Ephemerality

The spring ephemerals are a large and wonderful group of plants. These species are not linked by taxonomy but by ecology. Ephemerals are plants found in deciduous forests that emerge very early in the spring and die back in the summer. They do this to take advantage of the short period in spring when temperatures are reasonably warm and the trees overhead do not have leaves blocking the light. A large variety of ephemerals are currently blooming in the Rondeau area.

Note that while not all these may fit a strict definition of spring ephemerals as they don't die back over the summer, all do come up early in the spring to take advantage of high light levels.

To start off with, Blue Cohosh is an interesting plant named for its distinctive blue berries later in the summer. We actually have two species: Caulophyllum thalictroides has yellowish flowers that open later than the purple-flowered C. giganteum.

C. giganteum

C. thalictroides

Wild Ginger (Asarum canadense) has a bizarre flower that lays flat on the ground. I've found conflicting information on what pollinates these flowers (possibly ants or carrion-loving flies), but the seeds are definitely spread by ants, and the flower position may make this easier.

Members of the arum family (Araceae) have very strange flowers, and a few species are found in Ontario. Possibly the very first plant to flower in spring is Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) (this flower from a week ago is already dying pretty quickly). The flowers actually produce heat to melt through snow and ice the spring. Later on the huge leaves cover the wet habitats in which this species grows.

The other common woodland arum is Jack-in-the-pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum).

 

Two similar species of Dicentra can be found blooming together: Dutchman's Breeches (D. cucullaria) and Squirrel-corn (D. canadensis).

 Dutchman's Breeches flowers look like little pairs of pants.

 

Squirrel-corn is similar, but easily distinguished by the rounded lobes.

There are lots of other ephemerals blooming right now but in the interest of keeping this post to a manageable length you'll have to wait a bit for pictures of them.

Recent Birds

As winter turns to spring some of our first birds to start nesting our the owls. Great Horned Owls are usually the very first bird to lay eggs. This owl was incubating on a windy day.

This Eastern Screech Owl was photographed before the nesting season, but they will use tree cavities like this to nest.

My local Long-eared Owl is lingering very late. I've never seen one linger into April before. If you look closely, the owl is holding a dead chickadee in its talons.

We accidentally flushed this Short-eared Owl from the edge of a sewage lagoon in the middle of the day. It landed on a nearby fencepost and we were able to get great views, although it was a bit too far for photos.

My highlight recently was this Western Grebe that I found at the mouth of the Credit River in Mississauga. This is a pretty rare bird, with an average of maybe one record a year for Ontario recently. A lot of people got to see this bird as it stuck around for a couple of weeks.

Unlike some previous Western Grebe records, this bird did not associate with Red-necked Grebes. Many thousands of Red-necked Grebes stage in western Lake Ontario, and a few stay to breed in marinas and sheltered bays. Floating tires are put out for them at several locations.

Turkey Vultures nest in odd places like caves and sheltered ares in human structures. This was one of a pair that seemed to be staking out this old barn.

Migrant songbirds are finally starting to arrive in numbers. Today I had my first Pine Warbler of the year. Many birders find this to be a fairly rare bird at migrant traps like Pelee and Rondeau, but it is actually just a very early migrant that is mostly gone before the other warblers arrive in early May.

Sparrow diversity is at about its highest level of the spring right now. I had eleven species today around Rondeau, including several Vespers.

Ontario Nature Blogs

There are a lot of awesome blogs about nature in Ontario, but finding them is not necessarily easy. I thought I would host a page listing as many as I can to make them easier to find and even maybe even help create a bit more of a community rather than a bunch of people "talking into the void". Click here to check it out and please let me know of any additions and corrections!

Early Season Botany

Things are finally really starting to happen: I had my first butterflies of the season recently, new birds are coming back every day, and today I had my first blooming wildflowers of the season. Coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara) is a non-native species, but a very welcome one in my opinion, as it is one of the very first wildflowers to come up in spring. The flower emerges before the leaves.

Trout lilies (Erythronium sp.) are one of our most characteristic spring forest flowers. Although for the most part I haven't found any new leaves coming up, there is one exception. This firepit has been in use almost continuously for the last few weeks, and the heat has induced an early emergence for a number of trout lily leaves.

Of course, most of our trees also produce flowers, and several maples are very early bloomers. These flowers belong to Silver Maple (Acer saccharinum).

A number of our ferns are evergreen, and on a recent hike along the Niagara Escarpment I found a couple characteristic species of this formation.

 

Maidenhair Spleenwort (Asplenium trichomanes)

Walking Fern (Asplenium rhizophyllum)

Despite their radically different appearance, these two ferns are in the same genus. According to the Peterson Guide to ferns of the Northeast, these species do not hybridise, but each will hybridise with a third species, Ebony Spleenwort (Asplenium platyneuron).

