A typical morning in northern Ontario

Some more photos from northern Ontario - the last of them!

These were all taken one morning near Matheson, Ontario. The habitat was cleared Jack Pine plantation with several bogs interspersed. Dominant groundcover in the wetter areas included Sheep Laurel, Labrador Tea, Leatherleaf, and Bog Rosemary. In the drier areas I recall a lot of Sweetfern, Low-sweet Blueberry, and the ubiquitous Bracken Fern. Various willow species, Green Alder, and Pin Cherry (among other shrubs) had filled in most of the open areas as it had been several years since the site was last logged.

Pin Cherry

Habitat like this is perfect for Mourning Warblers and Chestnut-sided Warblers!

male Chestnut-sided Warbler

Some nice areas of spruce surrounded the logged portion of the site, and as a result I saw a few species that are closer associated with this habitat type, such as Black-backed Woodpecker, White-winged Crossbill, Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, Blue-headed Vireo, and Magnolia Warbler.

male Magnolia Warbler

Bear tracks! I ended up seeing two bears on this site, though unfortunately both took off about as quickly as possible into the woods. These northern bears are a little less tame than your typical cottage-country garbage-dump bear.

Black Bear tracks

One of most common species of wildflower in any open area - the Ox-eye Daisy, still with some early morning dew on its petals.

Ox-eye Daisy (Bird's-foot Trefoil in background)

Here is a recently fledged Hermit Thrush. Without a doubt the most common bird-song heard throughout this habitat type (or really, any open habitat in the boreal forest) is the White-throated Sparrow. Most point counts will have at least five or six different males singing, and some point counts will have up to 10. The second most common bird seems to be the Hermit Thrush, though they are more likely to be heard earlier in the morning. I found a few recently fledged baby Hermits during my travels.

fledgeling Hermit Thrush

As the morning wore on the bird song slowly decreased while the solar-powered species made their presence known. I identified about 8 species of dragonflies, however there were several others whose identification will remain unknown since I don't yet own an insect net...

Butterflies were a little more straightforward and I turned up about ten species. I photographed two common species for up here - White Admiral and Pink-edged Sulphur. Pink-edged Sulphurs are a northern species that seems to prefer open areas, as long as their host-plant Blueberries (Vaccinium species) are present.

Pink-edged Sulphur

I photographed this moth which is an underwing of some sort - any ideas?

The always abundant White Admiral during my early summer trips to the boreal forest.

White Admiral

That's all she wrote for the 2014 breeding bird season in Ontario! I'm already looking forward to 2015.

My next few blog posts will have something a little more interesting - the long overdue Panama photos from earlier this year! I'm not sure how many posts they will cover, but I'll probably do one post for each day of the trip. 

Insects eating things and warbler nests

I am back home after another long week and a bit up north looking for birds, plants, rattlesnakes, and more! I had been taking my camera with me more often on this July trip than I had earlier in the year, as the bugs weren't quite as bad this time around. Well, I guess they were pretty bad on some sites, but the Black Flies at least had really died down. The deerflies had definitely replaced them, however. It was a common theme to take a photo of a dragonfly that had just flagged one of the fighter-jet shaped Tabanids.

Slaty Skimmer

getting a better grip

Racket-tailed Emerald

Racket-tailed Emerald

With all the walking through shrubby areas and woodlands that I do, every now and then I stumble across a bird's nest. Some are easy, like a raptor's nest or a woodpecker's tree cavity, but other ones are more subtle.

This Black-throated Blue Warbler nest was cleverly tucked into the top of a Sugar Maple seedling at about waste height, and only visible from one angle.

Black-throated Blue Warbler nest

My highlight of the week however was this Ovenbird nest that I located. The Ovenbird is named for it's nest that it builds - a little oven shaped nest dug into a hillside or against a fallen branch, accessible from walking in through the side. I had never found one of these before and they can be very well hidden. One afternoon, a mouse-like bird scurrying away from my feet and flying up briefly to go into a thick black berry patch caught my attention. The nest only took a second to locate, just 30 centimeters from my foot.

Ovenbird nest

Inside were four speckled eggs.

Ovenbird nest

I left after a few moments so that I would not lead other animals towards the nest. Given how easily I found the nest, I wonder if her nest had failed already once previously if the eggs are this new. Most species had youngsters out of the nest already by this date.

Back to the insects eating things theme - here is a totally bad-ass Crab Spider knowing down on an unfortunate fly! I believe this is a female Misumena vatia, a species that is normally found on goldenrods (Solidago).

Misumena vatia

I thought that the pink stripe along the crab spiders abdomen was interestingly the exact same shade as the Common Milkweed flowers it was on. Interesting to think if that feature evolved due to the species close association with Common Milkweed?

I took the time to nab photos of these Dot-tailed Whitefaces. This is a common species, but I had never photographed one well before so I took the opportunity.

female Dot-tailed Whiteface

male Dot-tailed Whiteface

This and that in northern Ontario

I'm back in the north for another week and a bit. Unfortunately this will be the last of my breeding bird surveys until next year, but such is life!

On one of our sites (near Parry Sound) I lugged around my camera for an afternoon. That proved to be a good idea as several dragonflies made themselves photogenic, despite the mid-day lighting. At any given point at least a couple deerflies were hovering around me, but luckily the dragonflies made short work of them! I photgraphed three different species chowing down on deerflies that they snagged above my head.

