End of the Year 2023 Blog

I finished up the last blog on a wet and rainy night as the Spotted salamanders had their annual migration to the swamp. As 2023 comes to a close we have to try and summarize 9 months into one blog and as we looked over our photos realized it was going to be tough leaving out some of the interesting photos. As a start, here’s a bird we don’t often see in the spring.

Snow Bunting

In the winter hundreds and often thousands of these birds zip around the fields of Bruce County after arriving from their breeding grounds in Canadas far north. Now in April its time to head north and start a family. This is a female in breeding colours and much whiter than the winter colours we usually see. By this time the males have already arrived on their breeding grounds to pick out a good spot for a nest. The females arrive about 3 to 4 weeks after the males. The female will stay on the nest most of the time as the weather is still quite cold when they start to raise their young. The male will bring her food during this time.

One of the early migrants we enjoy seeing sneaking around the edge of the trees is the Brown thrasher. They havent nested on our lot as far as we know but always show up digging through the leaf litter looking for food early in April. Once they are on territory their songs will keep you listening as they imitate many other birds.

Brown Thrasher

They have the ability to sing more than 1100 different song types including Wood thrushes, Northern flicker and on and on. They do nest in the area after arriving from the southern United States.

The Eastern towhee arrives about the same time as the thrasher and they do nest close to where we live. The male is black on top with rusty flanks and a white breast while the female is browner on top as this photo shows. All the better for camouflage while on the nest. These birds are often victims of the Brown-headed cowbird as the cowbird will lay their eggs in towhees nests. The towhee doesn’t seem to recognize the difference and will raise the cowbird young along with its own.

Eastern Towhee female

In spring adult gulls have pristine plumages and are quite stunning birds to see close up.  These Ring-billed gulls arrive in large numbers from their more southern winter grounds. As winters become less intense some of them do stay in the area but most of our winter gulls are Herring gulls.

Ring-billed Gulls

This pair has spring fever and will soon be building a nest to raise their young. Many if not all of these gulls return to the same site where they were born to raise their young. The oldest recorded Ring-billed gull was over 27 years old so they may have quite a long life.

A sure sign of spring is the return of the Upland sandpiper to pastures around the area. Although classified as shorebirds these bird raise their young in grassy pastures and can be quite a challenge to see as they run through the longer grass.

Upland Sandpiper

After arriving in later April these birds quickly start families as they usually start leaving the area in mid July to start their journey back to South America where they spend about 8 months of the year. While on the breeding grounds you could often hear their familiar call and then suddenly one will land on top of a fence post giving you a wonderful view.

We sometimes get rather rare birds dropping in during migration and this past spring we got to see our first Bruce County Eurasian wigeon. American wigeon are our usual wigeon for the area but this one dropped in and stayed around for a few days to give people a great view of its chestnut coloured head.

Eurasian Wigeon

If you see a flock of American wigeon look closely as these birds will often mix with them if they are indeed in the area. They have a few spots in North America where they breed but are generally a Eurasian species as the name implies.

One of the latest ducks to migrate north is the Blue-winged teal. The males are easily identified by their white swoop in front of their eyes and the blue flash on the wing visible in flight. The females are tougher to identify naturally due to their brown camouflage feathers.

Blue-winged Teal

These ducks migrate over long distances, spending the winter in central and South America. Although hunters often shorten their life span one was found that had lived for 23 years.

As the warblers arrive in early May some of the bright males can really catch your eye. This Magnolia warbler is certainly one of the eye-catchers and often doesn’t fly as quickly through the trees giving you a chance of a photo or two if you are fast on the shutter button.

Magnolia Warbler

They breed in the boreal forest thus having a long trip from their wintering areas of Central America so we only see them as they pass through in the spring and fall. The spring is certainly the prime time to appreciate their breeding colours.

