June at Long Point

Nothern Map Turtle (Graptemys geographica)

  The past few weeks I have had the privilege to find many species of herps (reptiles and ampibians) that are considered species at risk. Long Point being one of the most pristine areas in southern Ontario this isn't very surprising.

Female map turtle laying eggs near Old Cut

My first walk towards the tip I am greeted by some tourists wandering the dunes (not very legal on private property where I live but I was new at this Point). They warned me to watch out for snakes because they had seen a few around. I laugh and tell them that I live here and my job is looking for snakes and other things. I am lucky enough to be able to find a pair of mating fox snakes nearby. Sometimes nature just has perfect timing and I get to show these amazing creatures to a few guys that are feeling a bit immasculated by the ~5ft male snake they had been scared of minutes ago that I was now holding. 

My first few days were also greeted by map turtles, snapping turtles and spiny softshell turtles lining the beaches. I bring binoculars with me as I walk the beaches so I can see the quickly startled turtles before they retreat to the water. Once I managed to sprint fast enough to get between one and the water but in the time it took to pull a camera from my pocket the large turtle was between my legs and in the water where I had little hope of a decent picture.

Tree swallow innest box at the old cut field station

Adult male fox snake (Pantherophis gloydi)

This is a great time for wildflowers and may species are in full bloom. Walking around I see fields of red or purple that are made up of these two flowers:

Indian paintbrush flowering

Milkweed is another common native plant at the tip. Famous for being the food source of monarch caterpillars but this group of plants is also a great place to find interesting pollinators looking for their high protein diets. Unfortunately the pollen from milkweed doesn't provide the same protection from predators as eating the plant itself.

Monarchs are a fairly sizable butterflies with bright orange and black markings. The milkweed they eat when younger makes them toxic to predators. Another butterfly the viceroy, that doesn't eat milkweed or have this toxin mimics the monarch colouration except for a black stripe horizontal across the back wings which the monarchs lack.

Viceroy butterfly

The real treasure for me happened on my second day. Walking around trying to get the lay of the land that is now my backyard (and such a beautiful one)  I wander through the swallow grid. The tree swallow project has been running at Long Point since at least the 80's. Many things have been studied in this time and there are tons of papers by a variety of people.  But, although this amazing research is interesting walking through the grid I had many surprises including melanistic and regular garter snakes. When I flushed not one, not two but THREE American woodcocks from the phragmites I was definitely startled and happy but this almost distracted me from my true purpose. I turn my eyes back to the ground to continue my search for more herps and within a few feet I yes SPOT a Spotted turtle. The bright yellow spots cover the carapace of this adorable and tiny black turtle just like the bright yellow on spotted salamanders. This is my favorite turtle species in Ontario and it being an endangered species just adds to my excitement and satisfaction of finding one.

Spotted Turtle

 But wait... I can't forget the amphibians!

Leopard frog close up 

Another species that I have the pleasure to work with this summer are Fowler's toads (Bufo fowleri). Fowlers toads are a species of toad very similar in appearance to American toads which are very common in Ontario. However, Fowlers have an all white belly, more warts per dark spot and are restricted in range to three locations in Ontario that all occur on Lake Erie. Each of these three locations is genetically isolated from the other and can even differ in appearance.

Male Fowlers Toad (Bufo fowleri)

Although they are very restricted in range and populations are very isolated due to habitat destruction they are very abundant here. I have been able to find approximately 400 in a single night when the weather is good.

Leopard brown phase

Leopard green morph

Two juvenile bald eagles in the nest

I have had the pleasure of walking about 15-20 km in a day doing transects or other surveys looking for herps. I've accompanied my housemates on many of the breeding bird counts. So I guess I should mention the birds here....
As to not bore you with discussion of the many common species here are some highlights to me. The first birds I started to really admire at the tip were mimids a group of birds that are known for mimickry. This includes northern mockingbirds, gray catbirds and brown thrashers which are all fairly common and easily recognizable.  Another great moment was when I heard a call I didn't recognize which ended with me chasing down a blue-gray gnatcatcher which isn't a rare bird but I was happy and triumphant to figuring out what it was calling back and forth through those cedars. I found three nests that I considered to be good finds. The Coopers Hawk nest was on a breeding bird survey plot. The whip-poor-will nest I found by flushing two birds in another breeding bird plot. One bird stayed and played injured making a huge fuss until I stopped looking at the nest and followed it.  The bald eagle nest I found by watching a few small birds (probably grackles or red-winged black birds) attacking an adult that was hanging around an area I was doing a transect in. Within a few meters I found the two juveniles in the large pine tree nest. There are often killdeer, bonaparts gulls, black terns, least sandpipers and spotted sandpipers along the beaches with other terns and gulls. Probably my best bird on Long Point so far has been two Chuck-wills-widow. One night I went out with Janice on her nighttime breeding bird survey. We expected to find whip-poor-wills and woodcocks, maybe the odd snipe. Hearing everything we expected, Janice stops me partway through the survey and cries "Do you hear that? Thats a chuck wills widow! It's over there!" I reply with "No it's over there." and point in the opposite direction. Both of us thinking the other is crazy quickly turned to the realization that there were in fact TWO!

Baby tree swallows- pink alien phase

I've assisted with the swallow project; banding, weighing and measuring the primaries on chicks. I might have mentioned it before but this swallow project has been run here since the 1980's. Bird boxes are set up for tree swallows to live in and the adults and chicks are monitored for various studies. My friend from Guelph, Ariel, happened to be working on this project and I often helped her out when she had a lot of nests to band or just for the fun of it. It was neat seeing the birds grow from pink alien looking things to mini swallows with big mouths.

Some interesting things we found with the swallows were that multiple parents could be found in a nest. One nest had about four or more females in it. Polygamy is pretty common in swallows from what I know but I would like to see how closely related these adults were and test the genetics of the offspring in those nests.

Within a few days the swallows have tiny feathers and look a lot cuter

Tree swallows pose a lot of questions and the setup here at long point gives people a chance to answer questions and get great experience through volunteer work or thesis projects.

And then they begin to look much more tree swallow like

Lots of cuteness at Long Point this spring!

And here is a bay snapping turtle because he's too cute to ignore.