Late Season Bluets

Bluet sp.

I was intrigued by the small blue damselflies I saw lurking in the vegetation at the storm water ponds earlier on Sunday, so I returned later that afternoon with my net in order to catch them and identify them. The blue-type bluets are among the most difficult damselflies to identify, requiring a hand lens to see the male’s terminal appendages in order to distinguish between several similar-looking species. Fortunately there are fewer species flying this time of the year than in June and July, narrowing down the tricky possibilities to only a handful: Northern Bluet flies until mid-September, while both Familiar Bluet and Tule Bluet fly into October. Other blue-type bluets are already gone for the year, including Hagen’s Bluet (which flies until mid-August) and Marsh Bluet (which flies until early September).

Day of the Pipit

American Pipit

My goal on Sunday was to visit the Eagleson Ponds briefly before heading out to the woods, but once again I had such a fantastic time there that I couldn’t bring myself to leave. I spent almost 3.5 hours there, completely circled the ponds on the south side of Emerald Meadows Drive only once (but backtracked multiple times), and found 32 bird species together. I also saw two odes – a Common Green Darner and a couple of bluets – and four or five butterfly species. It still amazes me how terrific these little man-made ponds have been these past two and a half months; and I don’t even need to drive there!

A Shadow at Last

Shadow Darner

The Equinox fell on Thursday, and by then the winds were blowing down from the north, putting an abrupt end to summer. Although I quite love the crisp, cool days of fall, I hate the cold early mornings which require hats and gloves to stay warm. On Saturday I headed out to Jack Pine Trail, leaving at 8:15 – the sun is visibly lower in the sky now – and I wished I had brought gloves as my hands were so cold. A Blue Jay and some chickadees were feeding on seeds left on the ground in the parking lot, and it seemed strange not to hear any Red-eyed Vireos or Eastern Wood-pewees singing.

Encounter with a Lesser Black-backed Gull

Lesser Black-backed Gull

After Saturday’s rather dull outing I decided to get up early on Sunday and hit the storm water ponds before heading out to Jack Pine Trail. I wanted to look for warblers and water birds – particularly shorebirds – before checking Jack Pine for warblers, thrushes, and other forest birds. If time permitted, I hoped to stop in at the Richmond Lagoons to see if the recent rains had refilled the ponds there. Unfortunately for my plans I had such a fabulous time at the storm water ponds that I didn’t make it to the other spots.

Searching for Migrants in Stony Swamp

Rain and thunderstorms were in the forecast Saturday morning, so I went birding close to home as I didn’t have much time before the rain was supposed to start. Although it was still sunny when I left, I decided to visit the Rideau Trail and Sarsaparilla Trail as I knew I didn’t have enough time to visit a larger trail like Jack Pine, though I’ve been meaning to return there for a while now. I haven’t been to these two trails since Labour Day, and was hoping to find some different migrants there, but once again the trails were disappointingly quiet.

When I reached the parking lot at Sarsaparilla Trail the first thing I noticed were a couple of crows flying up into the trees. The second thing I noticed was the Snowshoe Hare in the grass at the edge of the parking lot. It’s been a while since I’ve seen one here; it was good to see that at least one of the two was still around.

Snowshoe Hare

Green Birds at Mud Lake

Black-throated Green Warbler

I was off on Friday and had to go downtown for an appointment first thing in the morning; it was a gorgeous day, so after I was finished I headed to Mud Lake to do some birding. I entered via the southwest corner on Howe Street and found a Gray Catbird sitting silently in a shrub. Not long after that I encountered my first flock of birds foraging in the woods; pishing brought out an Ovenbird, a couple of Tennessee Warblers, and a beautiful male Black-throated Blue Warbler. A little further along I saw a Nashville Warbler foraging close to the ground and heard the brief, sweet trill of a Pine Warbler issuing from the trees near the observation dock.

