Georgian Bay Island National Park

I have had the pleasure of camping in one of the most magical places in Ontario, Georgian Bay Islands National Park, a few times now. I always visit in the spring when the park is coming alive. We catch a boat from the marina over to the island and camp for the May long weekend. It is always a lovely great time spent with friends and friends-to-be.

The purpose of course for this journey is a survey of reptiles and amphibians of the park. This year was the coldest weather we had ever experienced on the islands with most days being rainy and it always dropping below ten degrees Celsius at night. With the weather forecast so gloomy and cold we didn't expect much to be out moving around, but we actually had a fair amount of diversity in much lower numbers than previous years.

Eastern Hognose Snakes are one of my favorites on this trip for sure. They are often mistaken for rattlesnakes due to their brown blotchy coloration.When they are being defensive they may flatten their heads and body, display like a cobra or play dead by flipping themselves over and musking.  Their prominent upturned "pig" nose is used as a shovel to dig up their favorite food, toads. Maybe it is the toad diet but these guys can really stink when they musk.

Eastern Hognose Snake (Heterodon platirhinos)

Eastern Hognose (Heterodon platirhinos)

Massasauga Rattlesnakes are fairly common on the islands. This snake is venomous but rarely bites people. Watch where you step and leave them be. They are usually coiled up and will rattle as a warning if they notice you getting to close to them. These snakes are beautiful

Massasauga Rattlesnake (Sistrurus catenatus)

Ring-necked Snakes are small snakes that rarely ever bite but do musk. When disturbed they usually coil up and hide their head. They always look glossy smooth.

Ringneck Snake (Diadophis punctatus)

 Northern Watersnakes are completely harmless snakes but can also have a brown blotchy pattern that gets them mixed up with Rattlesnakes. I was lucky enough to find a pair mating and a few young snakes. From the pair mating in the photo below the female is the larger snake and the male is the smaller snake on top of her. 

Northern Watersnake (Nerodia sipedon)

When young watersnakes have more of a pattern and these freshly shed young ones were so tiny and beautiful.

Northern Watersnake (Nerodia sipedon)

Eastern Ribbonsnakes are a long slender snake with patterning similar to an Eastern Gartersnake. Eastern Ribbonsnakes have a distinctive white crescent in front of their eye.  These snakes are fast moving and on a warm day it's very hard to get a decent photo of them. But with the weather fairly cold this particular weekend I was able to get the nicest photos I have ever taken of a Ribbonsnake!

Eastern Ribbonsnake (Thamnophis sauritus sauritus)

Eastern Ribbonsnake (Thamnophis sauritus sauritus)

Eastern Ribbonsnake (Thamnophis sauritus sauritus)

Most species of Ontario turtles can be found on the islands Northern Map Turtles are frequent on the rocky shores around the islands. Painted Turtles are common across Ontario, but the joy of seeing them for the first time in a year never gets old.

Painted Turtle (Chrysemys picta)

 It is very hard to pick a favorite turtle but these two are definitely both in the running. Stinkpot Turtles are small turtles with a large head with yellow stripes. Their shells are brown-olive green on top and they have a plastron that doesn't fully cover their stomach. This allows them to walk easily on the bottom of lakes and ponds. They are more active at night and at night or early morning are some of the easiest times to find them. You'll still probably have to get wet looking though. Despite the cold weather I was waist deep in water looking for them hiding under floating vegetation.

Stinkpot Turtle (Sternotherus odoratus)

Stinkpot Turtle (Sternotherus odoratus)

Blanding's Turtles are pretty much everyone's favorite turtle. It's really hard to dislike this cheery looking charismatic turtle. The bright yellow chin makes it look like it's always smiling at you. Sadly this species is also at risk and some of the threats include cars and boats running them over. The one below was lucky enough to survive one a collision.

Blanding's Turtle (Emydoidea blandingii)

Blanding's Turtle (Emydoidea blandingii)

A lot of amphibians were starting to move on the rainy nights  and the days were filled with calls of breeding American Toads.  The most common amphibian we saw was Redback Salamanders. These small salamanders were out in mass on the rainy nights crawling over mossy and rocky surfaces.

Redback Salamander (Plethodon cinereus)

 Redback Salamanders also have a "Leadback" colour variation that lacks the red-orange stripe.

Redback Salamander (Plethodon cinereus)

The habitats on the islands are variable form rocky shorelines, deciduous forests to wetlands. This diversity of habitats brings out a variety of spring flora including Rock Harlequin, White Bog Violet, Virginia Saxifrage, Easrly Meadowrue, Yellow Trout Lily, Sharp-lobed Hepatica, Round-lobed Hepatica, Starflowered Lily-of-the-Valley, Jack in the Pulpit, Haiy Solomon's Seal, Downy Yellow Violet, Blue Cohosh, Two-leaf Toothcup, Largeflower Bellwort and Trilliums.

White Bog Violet (Viola lanceolata)

Virginia Saxifrage (Micranthes virginiensis)

Spring Migration at Point Pelee National Park

I spent two lovely weekends in a row down in one of Canada's best birding hotspots. Point Pelee National Park is world renowned for bird watching during migration periods. I love visiting this area during spring when the birds flock back northwards in their breeding best. Migration typically occurs in waves with birds arriving at various times based on weather patterns and species.

Point Pelee National Park Marsh Boardwalk

Barn Swallow

The weekends I spent there were very different but both weekends were great for birds. The first weekend I was with co-workers and we saw many of the typical early migrants. There were Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, Yellow-rumped Warblers, Blue-headed Vireos, Winter Wrens, Common Yellowthroats, Veery, Gray Catbirds, Northern Waterthrush, Black-throated Blue Warblers, Black-throated Green Warblers, swallows and sparows.