Rose-breasted grosbeaks arrive to add their wonderful loud song to the sounds of spring. They come all the way from South and Central America and do breed in the area. The females are smaller than the males and with their camo colours can be mistaken for a female purple finch. There’s no mistaking the males with their black, white and red colour scheme and beautiful song. Their song does sound a bit like a robust song of a robin but can continue on longer than the robin usually sings.

Rose-breasted Grosbeak male

They build quite flimsy nests so you can almost see the eggs from a bottom view. The male does take its turn incubating the eggs but the majority of that job is the females.

One of the other reasonably early shorebirds to arrive is the Solitary sandpiper. It arrives from its South and Central America wintering grounds but only stays for a little while to forage as it heads for the northern forest area to nest. They most often nest in trees and will often lay their eggs in old nests of robins, blackbirds, waxwings, and Canada jays.

Solitary Sandpiper

The Great egret has recently become a common bird to see near ponds and wetlands in Ontario. Often now we see more Great egrets in a season than Great Blue herons. With their pure white colour, yellow beaks and long black legs they are a hard bird to miss or misidentify. One of the interesting sights during breeding season is the bright green colour of the skin around the eyes as well as the plumes of feathers they grow. These plumes of feathers were in the past prized for ladies’ hats thus led to a lot of egrets being killed.

Great Egret in breeding colours

They live here in mixed colonies with Great Blue herons. They fly slowly with about 2 wingbeats per second and can cruise at about 40 Km per hour.

Its always interesting to try and see some of the sparrows that arrive and set up a territory. This is the one time of the year that they might perch and stay for a photo as they protect their territory from other birds. Here is a male Clay-coloured sparrow as it was keeping an eye on us when we stopped close to where it was singing its territorial song.

Clay-coloured Sparrow

It spends its winter in Mexico so doesn’t have quite so far to migrate north as some of the other birds. These birds keep their breeding area and their foraging areas separate and the young often hop from their nest to the ground where they run from cover to cover before they can fly.

Another interesting but secretive sparrow is the Grasshopper sparrow. It also spends its winter in Mexico and the southern USA and arrives back to our grasslands about the same time as the Clay-coloured sparrow. They nest on the ground in a domed nest hidden at the base of a clump of grass.

Grasshopper Sparrow

As the name suggests, grasshoppers are the main food, and the adults will shake off the grasshoppers’ legs before feeding the insect to their young. In breeding season their buzzy song will get your attention and then look in small shrubs or on a fence to find the bird.

Once the warblers have started to arrive, we head out to the swamp and forest areas to try and see one of the more rare warblers in the area. The Cerulean warbler male as the name suggests in a blue colour and lives in forested areas. The female is more yellowish green for camouflage but it’s the males as they battle for territory, we usually see on our ventures out.

Cerulean Warbler

These birds winter in northern South America and are usually up near the higher part of the trees. The females ues spiders web to start construction of a nest and then line it with other softer material. When the female leaves the nest, they don’t fly out of it. They jump off the side of the nest in a free fall before finally opening their wings to fly off quite a piece below the nest.

One sign that the warmer weather has arrived is the sighting of many turtles on a long sunning themselves. Most of the ponds in our area have reasonable populations of Midland Painted turtles but the species in general has a status of “special concern”.

Midland Painted turtles on a log

It takes one of these turtles about 10 to 15 years to reach maturity and breed so its hard to know how the long term health of this species will be. Several get run over on roadways and often racoons or other predators will dig up and eat the turtles eggs. In general turtles in Ontario are all close to being endangered species. So if you see some crossing roads please make sure they make it safely to whichever side they were pointed.

This year we had a very special treat as a Great Gray owl was seen near one of our parks. Word of these sightings doesn’t spread quickly as photographers and some birders can stress the owl out if they don’t keep their distance. These are northern birds and don’t often enter our areas unless there is an irruption of the owls in the north. After we heard about the bird we went to see if it was indeed still in the area and surprisingly saw it right along the trees by the road watching for something to eat.