Not long until our forests and fields turn green again!

First Herps of the Year

With a very warm winter and early spring, the first reptiles and amphibians have emerged somewhat earlier than usual. So far this year, I've seen or heard six species, including Spring Peeper, Red-backed Salamander and the four species pictured below.

Leopard Frogs are not quite ready to really begin their breeding season, but have still emerged in large numbers. I thought this individual had a really interesting pattern of spots on the back.

Most of the amphibians that spend the summer on land begin their breeding very early in the spring, and I encountered large numbers of Wood Frogs at vernal pools this week. They can get a little bit too excited sometimes, and a couple of times I noticed 3, 4 or more males all clinging tightly to a single female.

Wood Frog Eggs

Western Chorus Frogs were also singing away, and using my best Great Blue Heron impression I was eventually able to sneak close enough for good views. Normally they stop singing as soon as you get anywhere close.

My first and so far only reptile of the year was this Northern Map Turtle in Rondeau Bay.

Hopefully more to come as spring progresses!

Ontario Nature Groups

There are lots of great forums, Facebook pages, email lists and similar things online about various aspects of nature in Ontario, but finding out about them is not always easy. To help with this, I have compiled a list of all the groups I know of here. You can also visit it from the link at the top of the page. Check it out, and please let me know if you know of any additions, as I'm sure I've missed plenty!

More Midwinter Birding

With the exception of one frigid weekend, winter continues to be abnormally warm in Southern Ontario. In late January/early February a very warm spell brought some new migrants into Ontario, particularly waterfowl.

The big story has been geese - Ross's, Lesser Snow and Greater White-fronted Geese, all of which normally migrate well to our west, have turned up in close to unprecedented numbers. Of course, with the way most goose populations have been exploding, unprecedented numbers are not unprecedented! Still, they are very nice to see for Southern Ontarians who often pick through thousands of Canada Geese without finding another species.

I spent a bunch of time in the Rondeau area. On the way down I stopped at the Ridgetown Sewage Lagoons and was very happy to come across a flock of 12 Greater White-fronted Geese.

Although they have increased dramatically, "specklebellies" are still an exciting find.

The largest group of Snow Geese seen in Ontario recently was the flock of over 200 at Rondeau Bay. This flock had been seen repeatedly for a few days, but I was the first one to pick several Ross's Geese (a lifer for me!) out of the flock. I think this has less to do with birding skill, and more to do with the fact that I was (I believe) the first person to get extended close views of the main group! They still weren't close enough for good photos, but I was able to get good scope views of at least two of the much smaller and stubbier-billed Ross's Geese.

 

A small portion of the flock. There were also Canada Geese, Tundra Swans, Mallard, American Black Ducks, American Wigeon, Gadwall and Northern Pintail using this field - pretty good for February! 

These rare geese were not my best waterfowl in the area. While looking through the large numbers of Tundra Swans hanging out around the edges of Rondeau, I noticed a swan with a large square yellow patch on the upper bill - a Bewick's Swan. This is the Old World subspecies of Tundra Swan, and is rarely seen in North America. Certainly one of the rarest birds I've found. Too far for photos unfortunately.

There was some confusion initially as it turned out that Blake Mann et al. had seen a leucistic swan there that very morning which also showed a large yellow patch on the bill. I started to doubt myself, but it turned out that there were indeed two birds present. I did eventually see that bird as well a couple of days later, again too far for photos (Blake has photos of this bird on his blog, I don't know if anyone got photos of the Bewick's).

I'm not sure what to make of this leucistic swan - it seems too unlikely for a rare vagrant to also be a rare leucistic bird, but that certainly seems to be the case! I wonder if a leucistic Tundra Swan from the North American population could also show this yellow patch. We may never know!

I did see some birds other than waterfowl of course! I have spent very little time in the Rondeau area outside of springtime, so wanted to get some winter birds for my local list. Some time spent around the dump netted me lots of gulls resting in fields, including my first Lesser Black-backed and Glaucous for the area. This is an adult Lesser Black-backed, note the small, slim shape and dark grey (not black) back.

One attraction of Southwestern Ontario not present farther north is the large numbers of blackbirds wintering in farmland. I came across several flocks, including this one which included Red-winged Blackbirds, Brown-headed Cowbirds, Common Grackles (not in this photo), European Starlings and House Sparrows. All you need is a crow and you get a list of the grain farmer's most hated birds!

Back to Mississauga, blackbirds are quite unusual in winter time. I did come across this male Red-winged Blackbird, which may have been a very early migrant in the warm weather. 

 

Winter's biggest redeeming feature is the owls, so I'll finish up with a couple species I've come across recently.

First, a Barred Owl that was sitting beside the parking lot of a local conservation area:

                       

And a well-hidden Long-eared Owl in the same small patch of conifers I see one in every winter: