This monster of a woodpecker was a an exciting bird to band – a first for FBS! As I emerged from some dense pines en route to net 7 this Pileated Woodpecker began to struggle its way out of the net before I quickly corralled it into my hands. It left twelve small puncture wounds on my fingers before I could free its tangled feet and put him into a carrying bag – a very swift and powerful avian hammerhead! Seabrooke was delighted to receive it back at the station, it was the first she’d had in-the-hand for banding.
The rest of the morning was very much a continuation of the last visit on July 14 – dreadfully quiet! A total of seven birds were captured during the visit, one less than the previous record low of 8 at Blue Lakes on July 14 of this year! The site is so contrastingly empty of birds compared to our first few visits in June. The once common Yellow-throated Vireos, Chestnut-sided and Black-throated Blue Warblers, Veerys and Ovenbirds are all gone and the area is not attracting many dispersing birds of any kind. We remain undeterred by this curious development as it is vitally important to monitor both the highs and the lows.
Our last visit to Blue Lakes in 2010 will be held in early August, which should coincide with the peak of post-breeding dispersal for the region. Perhaps our first season at the station will end with a final flourish? Either way, we’ve had some fantastic birds there and will have better breeding seasons to look forward to….
I have no idea where the last two weeks went! We’ve completed visits 4 and 5 to all of our MAPS sites and not a word was posted here about it – until now. Our fourth round of visits were done during the heat wave when the ghastly humidity forced to shut down a bit early at Maplewood and Rock Ridge. Temperatures were more moderate during visit 5 but we ended up with even lower capture totals despite logging more net hours at both stations!
I’ll start this summary of round five with the Rock Ridge (RRID) station in Frontenac Provincial Park. The weather was perfect and post-breeding dispersal was evident for the first time in 2010. Our first Yellow-billed Cuckoo of the year was banded along with small numbers of the usual suspects.
Early morning along the ridge (Derbyshire)
The day started off well with lots of young birds moving along the ridge – primarily Eastern Towhees, Yellow Warblers and Pine Warblers. The first half of the morning was quite productive, which was followed by the latter half ending with five consecutive empty net rounds – a record for us! We finished the visit with 17 total captures – 3 less than visit 4 when the heat and humidity were extremely high. On the bright side, we’ve somehow eclipsed last year’s pace at Ridge Ridge in terms of total birds banded and recaptured.
juv Pine Warbler (Seabrooke Leckie)
This juvenile Pine Warbler is the first we’ve captured at any of our MAPS stations! Pine Warblers nest in the tall pines on either side of the ridge near the banding station but they never seem to come down low enough to be captured. It makes sense that our first would be a dispersing youngster, which are less tied to the canopy foraging.
Adult Veery in moult (Derbyshire)
Our fifth visit to the Blue Lakes (BLAK) station was somewhat shocking as it ended up being the slowest day we’ve had since we started MAPS in 2009! The Black-throated Blue Warblers that were abundant earlier in the summer had vanished and the morning had this eerily quiet feel to it. The Veery, like the Black-throated Blue Warbler, was a dominant species earlier in the season but were noticeably missing during visit 5. We did recapture one Veery during the morning, an adult male in the midst of basic moult.
Chestnut-sided Warbler (Seabrooke)
Always nice to find Chestut-sided Warblers in the nets. This male was recaptured for the first time since it was banded in mid-June. Fortunately there are still a number of these holding territories on the shorelines of lakes and ponds in the area. We ended visit 5 with 8 birds captured in six hours of sampling – REALLY quiet. I’m looking forward to getting back there to see how the season unfolds.
Scarlet Tanager (Seabrooke)
We can always expect birds at Maplewood (MABO)! This is the most consistent station of the three in our MAPS network. At the end of the day we tallied up the results and noted that 22 birds were captured, which is a quiet day for MABO. We sampled the first real wave of young birds at the station in 2010, which included this juv Scarlet Tanager as well as American Redstart, Hairy Woodpecker and Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.
