Migrants arriving at Presqu'ile

Nature Notes for March 18, 2011

Last Sunday, March 13, a group of Willow Beach Field Naturalists visited Presqu’ile Provincial Park in search of migrating waterfowl. Although there were not the thousands of ducks which will probably have arrived by the time you read this, there was a good diversity of waterfowl.

Viewing conditions were quite good. It wasn’t too windy (40 kph winds had been forecast earlier in the week) and the cloud cover meant that there wasn’t a glare from light reflecting off the water.

At the lighthouse, the extreme southeast corner of the peninsula, the Long-tailed Ducks were in quite close to shore. Although they weren’t close enough to please the photographers, they could be seen quite well using a spotting scope. Long-tails were most numerous here, although there were also other diving ducks – Bufflehead, Common Goldeneye, Red-breasted Merganser and Common Merganser.

Although the rare Barrow’s Goldeneye, which has wintered here, was seen by another observer on the previous day, our group failed to find it.

The group braved snow drifts over the access road and mud to stop at the Calf Pasture, which can provide an overlook of Presqu’ile Bay. However, we found that the ice edge was just east of this viewing site, so we didn’t stay long here.

The same birds could be seen much better from the area of the government dock off Bayshore Road. The species make-up is different here than on the open lake and included Mute Swan, Canada Goose, Redhead, Canvasback, Ring-necked Duck, Hooded Merganser, Greater Scaup, Lesser Scaup, American Wigeon, White-winged Scoter, American Black Duck, Gadwall.

There were also two American Coot, which is not classified as “waterfowl”, but is often found with waterfowl in migration. Rather than webbed feet, it has wide lobed toes which enable it to walk on mud.

There were not huge numbers of any of these species. If the weather stays relatively warm this week, many more birds will probably arrive to swell the flocks by next weekend. March 19 and 20 is the annual Waterfowl Festival at Presqu’ile Provincial Park. There will be knowledgeable  volunteers at viewing platforms in the park to help visitors see and identify what they are seeing.

Presqu’ile is a major migration stop-over for migrating waterfowl. They arrive from further south and east. Many winter on the eastern seaboard of the U.S. They rest and feed while waiting for lakes further north to become ice free before they continue to breeding grounds further north. Several species which pass through Presqu’ile nest on the western prairies and in the taiga and tundra of the far north.

In addition to the waterfowl, our group encountered a number of American Robins, Common Grackles and Red-winged Blackbirds. Although there have been many wintering robins this year, these birds were probably the vanguard of returning migrants.

A couple of lucky members of our group got a look at the Boreal Chickadee which has been wintering on Bayshore Rd. I wrote about this species in an earlier column this winter, and the bird is still around.

A stop at Cobourg Harbour on the way home found the visiting King Eider still there. He has stayed long enough to please the most impatient photographer.

Also at Cobourg Harbour, we added a new species for the day – Mallard! We hadn’t seen any at Presqu’ile.

King Eider in Cobourg Harbour

Nature Notes for March 4, 2011

The local birding hot spot continues to be Cobourg Harbour. There is a constant movement of birds into and out of the harbour depending upon ice conditions, winds, and food. If there is ice, the gulls use it as a loafing area.

The big news this week is a young male King Eider which was first reported on Saturday, February 26. King Eiders nest in the high Arctic and most of the eastern population winter off the east coast of Canada, around Newfoundland, Labrador and south to the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

The King Eider is a rather large duck. The young male has a pale breast, brown head, brown back and orangish bill. It takes three years to acquire full adult plumage, which includes black and white body plumage and a large yellow lump on a pinkish bill. The adult is a very striking looking bird, but I fear that a trip to the Arctic might be necessary to see him in his finery.

King Eiders eat mostly aquatic invertebrates. Several observers reported the Cobourg bird  picking at things on the base of the piers. They thought he was probably picking and eating zebra mussels.

As I write this column, the eider was still being seen. Sometimes he was in amongst the Mallards just off the Hibernia Street parking lot.

