geese, although there likely were a few Ross's and hybrids mixed in, but too far away to tell.

 These shots aren't quite as sharp as I would like, partly due to the distance and there is some thermal affect from the sun reflecting off the bright snow and ice. But it was partly due to the camera.......

A side note: late last fall, I was experiencing some auto-focus problems with my Canon 7D2, which sometimes resulted in it stopping to focus altogether. It was only by turning the camera off, taking the battery out, waiting a few minutes and putting things back that it worked the way it was supposed to, at least temporarily. So in early January, it was sent in for repairs under warranty. I got it back last week, only to discover that it now failed to show any information in the viewfinder regarding ISO, shutter speed, f/stop, etc. So back it went to the repair facility. I got it back yesterday (Wednesday), so it was a quick turn-around, and today I wanted to try it out. It seems like everything is back the way it should be, but I now need to go through the Auto Focus Micro Adjustment, which is a really useful way to fine-tune the focus and match the individual camera to each lens. Going through the AFMA steps will be done soon!

Tundra Swans in flight, Snow Geese on the ice

 

I included a trip to Erieau, thinking that the increase in ice cover would concentrate ducks in the harbour area. There were a few American Coot hanging in there, with 17 seen. The numbers have been dwindling over the last little while. It is a far cry from the ~4000 that were there in late December! With the arrival of even more cold weather in the next few days, who knows how many of these few will survive!

Canada Geese were around in small numbers as well.

A highlight was seeing this male Hooded Merganser in the harbour, but it didn't stick around long.

Common Mergansers were, well, fairly common, and by far the most abundant duck close to Erieau with at least 100.

Bufflehead weren't really quite paired up yet, but the males looked dazzling and there was definitely some courtship in progress.

I was hoping that the Harlequin Duck and Long-tailed Duck were still around, and they might be, but weren't showing themselves. With the extreme cold over the next 2-3 days, I expect that the entire bay will be frozen over again, so birds that decide to stick around will be even more concentrated.

And now, I'm off to AFMA my camera.

Gaggles, Teams and a Parliament of birds

What a difference a year makes. This time last year, one might as well have gone into hibernation with the frigid cold and snowy conditions that prevailed. So it is nice to enjoy the present spring-like conditions, making it easy to get around, and with lots of open water to attract birds.

The Shrewsbury dock area continues to be a great vantage point to see waterfowl. I haven't caught up to the Bewick's Tundra Swan yet, but have seen lots of the usual Tundras as well as Snow Geese, including the blue phase. Perhaps the Trumpeter Swans are still around, but they are harder and harder to find with so many Tundras. A large number of swans is referred to as a Bevy, a Wedge (when in the air) or a Team.

Flight of the Tundras

 

Snow Geese mixed in with the Canadas and much larger Tundra Swans

 There are lots of ducks around, including large numbers of Canvasbacks

Canvasback (mostly) and Redhead

There are the inevitable Mute Swans as well.

A trip to the Rondeau Bay area wouldn't be complete without at least a bit of time at Rondeau. Woodland birds are pretty few and far between at this time of year, so I took a hike out the western side of the South Point Trail, out to the lake. I had the place pretty much to myself, seeing only one other hiker.

There is no shoreline ice, meaning that erosion is continuing. Nonetheless, the wave action is creating some interesting icicle features along the shoreline.

The Ridgetown Sewage Lagoons are often attractive to geese, and right now is no exception. There have been as many as a dozen Greater White-fronted Geese around, a species that is always a highlight. I only saw 6 on the occasion that I was there, but the others were likely just over the berm and out of sight. They were mixed with 4 Snow Geese and a bunch of Canadas. Of course they chose to be in the farthest cell, so these images had to be cropped considerably.

Greater White-fronts in the lagoon

Greater White-fronts, Snow Geese and Canadas in the adjacent field

Snow Geese and Greater White-fronts in the lagoon

Today I roamed around part of Dover Twp in the vicinity of St. Clair NWA. SCNWA is always a good spot to find waterfowl, almost any time of the year. However today there were not a lot compared with a few weeks ago when we held the Christmas Bird Count. There were 4-500 Canada Geese ( a large group of which is called a 'gaggle'), about 60 Tundra Swans and a few Mallards and Blacks. I was hoping to pick out a more unusual goose or two, and was able to see a couple of Cackling Geese, which are a miniature version of Canada. At one point not that many years ago, there were about 11 subspecies of Canadas, including some of the really small ones. However a decade or so ago, genetics determined that the four smallest subspecies were distinct enough to warrant their own species status, and the Cackling Goose was established as a full species. They are much smaller than the average Canada, with a shorter neck, and a stubbier bill. There are two individuals in this image, with the center one the most distinctive.

In other meanderings around Dover, I noted a single Snowy Owl along Heron Line just east of SCNWA. It was well out in the field, beside a tuft of grass. As I checked out the area along Meadowvale Line, in the former Chatham Twp just east of Hwy 40, I came across 4 Snowies out in a field, and all within easy sight of each other. A group of owls is called a 'parliament' (not sure why it has a particular political connotation, as owls are believed to be intelligent, and politicians are.....). Just kidding!

They were still a ways off out in the field, but the light was decent and after very heavy cropping, I came up with these two images.

With the weather turning a little more winter-like over the next few days, I doubt that these Snowies will be going too far.

Ground-hog Day or World Wetlands Day....take your pick

Yesterday, Feb 2, was Ground-hog Day. While I don't want to denigrate the ability of those furry rodent prognosticators across the land in speculating the arrival of spring, perhaps just as importantly, it was another notable day: World Wetlands Day.

There is a worthwhile blog post about wetlands on the Canadian Geographic site, located here.

Wetlands, and of course the lakes, rivers and streams that they are often associated with, are critical to a lot of life, including yours and mine. In fact the survival of most plant and animal life is dependent to varying degrees, on water.

Here in Chatham-Kent, at the time of settlement, according to a 1987 paper, the landscape was made up of 66% wetland, which includes both marsh and swamp. By 1967, only 5% remained and by 1982, that number had dropped further to 3.7%. I don't have figures for the current status, but I expect we have all seen more wetlands disappear than re-appear on the landscape, and there are continuous threats to those few remaining wetlands. For a municipality with less than 5% natural area, not a lot of that is in wetland form, so it is fair to say that wetlands have declined significantly since 1982.

St. Clair area wetlands

In the early 1970s, 21 participating nations met in Iran, and established the Ramsar Convention, which is more formally known as the Convention of Wetlands of International Importance. Its purpose was to be a treaty for the conservation and sustainable utilization of wetlands for their economic, cultural, scientific and recreational values. Wetland sites were nominated across many of the participatory nations, which typically were some of the most nationally and internationally significant sites.

Some of the wetlands in Chatham-Kent and neighbouring counties were nominated, but currently only two have been adopted as a Ramsar Site. They are Point Pelee National Park and St. Clair National Wildlife Area.

St. Clair NWA

The wetlands along the eastern and northern sides of Lake St. Clair are well known for their attraction to migrating and nesting waterfowl. Some of the stats regarding its significance (based on the Ramsar Convention website) are:

• 25% of the North American population of Tundra Swans pass through the area;

Resting swans and geese

• over 200,000 Canada Geese pass through the area.

Tundra Swans, Canada Geese and a few ducks

Canada Geese

• up to 360,000 individual waterbirds pass through the area, including Canvasback, Redhead and Mallards. During the most recent Christmas Bird Count for this area, on January 1, 2016,  our one day count of waterfowl totalled over 55,000 birds. In 2007, our one day count totalled over 95,000 birds!

Diving ducks

Canvasback

Redhead

In addition there are numerous species of wildlife besides waterfowl as well as plants that are dependent on these vast wetlands, including many species at risk such as Swamp Rose Mallow, where at times, can be incredibly profuse as this next image shows. The Canadian range of this species is largely limited to the more significant wetlands of extreme southwestern Ontario.

A lot of Swamp Rose Mallow

Swamp Rose Mallow

At the opposite extreme of the province is one of the largest wetland complexes in Canada: the Hudson Bay Lowland. Polar Bear Provincial Park is a huge part of the Hudson Bay Lowland with an area of almost two and a half million hectares, and is Canada's second largest Ramsar site. (The largest is the Queen Maud Gulf in the NWT, which encompasses over 6 million hectares). I was privileged to have spent several weeks in Polar Bear PP doing some wildlife surveys in the early 1990s. It is an incredible place.

The numbers of shorebirds and waterfowl are amazing. For example, on migration, more than one million Snow Geese pass through, and some breed here in huge colonies.

Blue phase Snow Goose with young

During migration, the area supports almost the entire Arctic population of Red Knot.

Red Knot (Black-bellied Plover in background)

It also supports the entire Arctic breeding population of Marbled Godwit.

Marbled Godwit

Marbled Godwits

We found Parasitic Jaegers nesting, as well as Pacific Loons.

Parasitic Jaeger

Pacific Loon

Semipalmated Plovers were nesting close to our camp, and Bonaparte's Gulls were nesting in some of the spruce trees.

Semipalmated Plover

Bonaparte's Gull

In spite of the recognition of these internationally significant wetlands, so many other significant wetlands of southwestern Ontario have been lost, or are threatened and may be gone tomorrow, or next year. These losses are attributed to our economic development of the area, including agriculture and urbanization. We are all at least partially responsible, and the decline in habitat quality and species diversity continues. Yet I read just today of a prominent spokes person for the industry stating that to demonstrate the environmental responsibility of his industry, the evidence is in the increasing numbers of frogs, birds and other animal populations on the landscape.

Huh???

No examples were provided, because to this person, it was evident by just looking around. I'm not really sure what that person was looking at, however, as the overwhelming evidence is exactly the opposite. Our native populations of flora and fauna have been in decline for decades, and show no signs of letting up. In fact the number of officially, legally Rare, Threatened and Endangered Species has never been higher, and there are dozens and dozens of other species waiting to be evaluated to determine their status. The only thing that is increasing on the landscape is the abundance of non-native invasive species. And that will be discussed in another post.