Other noteworthy records included our first captured Ruby-throated Hummingbird of the year and two more Scarlet Tanagers! Multiple Wood Thrushes are still singing at the site and at least one Wood Thrush youngster has been banded in 2010. The exodus of Veerys at Blue Lakes is being echoed at MABO where the species was not encountered at all during visit 5. The Veery is normally an abundant species at MABO but our results in 2009 and 2010 have suggested widespread breeding failure. The weather conditions in both years have been atypical and likely a factor impacting nest success for at least some species. It will be exciting to begin analysis of the data after a few more seasons, preferably with more ‘average’ conditions. I will be particularly interested in statistics on survivorship, productivity and recruitment for Veerys.
Our first annual Frontenac Biothon was held this past weekend in Frontenac Provincial Park. The weather was excellent – clear skies and seasonal temperatures. We had originally planned the biothon to take place on June 10-11 but we had to postpone due to expected thunderstorms and heavy rain. The disadvantage of running it in mid-July was that the birds were MUCH harder to find. On the upside, plants and insects were far more diverse and abundant. Overall, the biothon went very well and all participants had an enjoyable time. Also, as this was our first biothon experience, we’ve learned a lot about what will and won’t work for future editions. We set a goal of identifying 500 species and came oh-so-close to that number, falling just short, with a total of 441! Despite missing our goal, a rather arbitrary figure, our results were fantastic and some truly wonderful species were recorded!
Seabrooke Leckie looking for bugs
The biothon “MVP award” has to go to both Seabrooke Leckie and Julia Marko Dunn who demonstrated superb knowledge of insects and plants respectively. Myself, Steve Gillis and Chris Dunn spent much of our time covering ground in search for elusive birds and ended the biothon with just 64 bird species – well short of what could have been found earlier in the season. However, we have experience outside of birds, as well, and managed to add bits and pieces to the throng of plants and bugs found by the girls.
Tents at Cluster 13
We camped at cluster 13 on Big Clear Lake, which was a good location for the biothon. This area of the park is known for its rugged topography – steep ridges along lakes dominated by Eastern White Pine. Of particular note at this site was the evening serenade provided by the Coyotes, two or three Whip-poor-wills and a couple of Common Nighthawks!
Red-headed Woodpecker habitat (Derbyshire)
A personal/FBS highlight was the discovery of a pair of Red-headed Woodpeckers observed in an open swamp near Hardwood Bay, Devil Lake, on Saturday afternoon! My records indicate that the last breeding record for the park dates from over ten years ago near Gibson’s Lake to the northwest. I’m not clear on the historical status of this species in the area but I do know that they have declined sharply in the Kingston region and the province as a whole. This was our first encounter with the Red-headed Woodpecker since the project began in 2009 and it was a thrill to observe these stunning birds sally for insects from the many snags in this swamp. I never would have seen these birds had it not been for Steve who found the swamp and called me over to investigate (thanks Steve!). I will have to go back to this swamp in 2011 to confirm nesting. The Red-headed Woodpecker is a provincial and federally listed Species at Risk with a designation of Threatened.
The woodpeckers were just one of many notable sightings from the weekend – too many to list here unfortunately. We visited lakes, fens, bogs, beaver ponds, deciduous and mixed forests and successional rock barrens in the 24 hour blitz. I’m sure that each participant would describe their biothons differently but it is safe to say that a lot of fun was had and that our stay was much too short!
On behalf of the Migration Research Foundation I wish to extend our grateful thanks to this year’s many sponsors and to Ontario Parks for their support of the biothon. And finally, the whole event would not have been possible without the efforts of our dedicated volunteer biothoners; Chris Dunn, Julia Marko Dunn, Karina Dykstra, Steve Gillis and Seabrooke Leckie (clap clap clap!)
Below is a small selection of the species encountered during the 2010 Frontenac Biothon – hope you enjoy!