Great grey owl

After enjoying seeing this magnificent owl and getting a few quick photos we moved on and let it hunt in peace. These owls live across the Canadian north as well as Russia, Mongolia and Scandinavia. Although they don’t weigh as much as either the Great-horned or Snowy owls they are powerful and can break through hard snow to capture prey. Their hearing is phenomenal which is good as they need to eat about 7 vole sized mammal each day with more during breeding season. Their left ear opening is higher on the head than their right so it gives them precise directional hearing to locate prey.

One morning we looked out the front window and saw a visitor perched on an old birch tree branch. Moving slowly in the house we had great views of a Peregrine falcon that actually had been banded at one time. It sat there looking around seeing if there was anything worth chasing as it rested.

Peregrine falcon

These birds are found on all continents except Antarctica. People haver trained these falcons to hunt for over 1000 years and some of the handling methods were used when their population was being reestablished after being depleted by DDT.

Spring is always the time to see returning birds or birds passing through on their way to their breeding grounds. Even these Dunlin shorebirds look a bit more dressed up with their breeding colours. They are on their way to the north of Canada to get their families started for another year.

Dunlin

Sometimes these birds will hybridize with other Arctic-nesting species such as Purple sandpipers or White-rumped sandpiper. The hybrids are rare but do occur so get a good look when you see these birds.

Green herons used to nest on our property but haven’t in the past several years. Its still exciting to see one of these birds land in the trees or sneak stealthily along the shore hunting for small fish.

Green Heron

They usually hunt in shallow water but can dive for deep-water prey and then swim back to shore. They have also been known to use fishing “lures” made from bread crusts, insects of feathers. These float on the water and attract the fish which are then grabbed by the heron for lunch.

A bird that is a bit smaller than the Green heron but shares basically the same range can be a tough one to see. The Least bittern hides in the grasses in marshy areas and is one we love to see. This year we were fortunate to be in the blind at MacGregor Point Provincial Park when one climbed right up some grass in front of us and posed for several minutes before disappearing again into the grasses.

Least Bittern

These bitterns can inhabit water that is even too deep for the larger American bittern as their agile toes can grasp the reeds and grasses above the water as they pursue prey.

This is our grub control ……a Striped skunk. It does tend to make some rather larger holes in the “lawn” as it digs for grubs but we don’t mind as our lawn is just a collection of flowering weeds and various grasses. It can always use a few less grubs and some aeration 😉.

Striped skunk

One of the things we try not to do is frighten the skunk as the odour it can produce for protection can be smelled up to 1 kilometer away from the incident area. When getting material for its den it can place leaves under its body and then shuffle along holding them between its legs. Animals can certainly adapt to be able to do what ever is necessary for them for survival.

A treat for us this year was the appearance of a Snowy egret a bit to the north of us at Sauble River mouth. It was a lifer for us for Bruce County although we had seen many of them in Florida where they are very common. This egret is smaller than our regular Great egret and has a black bill, black legs and yellow feet.

Snowy Egret

Initially we thought we had missed seeing the bird but after several minutes of waiting it flew in from another bay and sat on the rock that most people had seen it on. These birds in breeding season develop long wispy feathers on their backs, neck, and heads. These were a problem for the bird as they were valued at $32 per ounce way back in 1886 and led to many being killed for fashion. This price was twice the price of gold at the time. With conservation their numbers have now bounced back.

Early summer is always the time we switch a bit to butterflies from birds. The birds in the area are busy nesting, raising a family and keeping out of view. The butterflies however are showing off their colours and visiting all the flowers and weeds in the yard. One of the butterflies we always enjoy seeing is the colourful little Baltimore checkerspot. One spot in the area is almost a sure area to see them but you do have to be observant as they can be tough to spot in the grass despite their colours.

Baltimore Checkerspot

It prefers wetland habitats and unfortunately many of those are being drained or disturbed by motorized ATV’s these days. They have only one brood a year and their timing is dependent on the life cycle of their host plants. In this case White turtlehead is the main food but with habitat reduction they also feed on English plantain. They overwinter as caterpillars on the ground under vegetation.