A Plethora of Shorebirds

Belted Kingfisher

Shorebird migration is in full swing right now. This is one of my favourite groups of birds, and normally I have to go to places like the Richmond Lagoons, Shirley’s Bay or Andrew Haydon Park to see them – and this summer’s drought has left the Richmond Lagoons with zero habitat. However, there’s a terrific spot to see these particular birds only a 10 minute walk from my house. The Emerald Meadows storm water pond system has had fabulous habitat these past few months, resulting in 11 species so far since I started visiting in July. This was about the time that the work on the ponds had been completed, and as the southern ponds had been completely drained while the construction was going on, for several weeks they had held only an inch or two of water. Since then the water levels have been slowly increasing, but the water is still low enough – particularly in the southern-most pond – to attract some shorebirds to the muddy edges.

Labour Day Ramblings

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

Yesterday morning I went birding on my own again, stopping in at Sarsaparilla Trail, the Rideau Trail, and Richmond Lagoons before ending up at the ponds on Eagleson. I arrived at Sarsparilla Trail at 7:30, but unfortunately I wasn’t the first one there; two young people were flying a drone from the boardwalk. I had never seen a drone in action before, and was momentarily intrigued by it; however, this put a damper on my birding experience as it was too noisy to hear any chip notes from the birds in the marsh. This resulted in an uncharacteristic zero-sparrow list, though I did hear a Gray Catbird, and find a Brown Creeper, a Pileated Woodpecker, and a Ruffed Grouse in my short time there. The Rideau Trail wasn’t much better, though I did see a phoebe flycatching from a post in the parking lot fence and two House Wrens in the hydro cut – I wondered if one was the same individual that I saw along the boardwalk on Saturday.

From there I drove over to the Richmond Lagoons, traditionally a great spot for shorebirds and ducks in the fall. The drought, however, had dried the ponds completely up and I was curious to see whether the ponds had filled again after the recent rains. To my disappointment they were still fairly dry, but the birding was still pretty good so I spent an hour walking the loop that goes through the woods, cutting close to the Jock River.

Late Season Dragon-hunting

Merlin

On Sunday of the Labour Day weekend Chris Lewis and I spent the morning and early afternoon looking for birds and bugs. We met at Mud Lake at 7:00 am to check out the warbler action, then headed over to Trail 10 once the day warmed up and the trails started becoming busy. Once we were finished there, we returned to Mud Lake to look for odes. It was a good morning with a lot of walking, and we saw a lot of different things.

Our first visit to Mud Lake lasted just over an hour. We started out at the ridge, where the sun was just hitting the highest branches of the trees. The warmth of the sun stirs the insects into activity, which then attracts all sorts of insectivores looking for food. We did see a good number of birds in the tree tops, including a couple of Nashville and Cape May Warblers, several Tennessee and Yellow-rumped Warblers, and at least three Eastern Phoebes. Warbling Vireos were still singing, and a couple of Red-eyed Vireos were foraging low enough in the trees to identify them without hearing their familiar song.

Interspecies Disputes

Spotted Jewelweed (aka Touch-me-not)

Labour Day weekend is here, and in my view, it is the best birding long weekend of the year – although Victoria Day comes close, by then songbird migration is mostly over, and high water levels in the spring mean that there are fewer shorebird species around places like Shirley’s Bay and Andrew Haydon Park. At the beginning of September, however, lots of different kinds of birds are passing through, and the weather is still very warm, so there are more insects around, too.

Yesterday morning I decided to head out early as I was hoping to beat the crowds of dog-walkers, wind-surfers, joggers, etc. to the mudflats at Ottawa Beach. It was only 9°C when I left, with a few fog patches in the low-lying areas, but when I arrived at Ottawa Beach at 6:40am I found only two other people – a photographer and another birder just walking in. A small group of shorebirds was foraging along the shore, and when I set up my scope I was happy to see a Sanderling (an Ottawa year bird), a Pectoral Sandpiper, and half a dozen Semipalmated Plovers.