Earlier in the week, a male Ruddy Duck was also seen in the harbour, although this bird only hung around for one day. A few Ruddy Ducks breed in southern Ontario, but most breed in the western prairies. It is seen in this area primarily as a scarce migrant.

The Ruddy is a small duck. It has stiff tail feathers and often holds its tail straight up. The bill is rather flat and broadens towards the tip. In breeding plumage, the male has a bright blue bill and bright rufousy body plumage with a contrasting white cheek patch. The bird seen in Cobourg was in winter plumage, but could be identified quite easily by the pale cheek and overall shape.

The other local bird news is Common Redpolls. Since mid-February, this small finch has swooped into the area. There have been several reports of huge flocks – more than 100 birds – at feeders.

The Common Redpoll is one of the irruptive species which has been written about several times in these columns. They nest in the Arctic and are thought to come this far south in winters when there is a poor seed crop in the Boreal forest.

Common Redpolls are slightly larger than an American Goldfinch. The plumage is streaked brown, with a red spot on the forehead (the “poll”). The males have varying amounts of red on the breast.

When Common Redpolls are around, birders always search through the flocks to try to find the much rarer Hoary Redpoll. The Hoaries are much paler than the Commons with much less streaking. They also have noticeably smaller bills that look a bit pushed in to give the head a “flatter” profile.

Spring migration has begun. Horned Larks are singing over agricultural fields. The numbers and diversity of ducks are increasing on Lake Ontario. Perhaps by the time of my next column, two weeks hence, readers will have found the first Red-winged Blackbirds or Common Grackles of the year.

Kittiwake Sighting

More than once, I have written about Cobourg Harbour as a terrific spot for observing gulls in winter. Last Sunday, Feb. 13, this was the place to be for gulls. Of course, it was one week after Willow Beach Field Naturalists had an outing there particularly for gulls, without turning up anything special.

Several observers who visit the harbour daily throughout the winter said that they had never seen so many birds on the ice as on Sunday. Estimates were around 5,000 gulls. The numbers fluctuated somewhat throughout the day,

Sometimes, for no apparent reason, the gulls would flush into the air in a swirling mass, only to circle around and land again on the floating ice. This behaviour is a great frustration to observers trying to pick through the flock for rarities, or simply to count numbers of each species.

There were a couple of treats. First, and easiest to find was a black-legged kittiwake. It had been seen mid-week, but turned up again on Sunday swimming just off the parking lot on the west side of the harbour. This individual was in first winter plumage, the most readily identifiable plumage of this kittiwake. It has a dark collar around the back of the neck and a dark mark on the side of the head behind the eye. In flight, dark marks on the leading edge of the wing form a distinctive "M" pattern. It is about the same size as a ring-billed gull.

Black-legged kittiwakes are common off both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. The eastern population nests on cliffs from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to Greenland. It spends most of its life at sea. There are other records of this species in Northumberland County, most from Presqu'ile.

Then, as so often happens when a rarity turns up and with it, many pairs of keen knowledgeable eyes, another rare gull was spotted amongst the thousands. This one was much more difficult to find even with the aid of a spotting scope.

A mew gull is slightly smaller than a ring-billed gull with a plain yellow bill (no ring) and a dark eye. Spotting this bird amongst the thousands of ring-bills was an amazing feat. I saw the bird, but only because it was pointed out to me. When the ring-billed gulls around it decided to preen, stretch their wings and walk in front of it and the mew gull decided to squat down and go to sleep, it completely disappeared into the surrounding hoard.

Mew gulls should be on the west coast, so this bird was decidedly more rare a find than the kittiwake. There has been only one other record of this species for Northumberland, and that one, too, was in Cobourg Harbour.

In all, nine species of gull were seen in the harbour that day: ring-billed gull, herring gull, great black-backed gull, lesser black-backed gull, glaucous gull, Iceland gull, Thayer's gull and the two rarities, black-legged kittiwake and mew gull.

Although the kittiwake was seen again on Monday, the mew was not.

As I write this on Tuesday, reports are that Cobourg Harbour is completely frozen again and there are many fewer gulls than there were on Sunday.

These sightings of rarities are the reward of the observers who work their local patch on a regular basis