This year natural gas came to the area and with it some new plants that arrived in the “clean” topsoil. One that started growing in numbers near our front gate was Scotch thistle. I pulled out most of the plants as they can be very invasive but decided to leave the largest one to see how large it would grow.

Scotch Thistle

I wasn’t disappointed as it grew to almost 2 meters tall. It had many flowers and I let them bloom but when they went to seed I cut them off before the seeds would spread. With the number of flowers it has  I can see why its very invasive and to add to problem, these seeds can survive in the soil for over 30 years. It should be interesting to see if more grow next spring.

This is what I was hoping for when I let the thistle grow and as you can see it was well worth it. Canadian Tiger swallowtail butterflies visited it often as well as several other butterflies in the area.

Canadian Tiger Swallowtail on Scotch Thistle

It certainly made for a wonderful “photo op” as the butterfly sipped nectar on the thistle flower.

In one area of an old garden Showy Lady’ Slipper plants come up each year. This year I tried to remember to water them regularly as they prefer wetlands and we were fortunate to have one of them flower. The blooms are large and eye-catching and worth a photo or two 😊.

Showy Lady’s Slipper Orchid

This is the largest of the local orchids and bloom between May and August. Ours bloomed in early July but you can often see ones in better habitats bloom a bit earlier.

A Canadian or North American porcupine is one yard visitor that’s well worth keeping your distance from. We often have one visit and this one had been sleeping in a tree overnight. Now it was off to see what tree it could find to breakfast on.

Canadian Porcupine

These animals enjoy the tender buds and twigs at the end of branches so they often fall out of trees. They possess antibiotics in their skin which might help them if they get stuck by their own quills when they suffer these falls from trees. With about thirty thousand quills a porcupine can be quite a problem for an inquisitive dog. As well as protection the quills can be used for insulation in the winter months.

One woodpecker we do not see too often in the summer is the Red-headed. This stunning bird looks great sitting still as well as flying. We hadn’t seen any earlier in the spring but a pair showed up in the neighbourhood and appeared to be planning on raising a family in a particular nesting hole.

Red-headed Woodpecker

We kept an eye on the pair and they were around for some time but eventually we saw a Merlin in the nesting tree and the Red-headed woodpeckers disappeared after that. Hopefully they will return to try again this coming summer. These birds are known to store food for future use and often cover the stored food with bark. It also hides insects and seeds in cracks in the wood.

Two years ago we planted 8 swamp milkweed seeds and 8 plants grew from them. There was just one stalk and it didn’t flower but this past spring each plant put out a multitude of shoots and we had lots of white flowers. The butterflies, bees and wasps loved them so the plants were always active.

White Swamp Milkweed

As we looked over the plants one day we realized there were several Monarch butterfly caterpillars munching away on the plants. There ended up being over 40 caterpillars on the plants. A few got predated by spiders when they were small but many of them grew to the point of going into chrysalis stage and eventually emerged as adults.

Here is a photo of two of the caterpillars eating away on the leaves of the milkweed.

Monarch Caterpillars

It was interesting to watch the progress from egg, to caterpillar, chrysalis and eventually seeing the adult emerge to get ready for its trip to Mexico.

Monarch just emerged

This particular generation of Monarch makes a long journey south to Mexico to overwinter before getting active in the spring and mating to start a new generation. This generation does not become mature to breed until after the overwintering but for the subsequent generations the cycle from egg to adult is about 25 days and the adults reach sexual maturity after about 5 days. It takes a few generations for the butterflies to reach our area in the summer as these adults only live about two weeks.

Switching back to birds and specifically migrating shorebirds, we were fortunate to have two Red knots stop by on their southward journey to their wintering grounds in the united States and Central America. Most of the time these birds migrate closer to the oceans but we’ve had the odd one stop by for a rest on the rock point near our place. This juvenile wasn’t too worried about me taking photos as I was probably the first human it had seen along its migratory trip. As you can see, the juvenile is grey and not red but if you look up the Red knot online you can see an adult in breeding plumage and they are indeed red.

