A Weekend for the Birds: Touring Forests, Bogs and Marshes in Ontario

Algonquin Park

Last weekend (April 22 & 23), I went on a birdwatching trip with an old university pal. We met at 6 am in Barrie and drove to the west entrance of Algonquin Park where we joined an OFO trip guided by Ron Tozer. It was overcast with a steady drizzle coming down. At least there was no wind. A group of passerines had gathered around the entrance's feeder: chipping sparrow, white-throated sparrow, white-breasted nuthatch, purple finch, black-capped chickadee and junco. A kingfisher flew overhead and a yellow-rumped warbler was seen and heard in the trees.

Our first stop was the Spruce Bog, a peat bog towards the east of the park road surrounded by black spruce and other conifers. Ron played a tape of female spruce grouse calls. This will attract other grouse of either sex because the females, who are territorial, will come to defend their patch while males will come in the hope of finding a mate. We had no luck with the grouse but there were a number of golden-crowned kinglets in the trees and we spotted a greater yellowlegs near some open water in the bog.

We drove on to the Opeongo Rd. The road is closed off by a gate this time of year but our guide had a key. The surrounding habitat consists of a mixed conifer-hardwood forest. Again he tried the trick with the tape and this time it worked. A female grouse responded. It was right by the road and easy to see though it mostly stayed under some low conifer branches. It wasn't much disturbed by the crowd of people who were bending down and crouching to get a better look. I have noticed the apparent lack of shyness of this bird before. When I visited the Parc Grand Jardins in the Charlebois region of Quebec with my family, we came across a female spruce grouse. We noticed it when it flew up right beside us. It settled on a branch a few feet away and then just watched us. We could have touched it with a stick.

Ron then tried to attract gray jays (I prefer calling them Canada jays) with owl and other calls. A jay eventually showed up, approaching the group in stages. I am always amazed at the beauty of these birds and how alert they look and act. One member scattered some treats on the ground, which the jay picked up and then took to a nearby tree to store. The jay came back and eventually took a treat from the person's hand. The storing behaviour is typical of gray jays and they depend on it in winter. Apparently, they relocate their stashes by memory, not just by stumbling on them in winter. In Algonquin park, these birds are declining in numbers. The presumed reason is that their winter stashes are deteriorating faster because of the warmer winters.

From the Opeongo Rd., we went to the Visitor Information Centre and saw a broad-winged hawk on the way. We had our lunch at the Centre and watched the birds at the feeder. Again, there were lots of juncos, purple finches and black-capped chickadees. The view of the purple finches from the elevated terrace at tree tip height was far better than at the entrance and, as far as I am concerned, the males with their bright reddish colours are stunning. There also was a chipmunk that packed its cheeks to the point that they almost seemed to burst. Someone in our group saw a fox sparrow and my pal saw an evening grosbeak but I missed both. The bookstore has a nice collection of field guides. I bought a copy of Edwards Lam's Damselflies of the Northeast.

The next stop was the Arrowhon road. This is an unpaved road that leads to a large lodge. I remember how disappointed my friend and I were by Canoe Lake with its cottages and boats on our first canoe trip to Algonquin Park. We believed we had reached the wilderness when we crossed the portage to Joe Lake. Our blissful delusion was shattered when we paddled around the bend at the end of the lake and were confronted with this big lump of civilization. We landed, played a brief game of table tennis and talked to some of the guests. They didn't seem to be much interested in a close encounter with nature. Their loss.

In any case, this time we didn't see the lodge, which is closed this early in the year, but went on to an abandoned railway dam. The rain was lighter and, as we walked along the dam through stretches of mixed conifer and hardwood forest and more open, boggy country, it occasionally stopped. Along the way we found moose tracks, wolf scats and old turtle egg shells. The eggs had probably been dug up and eaten by raccoons. We saw black ducks and common mergansers along the way.

On the way back we saw a moose. It ran off into the woods but stopped behind a tree and stood there, at most 10 yards from the dam. Sometimes it looked ahead with its ears back and sometimes at us with its ears up, as if it couldn't decide whether to be curious or flee. Perhaps this is an example of what Konrad Lorenz called Uebersprungshandlung. Our guide remarked on the good state of the anuimal's fur but some large ticks were visible near the animal's back end and on its ears. Eventually, we ended the impasse by walking on. Moose are one of my favorite animals. With their big noses and long gangling legs they have a primeval look as if they come from another age.

Next we stopped at the starting point of one of the backpacking trails, which is located in a riverside mixed forest. Nothing much of note appeared there but, at least, the rain stopped. The final location was Long Lake, where we saw a snipe.

I had noticed the lichens growing everywhere -- on rocks, trees, rotting wood and the forest floor -- in the park on previous trips but I hadn't paid much attention to them. However, my two visits to Grand Jardin introduced me to an amazing lichen-dominated habitat and kindled my interest. The lichen cushions on the ground sometimes almost came up to my knees. The lichens in Algonquin are less spectacular but still very beautiful. I wish I had brought along my copy of Brodo, Sharnoff and Sharnoff, Lichens of North America, which my wife gave me as a present in February. I haven't used the book much yet but its pictures, which were taken by the late Sylvia Sharnoff, are works of art. This book is big and heavy, not the type of material you take along when you expect to go hiking. In that way it is more a coffee table book than a field guide. While I wasn't able to identify the lichens I saw this time, I was able to enjoy them. The only exception is a bearded oak moss (Evernaria mesomorpha), of which I took a specimen home.

