Late March Action: birds and herps

A slow but steady stream of migrants have appeared here in Chatham-Kent. Now that the ice is gone from lakes, etc., except for some edges, waterfowl and gulls have a lot more area. This first photo shows a large 'ice berg' way out in Lake St. Clair off of Mitchell's Bay, but that is about all the ice there is except for a few edges.

But where bits of loose ice remains, it can be a good place to watch gulls. One day not long ago I came across a frenzy of gulls on some loose pack ice at Mitchell's Bay. There were, as usual, a few immature Herring Gulls feeding on fish that were dead and lying on the ice.

 And then an adult would come in and challenge the youngster.

 But then the fish feast might not have been so appealing.....

 .....and hence decided to express its real thoughts.

 While I was watching the various Herring Gulls, I noticed another gull. It was a Lesser Black-backed Gull, and gave me some of the best opportunities I've had in a long time to photograph this species.

 Still on the gull theme, I had heard that both an adult and immature Little Gull had been seen in the last few days, on Rondeau Bay and at the Keith McLean Conservation Lands. I made an effort to find them there, but was unsuccessful. However when I was checking the Erieau Rail Trail a couple of days ago, there were several Bonapartes Gulls flying along the edge of the bay/marsh area, and then an adult Little Gull appeared. It wasn't very close, so these photos are greatly cropped. The mostly gray upper wing and the darker underwing are characteristic, although before long, the underwing will be quite a bit darker.

 Also along the Rail Trail were a few Ring-necked Ducks, which seem to be quite plentiful in many marshes and adjacent areas these days.

Horned Grebes are starting to appear. I saw several at Erieau, and one was close by in one of the boat slips, affording some decent photo ops. This individual has a long way to go before it is in full breeding plumage, which is usually the case this early in the season. I always am intrigued by the bright red eye.

This past Monday I got my first butterfly of the season, an Eastern Comma, but it was flitting steadily and never gave any photo ops. I also heard my first of the season Spring Peepers. It won't be long now until Wood and Chorus Frogs will be in full vocal mode in the sloughs of Rondeau. Certainly things like House Finches are singing loudly. There seems to be lots of them around right now, as evidenced by their vocalizations.

Today I went out to check a few places in the former Dover Township. There were lots of ducks at SCNWA, including the aforementioned Ring-necks and Shovelers. But I didn't see anything new so kept on going. Right across from the NWA headquarters were three Sandhill Cranes in the field. The sun was high and warm, so there was a lot of heat haze to contend with and all the other photos were deleted.

 Just around the corner from SCNWA, along Rivard Line, was an ongoing Snowy Owl. I had 5 Snowies in the area a bit north of here just a few days ago, but only two today.

 At the Mitchell's Bay South Nature Trail, there was the usual mix of ducks. I also got three Pied-billed Grebes. Two were hooting in the thicker part of the marsh, and the third was furtively hanging out in one of the slips along the trail, but was camera shy. So I took a photo of one of the pair of Groundhogs that were frolicking along the edge of the trail.

The canal along the trail has been warming up, as evidenced by the half a dozen Midland Painted Turtles I saw basking in several places. I also had a large frog plop into the canal, probably a Bullfrog.

At the Bear Creek Unit of SCNWA, I had my first Tree Swallows, but they were constantly swooping over the water in the canal and I did not get any photos.

On the way back I stopped at the Mitchell's Bay North Nature Trail. All of the Phragmites that was killed off last year had been burned, so there was no vegetation to speak of on the berms, and the various canals did not have any birds in them. But just east of the nature trail in a private pond/marsh was something white. A closer look and it turned out to be a Great Egret, my first of the year.

There was a lot of cattail vegetation in the way and I couldn't get very close, so I managed to get around to the road side for a better look. It was much better! There has been the occasional one reported on the Michigan side of the lake already this season, but according to eBird, this one is the first one in Ontario.

Avian Harbinger(s) of Spring

Today, March 20, spring arrives. It seems to have been slow in coming compared to some years. In considering some of the bird arrivals, there have been a few indications of its arrival. Certainly one of the ones quite obvious has been the arrival of Tundra Swans. But by now, many of them have moved farther along their northern migration pathway.