Red Knot

These birds can feed by sight but also probe the mud and have a sensory organ at the tip of its beak to sense pressure differences. This can help in alerting them to a clam or other meal that is buried in the mud. Decline of habitat and harvesting of horseshoe crab eggs by humans is leading to a large decline in the number of Red knots.

The Lincoln sparrow is a sparrow that breeds to the north of us and winters to the south of us so its only during their migration we get to have some views of this little sparrow.

Lincoln’s Sparrow

In a laboratory study researchers found that female sparrows were more attracted to males that sang in colder weather than warmer weather. It could possibly show that the cold weather singers were stronger and carried better genetics for future offspring. There are many facts showing up about many birds species now with more research being done in specific areas for each species.

Near a pond or along a shore you could see a bird hovering over the water before making a dive and coming up with a fish that it caught while under the water. The Belted kingfisher is our only local kingfisher and is quite a colourful bird to watch and get photos of as it searches for food.

Belted Kingfisher female

The female has the orangish belt and the male has none so if blue and white only. As you can see from the photo we captured the female in this frame. She was resting near a creek where she had been diving for minnows. These birds nest in holes dug out of a bank fairly close to a food source. Often you will see a larger hole in an area where Bank swallows nest and that will be the kingfishers nest hole.

One sparrow species that migrates more in the central area of North America is the Harris’s sparrow. We seldom see them so when one shows up in the area word quickly spreads of its location. This one showed up in MacGregor park foraging with several other birds on the ground.

Harris’s Sparrow

The Harris’s sparrow is the only North American songbird that breeds in Canada and nowhere else in the world. It arrives in its breeding grounds in the tundra before there are many insects so they eat Crowberries while waiting for the insects to start showing up. The adults in breeding plumage have much more black on their heads. Another extra bit to look up 😊.

A relatively common bird to most of Canada, the Ruffed grouse seems to like to skip visiting our yard. So, while visiting my sister on Manitoulin one of her regular grouse visitors showed up and we got our cameras out. It stood on the railing right outside her window looking in as if to ask for some food.

Ruffed Grouse

In the north of their range the grouse will roost in the snow at night burying themselves in some of the soft drifts. In the more southerly areas they roost in trees, most often dense conifers to stop  the wind from cooling them off too much. In the winter the grouse grow projections off their toes and these probably help them getting through the snow when they walk.

Tufted titmouse is a bird that seems to be moving a bit farther north as weather patterns change. It’s still a nice surprise when one shows up in our yard but more people have had these short visits in recent years. This one stayed around for three days coming to the peanut feeder quite regularly.

Tufted Titmouse

These little birds nest in tree cavities and since they cant excavate themselves they use old woodpecker nests. That’s one reason its good to leave old dead trees standing as they can be nesting spots for these birds as well as several other species. They store food and usually shell any seeds before storing them. They line the insides of their nest with hair, often plucked right out of a living animal.

As autumn arrived we purchased some pumpkins but were surprised a few days later when something had chewed a hole through one and feasted on the seeds. The hole was fairly small so we thought probably a squirrel but it happened at night and then soon other pumpkins suffered the same fate. One day we noticed something in one of the birdhouses and after watching for a few days realized a Southern Flying squirrel had taken up residence. While reading up a bit on them we noted that pumpkin seeds are one of their favourite foods. Mystery solved!! Southern Flying Squirrel

Southern Flying Squirrel

As the days went on we got some photos with his tail out of the bird house and his nose out of the bird house as shown above. Southern squirrels are small than their northern relatives and in this area you might possibly see either species. On Manitoulin we have seen the northern ones. The squirrels can’t really fly but glide from a higher perch to a lower one moving through the trees with ease. These Southern squirrels are about 25 cm long with about a 10 cm long tail.

One day as we were out birding I noticed a field with several black and white cattle in it. They were beef cattle and a particular pattern so we looked them up to see what kind they were.

