June Atlassing Highlights

Blue-winged Teal (male)

June is my favourite month of the year. This is the month when most insects begin to emerge, their bright wings bringing life and colour to forests, meadows, ponds and backyard gardens. Birds are in full song, and the air is fragrant with all the flowers in bloom. While butterflies and dragonflies become my main focus this time of year, this month I had a second agenda: to continue to look for evidence of breeding for the third Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas. Since I am still working from home as a result of the pandemic, I devoted my morning weekday walks to looking for birds and my longer weekend excursions to looking for all types of wildlife, particularly dragonflies. I thought birding would become boring once migration ended and the resident birds settled down into the more predictable routine of nesting season, but to my surprise I was wrong.

The Invasive LDD (aka Gypsy Moth)

LDD (Gypsy Moth) Caterpillar

This morning I went for a walk at Monaghan Forest, hoping to find the Northern Waterthrushes I’ve heard singing there in years past. Although this species was reported in our square in the previous atlas, it was only as a “possible” breeding species as it was observed in its breeding season in suitable nesting habitat – no additional nesting evidence was determined. I was also hoping to see the Bank Swallows I’d seen last year at the quarry, as I was still missing this species for my year list. In addition to these two species, I was hoping to find a number of other interesting species – from Black-throated Green and Black-and-White Warblers to Scarlet Tanagers and Wood Thrushes. If was I was lucky I might even see some falcons and hawks soaring above the quarry – it is suspected that Peregrine Falcon nests there, and it would be terrific if we could confirm evidence of breeding in our square.

Snippets from Migration

Common Yellowthroat

Migration has been strange this year. Because of the lengthy cold spell at the beginning of May it seemed as if migration had stalled; for so long I felt as though I were waiting for it to begin, then things happened so quickly that now I wonder whether it has passed me by. The White-crowned Sparrows that usually show up in my backyard every year between May 3rd and 5th didn’t arrive until the 14th; the Common Terns that arrive at the Eagleson Ponds between May 10th and May 14th didn’t arrive until May 19th. Neither species stayed long, either. The terns were only there for one day before moving on, instead of spending two or three days. It is harder to know if the White-crowned Sparrow I saw over the course of a few days was the same one or a different one, as many have been singing in our area in the middle of the month.

The warblers came, and the warblers went. I’ve had several Black-throated Blue Warblers this year, and many repeat sightings of local breeding species – but of the ones that only pass through, I’ve sometimes only been lucky to get one: one Cape May Warbler, one Blackburnian Warbler, one Tennessee Warbler, one Bay-breasted Warbler. Again, is this a reflection of my spending time mainly in Kanata south, rather than heading for the migrant traps along the river? There have been excellent reports from the usual spots (Mud Lake, Andrew Haydon Park), but even as the city parks reopened on May 6th and the NCC parking lots reopened on May 22nd as a result of declining Covid-19 cases in the city, I’ve been reluctant to go to the normal spring hotspots to avoid the crowds that tend to gather there, both birding and non-birding alike. This has less to do with any fear of the coronavirus than my preference for quiet birding experiences, away from the loud chatter and narrow, crowded trails that both increase exponentially as the spring wears on and weather warms up.

Early Spring Wildflowers

Canada Violet

Spring not brings the birds and butterflies back to the Great White North, it also brings wildflowers, the earliest of which are known as spring ephemerals. These perennial woodland wildflowers grow early each spring, quickly blooming and producing seed before the deciduous trees leaf out and prevent the sunlight from reaching the forest floor. Once these wildlflowers have gone to seed, the leaves and stems above ground often wither and die off, leaving only the underground structures (including the roots, rhizomes, and bulbs) alive during the remainder of the year. This strategy allows many different plants to thrive in deciduous forests by taking advantage of the early spring sunlight prior to the development of the tree canopy.

Easter Sunday Birding

Bufflehead

The sun finally came out on Easter Sunday. I started my day with a visit to the Richmond Lagoons, intending to take the new trail all the way around the lagoons and into the woods. There is a flooded spot in the woods where the Jock River passes quite close to the trail; I thought I might find some interesting birds tucked away in there.

The first birds I heard when I got out of the car were a Song Sparrow, the resident phoebe, a Brown-headed Cowbird and the gobbling of a Wild Turkey. When I reached the lagoons, I counted about 300-400 Canada Geese in the water with more flying overhead, as well as two Ring-necked Ducks, a male Wood Duck, and a female Bufflehead.

Spring Ephemerals in Bloom

Trout Lily

After leaving Deb on Sunday I decided to stop by Monaghan Forest to see if any Trilliums were in bloom yet. This is a good spot for spring ephemerals; last year I had found the forest floor covered in Trilliums, Forget-me-nots, violets, and even some Toothwort during a visit in mid-May. I was a few weeks early this year, and found the Trilliums just beginning to open. Only a few were in full flower, but there were plenty of Coltsfoot and Trout Lilies in bloom, two species that had already finished blossoming by the time of my mid-May visit last year. I was also hoping to find some Bloodroot, a native flower I had found here once before, but wasn’t able to spot any.

Wildflowers on a rainy day

It rained again the following day. I couldn’t stand to stay indoors for the full day so I took my umbrella and went to the Beaver Trail to look for wildflowers and more spring migrants.

There weren’t as many birds around as I had hoped. A couple of Common Yellowthroats and Swamp Sparrows were singing in the marsh, and I saw one White-throated Sparrow, perhaps five or six chickadees, one Red-breasted Nuthatch and one White-breasted Nuthatch on the trails.