Just a typical day in eastern Ontario

I'm lucky enough to live in one of the most biodiverse parts of Ontario in the Frontenac Arch; Right in the middle of the transition between the southern deciduous forests and agricultural fields and the mixedwood forests of the Canadian Shield. I had a busy day on Saturday exploring and I wasn't disappointed!

I started by leading a group of folks from the Quinte and the Prince Edward County Field Naturalists Clubs to one of eastern Ontario's best kept secrets - the Napanee Limestone Plain Important Bird Area. This place is basically an eastern version of Carden Alvar. We met in Napanee then headed for our first stop just south of Newburgh:

Alvar south of Newburgh

As you can see, it's beautiful alvar habitat with thin soils over limestone with scattered trees and shrubs. Typical alvar plants like Prairie Smoke put on a great show as did this provincially rare Balsam Ragwort in full bloom:

Balsam Ragwort

The plants didn't disappoint and neither did the birds. We saw all of our target species: Grasshopper Sparrow, Clay-colored Sparrow, Wilson's Snipe, Upland Sandpiper, Eastern Meadowlark, Bobolink, and of course, Loggerhead Shrike. The Loggerhead Shrike is the "trigger species" for the IBA status here with usually about 1/3 of the eastern Canadian population breeding here.

Phone-binned shot of an Upland Sandpiper

After lunch I headed to Charleston Lake Provincial Park to help with the afternoon leg of the annual Butterfly and Dragonfly count. Butterflies were slow as we seemed to be a bit late for the early species and too early for the next wave this year but dragonflies put on a good show and there were a few other highlights too.

The rarest sighting of my afternoon was probably the young Gray Ratsnake that coiled up on the path in front of me - the park is one of the best places in Ontario to see this rare snake. My two butterfly highlights were probably as follows:

Juniper Hairstreak

Baltimore Checkerspot caterpillar

As I said earlier, dragonflies were out in good numbers and in the couple hours I was out I managed to find 26 species including some provincially rare species like Harlequin Darner, Cyrano Darner, and Lilypad Clubtail.

male Harlequin Darner

Springtime Darner

Lilypad Clubtail

Add in a couple of Cerulean Warblers and the Brewster's Warbler (hybrid) that I also had and it was really just a typical day in one of the richest parts of Ontario.

May birds and bugs

It's been a pretty crazy last few weeks for me doing presentations about the Important Bird Area program around southern Ontario but it has been a great excuse to be out and about and seeing lots of fun stuff. I've even had a chance to take a couple photos of some of the goodies - check em out!

Acadian Flycatcher in the Norfolk Forest Complex IBA

Many migrants, like this Wood Thrush have nesting well on the way already

An Ovenbird nest with eggs

Eastern Tailed Blue nectaring on strawberry blossoms

Eastern Pine Elfin on garlic mustard

Female Yellow-rumped Warbler

One of my favourites of the spring - Golden-winged Warbler

Hooded Warbler on our birdathon

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

One of my all-time favourite species, Philadelphia Vireo

My Dad's find on our birdathon - a Prairie Warbler that was enjoyed by many at Pelee this spring

Ken found this Yellow-breasted Chat at Pelee and it stuck for lots of people to see.

Ovenbird

Blackburnian Warbler

Five-lined Skink

It's not too late to support my Baillie Birdathon! If you want to hear all about our day of birds and fundraising you'll need to sponsor me. See here for more details. If you already have sponsored me, thanks very much, the report should be going out to you in the next week!

Did you enjoy spring? Good, because that's it!

Well, not really but it sure feels like we had spring and now we're back to February! There should be a distinct pause in spring migration over the next day or two and then it should gradually ramp back up. I hope you were able to get out and enjoy our first real taste of spring. Lots of birds have arrived and if you're like me, your Ontario year list has started to bulge in the last couple of weeks.

I made a trip down to Prince Edward County last weekend and it was a trip with signs of spring and signs of lingering winter:

A huge snow drift near Sandbanks PP

There are still lingering Snowy Owls

Red-tailed Hawk carrying food

Goose migration has been in high gear for a couple weeks now

 

This Rainbow Trout almost answered the question "what's on the other side of the road"

Since last weekend temperatures have warmed up and it has been an even more steady stream of new arrivals - check out the Ontario arrival dates for this year and you'll see what I mean.

Brown Creepers and other typical April migrants are really moving

Golden-crowned Kinglets are hard to miss these days

Pied-billed Grebes are now back in many areas

even Ring-billed Gulls look good this time of the year!

It's not just birds declaring spring has arrived - I heard my first frogs (chorus, peepers, and leopard) this past weekend and insects and plants are showing now too.

Hepatica will be blooming soon

My first butterfly of the season!

Firefly out and about

But the great thing about spring, is that we're just starting and arguably the most exciting stuff is still to come! According to the spring arrival dates I calculated using eBird we've got the following to expect in the next week:

15 April -	Surf Scoter
	Barn Swallow
	Chipping Sparrow
	American Goldfinch
16 April -	Broad-winged Hawk
	Brown Thrasher
	Yellow-rumped Warbler
	White-throated Sparrow
17 April -	American White Pelican
	Northern Rough-winged Swallow
18 April -	Virginia Rail
19 April -	Purple Martin
20 April -	Cliff Swallow
21 April -	Yellow-throated Warbler
22 April -	Black Scoter
	Upland Sandpiper

Yellow-throated Warbler...just getting started?

More to come this week?

Every thing on that list made an appearance in Ontario in the last few days with that push of warm southerly air, we'll see if we can get more of them as the week progresses, then it's just a short wait to the big push of late April/early May when almost everything happens all at once!