At the end of the trip our guide felt somewhat disappointed because the weather was bad and the count appeared low but, in my opinion, the trip was a splended success. But the trip list was 46 species which isn't bad considering the weather. My pal and I saw about 30 species, some of which we can't see closer to home. We certainly would never have found the spruce grouse and gray jay without the guide's help. The entire group had a good time exploring the different habitats we walked and drove through.

Wye Marsh

From Algonquin Park we drove to Wye Marsh just west of Midland. It is the third member in the local attractions with St. Marie Among the Hurons and the Martyr's Shrine. It is a large marsh area with reeds, canals and much open water. Woodlands and fields occupy the higher ground. There is a trumpeter swan rehabilitation center there, so some of the birds are quite tame. We went out into the swamp on the boardwalk. Canada geese had staked out nests in many spots, while swamp sparrows were singing among the reeds and song sparrows on the embankments. Some tree swallows fly overhead. Hooded mergansers were swimming at the end of one canal, in the reeds a great bittern called and, out in the distance, we heard sandhill cranes.

Tiny Marsh

Tiny Marsh is only a short distance away from Wye Marsh on the other side of the Penetang peninsula. As a habitat it is similar to Wye Marsh but because dykes were built into the marsh to control water levels, it is possible to walk almost to its center. When we got there, it was almost night. We walked along one of the woodland paths to an observation tower in the hope of hearing an owl. We didn't hear an owl but were treated to a wonderful concert of frogs (spring peepers and tree frogs). We spent the night nearby and were up bright and early in the morning.

Our walk took us out on the Trotter Dyke, until we made a right hand turn onto the Carolina Dyke and finally walked back on a canal embankment to our starting point. The dykes are for most part just a bare earth embankments surrounded by open water with reeds in the distance. The weather was overcast and cool but not unpleasant when we started. However, a wind came up when we were half way or more out the Trotter Dyke. We saw a female gadwall, Ccanada geese, trumpeter swans, blue-winged teals, greater scaups, buffleheads and ring-necked ducks. Towards the end of the Trotter Dyke, a pair of Caspian terns flew by, one holding something in its beak. Bitterns were frequently heard. From the North Carolina Dyke we saw a harrier and ospreys on their nest. In the hedges around the embankment we had a splendid view of a ruby-crowned kinglet with its glowing crest and heard a sapsucker.

After we finished the route, we joined an OFO group led by Ron Fleming. We repeated the dyke walk and added redhead, widgeon, pied-blled grebe, mute swan, lesser scaup, sharp-shinned hawk, merlin and loon to our list. We also saw the ospreys and Caspian terns again and heard sandhill cranes. On the canal embankment we found a savannah sparrow and heard brown creepers sing. I only heard a bittern call very briefly and most people missed it this time around. The wind let up towards the end of the walk.

After lunch we walked through the woodlot to the east of the information center where we heard brown creeprs and golden-crwned kinglets. From the observation point at the end of the pathway we saw coots, pintails, a wood duck and a red-tailed hawk. We found a spot by the path where a ruffed grouse had been killed. The feathers were still in good shape though the bones were pretty white.

Minnesing

The Minesing swamp (not to be confused with Minnesing in Algonquin Park) is a wetland of the Nottawasage river. Once a colony of passenger pigeons roosted there. Much of it has been drained but sections still exist as swamp or is seasonally flooded. We visited it the year before in the company of David Milsom and saw quite a number of interesting water birds. This year some of the areas that had been flooded last year were dry but fortunately not all. Herring gulls, green-winged teals, a red-breasted merganser, a wood duck, pintails and lots of shovelers were seen.

At Tiny, Wye and Minesing we did well on our own because of the nature of the habitat (large open water areas). Also, the birds come out in the open and are relatively large. Still, having a guide and the knowledge and alertness of an OFO group was helpful in identifying songs and birds that were only seen briefly. In Algonquin Park the guide was indispensible because of his knowledge of the area and the animals' habits.

The List

Common loon, Pied-billed grebe, Double-crested cormorant, Great blue heron, American bittern, Canada goose, Trumpeter swan, Mute swan, Wood duck, Green-winged duck, Black duck, Mallard, Pintail, Blue-winged teal, Shoveler, Gadwall, Wigeon, Redhead, Ring-necked duck, Greater Scaup, Lesser Scaup, Bufflehead, Hooded Merganser, Common Merganser, Red-breasted merganser, Turkey vulture, Osprey, Northern harrier, Sharp-shinned hawk, Broad-winged hawk, Red-tailed Hawk, Merlin, Ruffed grouse, Ring-necked pheasant, Spruce grouse,
Coot, Sandhill crane, Greater yellowlegs, Common snipe, Killdeer, Ring-billed gull, Herring gull,
Caspian tern, Rock dove, Mourning dove, Kingfisher, Sapsucker, Downey woodpecker, Hairy woodpecker, Flicker, Phoebe, Horned lark, Tree swallow, Gray jay, Blue jay, Raven, Crow, Black-capped chickadee, White-breasted nuthatch, Brown creeper, Winter wren, Golden-crowned kinglet, Ruby-crowned kinglet, Robin, Starling, Yellow-rumped warblers, Chipping sparrow, Savannah sparrow, Song Sparrow, Swamp sparrow, White-throated sparrow, Junco, Redwing, Eastern meadowlark, Grackle, Brown-headed cowbird, Purple finch, Goldfinch,
Evening grosbeak, House sparrow