Graphocephala teliformis (Seabrooke Leckie)Spatulate-leaved Sundew (Julia Marko Dunn)Poison Sumac (Derbyshire)Big Water Crayfish (Seabrooke Leckie)Pitcher Plant (Julia Marko Dunn)Swamp Milkweed Leaf Beetle
At long last the biothon weekend has arrived and the weather looks absolutely fine! Our crew of six natural history buffs will be out searching for anything that lives for 24 hours in Frontenac Provincial Park. Our goal is to find 500 species and we are excited to give it our best shot. Thanks to all of our generous sponsors who have been wonderfully supportive of this fledgling initiative in 2010!
A detailed summary will be posted after the biothon so look for that early next week.
Wish us luck!
Dan Derbyshire
Seabrooke Leckie
Steve Gillis
Chris Dunn
Juiia Marko Dunn
. Nidiologicals – Peck and James (1987) and R.J. Pierotti and T.P. Good (1994) . Habitat – Primarily Islands, rock islets, coastal areas and open mainland sites. Microhabitat – Nest scrape/mound often sheltered from wind by rock, log or vegetation. Usually on ground but sometimes elevated in vegetation or man-made structures. Spring arrival – Most breeding adults are non-migratory but return to nest sites in March-April Nest builder – Male and female Average # of broods/season – 1 Average egg laying date – 26 May-9 June (Ontario)
Average clutch size – 3 eggs Incubation period – Average 30 days Egg description – Large, ovoid with variable base colour ranging from light olive, brownish to greenish with brown to black markings. Incubation – Male and female
Herring Gull nest with eggs (Derbyshire)
The circumboreal Herring Gull is one of two common breeding gull species in Ontario. The Herring is more numerous from central Ontario north to Hudson Bay while its close relative the Ring-billed Gull is more abundant in the south. By the late 19th century the Herring Gull was nearly driven to extirpation from North America by plumage and egg collectors but their numbers have recovered and have possibly even exceeded precolonial abundance levels (Pierotti et.al. 1994). In Southern Ontario they tend to occur in large colonies with Ring-billed Gulls along the coasts of large lakes. However, this species is more widespread in the Southern Shield region where thousands of inland lakes dotted with rocky islands provide abundant breeding habitat. Smaller colonies or isolated nestings are more typical in the Southern Shield, although the species abundance and ecology appears to be less well known in this region.
Herring Gull nest site (Derbyshire)
A waterbird breeding colony consisting of Ring-billed Gull (10-12 pairs), Great Blue Heron (2 pairs) and Herring Gull (1 pair) was found on a small island on Big Clear Lake in early June of this year. A followup visit revealed at least 10 active nests of Ring-billed Gull, 2 of which contained young. The Ring-billed nests were fairly tightly spaced along the western slope of the island where low ground vegetation was densest. The Herring Gull nest was isolated from all other nests at the northern edge of the islet abutting some large rocks (note inserted white circle in above photo). The eggs were just beginning to hatch on June 11, 2010.
Nest
This photo, with FBS assistant Seabrooke standing in the background, provides some sense of scale of the large nest mound constructed of mostly pine needles, moss and lichen. Herring Gulls have a reputation as fierce nest defenders, even toward human territory invaders. This particular pair were quite docile and accepting of our intrusion, although we only visited the nest very briefly to snap a few photos and check the contents of the nest. Here you can see the nest tucked up against some rocks, which would have provided protection from the cold north and west winds blowing down the lake.
'Gull' rock on Big Clear (Seabrooke Leckie)
Lastly, here is the rocky islet itself. The islet is little more than 800 square metres in size but it has the sought after expanses of barren rock with low vegetation – ideal for nesting gulls in the Southern Shield. The islet is also attractive to nesting Great Blue Herons. Two active heron nests were found in the crowns of Eastern White Pines and the young are still being fed as of July 2, 2010.
Frontenac Bird Studies 