Om nom nom

The most abundant dragonfly, as is the case pretty much in any semi-open habitat in this part of Ontario during summer, is the Chalk-fronted Corporal. These guys (and gals) were also quite common in this habitat type (edge habitat consisting of rock barrens and mixed pine/oak/maple woodland). I believe they are Slaty Skimmers, but I don't have a decent dragonfly guide with me at the moment!

At one point I pished in a male Pine Warbler who checked us out.

Northern Ontario just wouldn't be the same if there weren't fanatical religious signs on the side of the road. This has been my favorite so far! Unfortunately I haven't had any Virgin Mary sightings on this trip, real or otherwise.

Speaking of signs, here is one from some small town somewhere west of Sudbury. I wonder what is the story behind this one, and how Wife feels about her name not being included!

Somewhere an hour or two north of Thessalon we came across this bear along the roadside. I have to say, Black Bears are one of my favorite species that call Ontario home, but rarely do I get such a good look at one! Almost all of my Black Bear encounters are of individuals I come across in the bush or along a road, and every single one high-tails it out of there as soon as it sees me. This one was probably hoping for a free meal...

My favorite one of the group.

That's all for now!

Some Georgian Bay herp photos

Here are a few of the herps from the weekend at Beausoleil Island in southern Georgian Bay.

We found a few Red-bellied Snakes, including four under one rock!

Shoreline in the late evening light...

While sitting around the campfire and making dinner in the evenings, we heard several Whip-poor-wills, a few species of frogs, and had single American Woodcocks (a flyby) and Barred Owl as well. Gray Treefrogs were perhaps the loudest of the species heard, and one particular male had taken residence in the wooden gazeebo that was built out in the open.

During mid-morning the bugs were pretty bad and the sun had warmed the rocks substantially. Luckily the lake was never far away so we frequently headed for the brief respite from the mosquitoes in the waters of Georgian Bay. At one such point we tried catching a few dragonflies afterwards, as they were cruising along the shoreline. Here are my feeble attempts at IDing them.

Stream Cruiser

looks like it would be easy to ID, but I'm tired...

Clubtail sp. (Ashy?)

Common Baskettail

Snakes were hard to come by for the most part. On previous trips I had seen close to 10 species, but then again those trips were a bit longer, I was with a group of about 15, and we were earlier in the year (late May/early June is usually much better than early July). We did come across one Ring-necked Snake, a species that usually can be found in higher numbers. 

Northern Leopard Frogs were commonly seen throughout the day, wherever there was water. This one was absolutely massive, and in the late evening light I snapped a few photos. 

Northern Leopard Frog eye!

Todd looking for snakes...

Cell phone pic taken from near our campsite, looking out over the water.

We were rained out for part of Tuesday, our final day on the island. With the mosquitoes in full bloom, the rain clouds continuously passing over, and the snakes being few and far between (just the odd Northern Watersnake chowing down on fish near the shoreline), we decided to head out early, and by 2:00 PM were back on the mainland. Instead of going straight home, we decided to check out a nearby spot for Massasaugas!

The spot did not disappoint, and it took about 45 minutes of searching before Todd spotted the sauga, a gravid female basking in the mottled sunlight. It was a beautiful snake and looked very similar to my "lifer" Massasauga back in 2008.

Eastern Massasaugas are found in the upper Midwest east to Georgian Bay. Throughout most of their range, they are found in fens, prairies, and similarly damp habitats, and are known by some as "Swamp Rattlers". In the Canadian Shield area of Georgian Bay, Massasaugas are found in more open habitats, often on open rock barrens or alvars, though always in relatively close proximity to wetlands. They have a stronghold throughout "cottage country" in Ontario, while the few remnant prairie populations in southern Ontario are declining to critical levels. Eastern Massasauga is afforded habitat protection in Ontario and is listed as a Threatened species. Fortunately, large chunks of good Massasauga habitat still exist in this part of Ontario, and continued education of people living there may help reduce mortality as well. Hopefully as time goes on and more people move to that part of Ontario, that Massasaugas continue to hold on.

The location where we found the basking female was the exact spot where I had found a recent "litter" of rattlesnakes one year - I think I found 6 in the area, and 5 more later in that same day. 

We watched the Massasauga for a while and continued on, though the deer flies would not stop harassing us. We turned up a handful of Five-lined Skinks (the first of the weekend), heard some Mink Frogs, and then headed home!

Not a bad way to celebrate Canada day, with one of Canada's iconic herp species.

Back from Georgian Bay

It was a relaxing weekend on Beausoleil Island in southern Georgian Bay. The weather was constantly changing - hot and sunny one second, a thunderstorm the next. Overall though the weekend was very hot and humid, which likely limited herp activity during the afternoon to some extent. Nonetheless it was a great time and we saw about 15 species of reptile/amphibian along with around 75 bird species, including several singing Prairie Warblers. I also had a lot of fun catching dragonflies, swimming in the warm waters of Georgian Bay, sleeping in my hammock, and working on photography! I also counted 120 mosquito bites on one leg, which may be a personal best.

I'll try to get some photos up tomorrow. In the meantime, here is an identification quiz!

A gold star to whoever guesses the species correctly.