Yellow Warbler

My favorite find of the weekend was actually a Orange-crowned Warbler. These aren't a rarity for Ontario or for the park itself but it had been years since I had personally seen one and I ended up with a great view of it foraging in juniper bushes. 

Orange-crowned Warbler

Spring flora was also just starting in the park but Spring Beauty and Duchman's Breeches were common in the woodland under-story. Ruby-throated Hummingbirds arriving at the point after crossing the lake went straight for the Duchman's Breeches on the tip.

Narrow-leaved Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica)

Duchman's Breeches (Dicentra cucullaria)

One of my favorite places in Point Pelee has always been the swamps. These weekends were no exception with great views  of many species.

Northern Waterthrush

Gray Catbird

Downy Woodpecker on a Hackberry Tree

 The highlight of the swamp was actually a Brewer's Blackbird, which was a lifer for me I think.

My second weekend at Point Pelee I drove down from Grand Bend and I had the joy of finding a Bald Eagle nest along the road. The adults were both nearby perched in trees along the river. The juvenile wasn't flying yet but was pretty much fully grown and poking its head out of the nest a lot.

Bald Eagle nest with juvenile

 I arrived at Pelee in good time and was the first of my group of friends to get there. So I walked around the park for a while and met up with some other friends that were in the park birding. They told me about a rarity to show up in the park right along the trail and even though they had seen it hours ago I figured it was worth a shot. I had no idea how much of a treat it would be to see. The Yellow-throated Warbler was easy to spot and right along the trail so at some points it was too close to get pictures of.

Yellow-throated Warblers are GORGEOUS flitting gems. I watched it for an hour flitting from tree to tree right along the trail completely ignoring a large group of onlookers that had gathered.

Yellow-throated Warbler

 The bird rarely sat still but I managed to haphazardly get a few decent shots. Nothing compared to my other friends that had seen it earlier, including Josh Vandermulen. It behaved almost like a Nuthatch or Brown Creeper the way it circled trees up and down catching insects.

Yellow-throated Warbler

The Yellow-throated Warbler stuck around long enough for my friends who were arriving a few hours later than I to arrive and come see it. But despite it hanging around the same trail for the entire day on Friday it had disappeared by Saturday.

Yellow-throated Warbler

Little did I know that that beautiful little rarity was the start to one of the best birding weekends I have ever had at Point Pelee. 

Point Pelee National Park

Fallouts or groundings of songbirds occur when a warm weather front advancing from the south or southeast meets a cold weather front moving in from the north or northwest. Birds will descend and stay in the area and in some cases may be very close to the ground or get very close to people in their desperation to find food to fuel their continued migration. I am not so sure if this was technically a fallout weekend or just large numbers of species happened to be passing through at the time of my visit, but there was a huge diversity of warblers and they were pretty much all foraging on the ground or at eye level rather than up in the trees where it's difficult to identify them.

Common Yellowthroat

Magnolia Warbler

Chestnut-sided Warbler

My warbler highlights of the weekend besides the Yellow-throated Warbler were Yellow Breasted Chat, Worm-eating warbler, Prothonotary Warbler, Nashville Warbler, Kentucky Warbler, Cerulean Warbler, Blackburnian Warbler and Canada Warbler.

Pine Warbler

Since I first saw them when I worked in Point Pelee National Park for a summer, Backburnian Warblers have always been one of my favorites. I have never been able to get quite as good of a look at them as I was this weekend when one just came curiously right up to us along the trail then kept on foraging along it.

Blackburnian Warbler

Blackburnian Warbler

The flooded swamp trails didn't stop us from wading along in our rubber boots to see a Prothonotary Warbler. But really it was actually on the other side of the swamp and we could have just gone around on the dry path. Ohh well it was fun.

Prothonotary Warbler

A Cerulean Warbler showed up as we were headed back to the visitor center and was actually foraging on the ground really close to the trail. I was a bit concerned for the bird since I had never seen this species so low to the ground and at some points it looked quite tired, but it was moving around and catching things so I expect it will be alright once it eats its fill.

Cerulean Warbler

After having such a good day for birds we went around the park trying to find some of the last specific warblers we were missing for our weekend list. This included going out looking for Wilson's and Kentucky.

Wilson's Warbler

Both species were found pretty easily in places other birders had seen them that day and we still got great views of them foraging down low.  I am really not sure if it was the weather or if the trees hadn't leafed out enough to provide food higher up in the canopy but this weekend really was an insane warbler weekend. 

Kentucky Warbler

Kentucky Warbler

Crepuscular birds are those primarily active at twilight. This term is usually applied to nighthawks, nightjars, swifts, whip-poor-wills, woodcocks and some owls. Usually their camouflage makes it easy for them to hide in dense trees like the Chuck-will's-widow below perched in a dense patch of cedar. Jeremy said he spotted it thanks to other birds acting oddly around the tree and I was lucky enough to arrive after it had been found.Chuck-will's-widows look very similar to Eastern Whip-poor-wills but differ in size and coloration. It is a subtle difference and I am not so confident that I would have been able to confirm this bird as a Chucks myself. Their calls are very easy to distinguish but they are quiet during the day.

Chuck-will's-widow

We were able to get the trifecta of crepuscular birds by going to where they had been seen previously but they were unusually easy to spot. It was a first for me to see a Whip-poor-will sitting out in the open like this. Again I must admire Josh's lovely photos.

Eastern Whip-poor-will

Common Nighhawk

Scarlet Tanagers were quite common in the park but a Summer Tanager was sighted just outside the park in someones yard. The bird couldn't get more photogenic than sitting in a planted Magnolia Tree.

Summer Tanager

Summer Tanager