 Ducks are present in quite impressive numbers. As the ice disappears from places like Rondeau Bay, there can easily be 10,000 or more birds of a couple of dozen species scattered across the water. And flooded fields are popular with some. The flooded fields of the Keith McLean Conservation Lands, just north of Rondeau, have had several hundred ducks. One of the more common species in recent days was American Wigeon.

 On occasion there will be the much rarer Eurasian Wigeon somewhere in the mix. Such was the case late last week, although it was never very close for photography.

 Also seen from time to time was another unusual wigeon, which may be a hybrid between American and Eurasian. I haven't seen it yet, but may do so soon.

Some waterfowl are already getting underway with nesting. Pairs of the non-native, and very aggressive, Mute Swan are establishing territories in marshy sections.

 Other species are pairing up even as they pause here in southwestern Ontario before making the next leg of their journey.

Northern Shoveler

Bufflehead

Land birds are becoming more plentiful. American Robins have arrived in good numbers lately, with the darker headed males being the first to arrive.

 Golden-crowned Kinglets are constantly on the move in the shrubs and grasses, searching for an insect to devour.

 Northern Cardinals are frequently heard in song on the sunnier, warmer days.

 There has been an influx of Song Sparrows lately. It is not unusual to see 50 or more in just a couple of hours or so, scattered throughout the open areas and shrubby edges.

But the real harbinger of spring, at least to many, is the Eastern Bluebird. On occasion one or more will manage to stay the winter here in southern Chatham-Kent, but this year there were none to be found once winter finally arrived. So it was with great delight that birders came across half a dozen or so of them at Rondeau in the last few days. Most were seen in the oak savanna habitat between the campground and Lakeshore Road.

 For a brightly coloured bird, they can sometimes be difficult to find as they perch quietly on a branch scanning for evidence of an insect in the dead vegetation below. But watch carefully and eventually their movement will give them away. They don't like to be approached, so waiting quietly for them to come closer is often the best solution. At least it worked for me as they got closer and did not seem to mind my presence.

Waterbird photo ops

One of the highlights of this time of year is the photographic opportunities for water birds. The bird migration is just getting underway in late winter, and where there are bits of open water water birds, and in particular water fowl, are sure to show up. If those bits of open water can be approached easily, the photo ops can be tremendous. But with the rain and warmer weather (finally!) in the immediate forecast, those photo opportunities will be diminishing as quickly as the open water increases. Waterfowl are in their most colourful breeding plumage right now, and sometimes the males can be seen going through their impressive displays in their attempts to attract the attention of a potential mate.

The Thames River just downstream from Chatham has been very worthwhile lately, as the water treatment plant pours water into the river, maintaining at least some open water in even the coldest weather.

There are always a few of the most common species, such as Canada Goose and Mallard.

 Mallards are usually one of the most common ducks here in southwestern Ontario most of the year. Birders don't have to seek them out, as if any ducks are around, Mallards are most likely to be found; although birders have been known to say "Oh, it's just a Mallard" before looking for something less common, a male in breeding plumage is really quite an attractive duck.

Far less common at the Thames River location is American Black Duck, although at places like the Erieau harbour area, they can outnumber Mallards in the winter.

Some of the highlights found at the Thames River location in recent days are the following:

Common Goldeneye

Gadwall

Green-winged Teal pair

Hooded Merganser

 Most of the time the crest is down, but when it is trying to impress a female, it will raise it up.

Northern Pintail pair

Northern Shoveler

Sewage lagoons can be a good location to check. The Ridgetown lagoons on the north side of the road were still frozen over yesterday with no waterfowl except for two Canada Geese on the bank, but the ones on the south side had an open stretch of water with a variety of waterfowl. The light is never all that great looking into the sun, so the cloudy day made it a little more satisfying even though the birds were not very close. There were a couple of less common birds there, including these two Snow Geese, with both a snow and a blue phase.

 Much less expected was this Long-tailed Duck! It is much more likely to be seen on large bodies of water such as the nearby Great Lakes and the St. Clair and Detroit Rivers. I'm not sure if one has ever been seen at these lagoons before.

Other spots with a bit of open water will attract other water birds. The creek along Stefina Line southeast of Blenheim has been reasonably reliable for Wilson's Snipe yet again this winter, but in the last few days there have sometimes been two seen. It is entirely possible that they have both been winter residents, as this species doesn't normally arrive on migration quite yet, and there has been a good stretch of open water in this creek for most of the winter. Lately a Killdeer has been seen along with them. This next photo show all three birds sort of together, with the Killdeer on the left and the two snipe on the right. The far one is not in focus, however.

Earlier in this post I mentioned that waterfowl can sometimes be seen involved their courtship displays. One really needs to have a video to illustrate this, but I haven't achieved that yet. One of the more entertaining species, at least from a birder's perspective, is the Red-breasted Merganser.

Exciting times are ahead!

Barred Owl Barometrics

Owls are a favourite bird of many people, even non-birders. So when a Barred Owl showed up at Rondeau Provincial Park this past December, and has been seen intermittently as recently as yesterday, it is special. This bird is only the fifth known record for the Rondeau checklist area.

There is lots of suitable habitat for Barred Owl at Rondeau, and that begs the question as to why it is so rare. Of course looking at the very limited habitat across much of southwestern Ontario, there aren't many habitat linkages so birds from the species' normal range choosing the best habitat available to them would not be tempted to move into the Rondeau area.

But that may be changing, and not just because the amount of forested habitat here in the southwest is increasing to any extent. For some reason, Barred Owls have been recorded a lot more this winter than usual. It was interesting to read the various Christmas Bird Count reports for this past Dec 15-Jan 5 period to see where these owls were recorded more frequently than usual. Many counts only record them very infrequently if at all, so getting even one was a highlight. Some CBCs had them in record numbers. Okay, usually a single bird was a normal number reported in previous counts, but some counts were reporting as many as 3 birds. The summary reports provided by the count compilers on Ontbirds often made special mention of the presence of Barred Owl on their count.

I did a bit of search on eBird. This first map shows the Barred Owl reports on eBird during the three month period of December 2005 to February 2006 period. The purple rectangles indicate where one or more reports of Barred Owl occurred during that time. The darker the purple, the more reports within that rectangle.

Obviously there were very few reports during that period. However since eBird only got up and running in 2002, lots of birders had not begun participating, so it is not surprising how few records show up. In fact the grey rectangles indicate where there was at least one report of any bird species made, and the non-grey and non-purple rectangles indicate where there were no reports of any birds. There are probably as many rectangles without any birds as with at least one bird, and clearly Barred Owls were very limited.

This next map shows a similar area for the period of Dec 2010 to Feb 2011. Obviously the number of birders participating in eBird seems to have increased, given the increased number of grey and purple rectangles. And the number of purple rectangles has also increased. But the level of participation by birders entering data on eBird was still building, and it is not nearly at the same level as it is today.

This next map shows the period of Dec 2017 to Feb 2018, just a little over a year ago. The number of grey rectangles has increased quite a bit, as have the number of purple rectangles. It is interesting to note that across the border to the southeast of southwestern Ontario, it seems that the increase in purple rectangles is even greater.

Fast forward to the most recent three month period of Dec 2018 to Feb 2019. While the number of rectangles where bird data has been entered is much the same as the previous year, there is definitely an increase in the number of purple rectangles, including more darker purple ones.

As expected, the level of bird data entry on eBird continues to grow. It will be interesting to see what next year's map will look like. Will the species continue to appear to expand? Will there be a retraction?

The area shown on these maps is not the only area where Barred Owls have apparently increased. A recent news report from Nova Scotia, shown here, indicates the species has increased there as well. It has perhaps been a trend throughout the northeast, and the question is why. Has the weather been a factor, or the food available during the breeding season, causing a greater production of young, but during the winter the food availability is not enough to sustain the increased population so birds have to move beyond their normal range? This has certainly been the case for some other owl species, such as Snowy Owl. It is interesting to speculate, but for the time being we can enjoy the presence of this impressive owl.

Another thought to consider: maybe there is more than one Barred Owl in the Rondeau area. There certainly is enough habitat. As the mating season arrives, we will have to get out in the evening and listen for calling birds. Just maybe there is a pair of them and seeing more of this species is in our immediate future!