Speckle Park Cattle

It turns out that they are a Canadian breed developed in Saskatchewan by cross-breeding Aberdeen angus, Teeswater shorthorn and English cattle with the white park pattern. It received full distinct breed recognition in 2006 and some have been exported to Australia, Ireland and the United Kingdom. The aim was for a medium sized, polled (no horns), good beef animal. It was interesting to see them around here and about ¼ of the animals in the field were Speckle Park.

As the raptor migration peaks in the fall often we see eagles or hawks flying overhead as we search the roads for other birds. It’s always a treat to happen across a large brown eagle with a golden nape.

Golden Eagle

This Golden eagle is one of the largest nimblest, and fastest raptors in North America. We don’t see them as often as Bald eagles but from a distance you can tell them apart a bit by the slight dihedral they hold their wings at while a Bald eagle flies with almost flat wing position. They are mostly found over fields and inland as they eat small mammals versus the fish or carrion that is the main diet of Bald eagles. DDT didn’t bother these birds as much as it did Bald eagles because the Golden eagles prey didn’t tend to ingest pesticides. These eagles can live to about 30 years of age.

On a trip to visit family in Barrie I took the opportunity to check out Minets Point where a Red phalarope had been seen. Initially it didn’t look like the bird was still around but soon it came in sight moving along the shore foraging as it went. It moved past me about 2 meters away and was actually too close at that time for me to get a good photo.

Red Phalarope

It is a juvenile and was in its winter colours. In this breed of bird the female is the brightly coloured one and the male is a lot duller as the male is the one that sticks around with the young after they have hatched. The female may in fact search out another male and lay another clutch of eggs. The breeding plumage female is quite red and its worth looking it up to see the difference between breeding and winter plumage. Here’s a link to use to see that. Red Phalarope Overview, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology This is a great site to bookmark and is one that I get quite a bit of my species information from.

On a reasonably regular basis our yard is visited by a Red fox. I guess we are in its home range and as it looks for food we have seen it stalk and chase the chipmunks and squirrels that call our yard home.

Red Fox

The Red fox is widespread across North America and probably more populous now than when the settlers initially arrived in the 16^th century. We have seen a pair go through the yard but generally we only see one of them at a time. In winter they usually travel separatey but get together in the spring to den and raise a family. We only see the red version here but they can also be brown or black. They have excellent eyesight, smell and hearing, helping them in their quest for prey. As I write this blog I also hope if the birds and animals we have seen raises any interest, then take some time to look up additional information on them. I refer to articles on them but cant include all the interesting information here.

Since I started this blog writeup we’ve also been out searching for new birds for this year so I’ll include one of the more interesting one we saw lately. Coming home from a local tour we almost drove right past a field a farmer was cultivating but noticed a bird near the fence line. We backed up and were treated to a great view of a Short-eared owl in the daytime. This bird was probably roosting somewhere in the field but got disturbed by the activity and moved to where we saw it. It watched us, then watched the farmer, giving us some time to get a photo before it flew across the field when the farmer got closer.

Short-eared Owl

They hunt over open pasture fields, mostly in the early morning or early evening. Usually they roost on the ground during the day but can also hunt then as well if hungry and prey is plentiful. They breed in the north of Canada, Asia, Europe and Alaska and move a bit to the south of us for winter but have a large world wide range. They can cover large areas of open water on their travels and have been seen descending on ships hundreds of miles from land. Sometimes as they hunt they can be mistaken for Northern Harriers, so look closely if you see a bird gliding across a pasture looking for prey.

That brings us to the end of another edition of our blog. As I always say…..I’ll try to put another one out sooner…..but if I don’t we’ll still try and cover most of what we’ve seen in between blogs. I must admit that there are MANY photos that I would have loved to include from this past year but if you see us along the way feel free to ask to see some of our other photos from our outdoor adventures in Bruce County, as well as a few other spots. Until next time, hope you’ve enjoyed this edition and will come back for more as the years go by. Hoping to see you out enjoying nature and all it has to offer.