Rondeau Ric

  Scarlet tanager, fall colours, Rondeau Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada, Sept 25, 20323. Such a drastic change from its spring colours of a red body with black wings. Piranga olivacea The response of the Scarlet Tanager to habitat fragmentation varies from place to place. Results from the Cornell Lab’s Project Tanager indicate that in the heart of the species’ range in the Northeast, it can be found in small forest patches. In the Midwest, similar sized forest patches tend to have no tanagers Source - allaboutbirds org

  Blackpoll warbler, Rondeau Provincial Park, September 20, 2023. Photo by Anne. Warblers seem sparse this year, we get a little flurry every few days and that is it. Setophaga striata The song of the Blackpoll Warbler will put your hearing to the test. Most birds sing at a frequency between 1,000 Hz and 8,000 Hz, but the Blackpoll’s song can reach 10,000 Hz, even higher than the song of a Brown Creeper.

Sharp shinned Hawk, Rondeau Provincial Park, Sept 10, 2023. Photo by Anne.Had a sharpie come to the pond and spend about 15 minutes bathing. At one point it stood at the "waterfall" and hung its tail over as if it was washing its bottom. It spent another 20 minutes grooming in the hedge. Oddly, we had no other birds in the yard.

So the Tennessee (and The Monkees) say. The yellow seemed to be very deliberate in landing on the Tennessee as if to say, get out of my pond. Rondeau Provincial Park, Aug 12, 2023. Leiothlypis peregrina- Tennessee warbler Setophaga petechia - Yellow warbler.

Sora, Rondeau Provincial Park, Aug 11, 2023. First sora of the year, they've been hiding from us. Porzana carolina. It may not seem like it, because seeing a Sora takes some effort, but the Sora is the most abundant and widespread rail in North America. source -Cornell Lab of Ornithology

See I do post things other than birds. A snake at the pond this afternoon. Rondeau Provincial Park, Aug 10, 2023. Eastern garter snake .

Black and white warbler, Rondeau Provincial Park, August 9, 2023. Grooming after a enthusiastic bath. Mniotilta varia. Black-and-white Warblers have an extra-long hind claw and heavier legs than other wood-warblers, which help them hold onto and move around on bark. source -Cornell Lab of Ornithology (Fandango is a lively partner dance originating in Portugal and Spain, usually in triple meter, traditionally accompanied by guitars, castanets)

Prairie warbler, Rondeau Provincial Park, August 7, 2023. We have had one in the lot next to us that we watched from the yard but the is the first time one has come to the water. Setophaga discolor. Like most warblers, Prairie Warbler sings two similar, but distinct, song types. The faster “A Song” is directed at the female for courtship and the “B Song” is sung at territorial boundaries to deter other males. source -Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Blue-gray gnatcatcher taking food out of a spider's web. Rondeau Provincial Park, Aug 5, 2023. Polioptila caerulea The nesting range of Blue-gray Gnatcatchers has been shifting northward since the early twentieth century. Over the last quarter of that century, the shift was about 200 miles, in concert with increasing average temperatures source -Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Blackburnian warbler, Rondeau Provincial Park, August 5, 2023. Another fall migrant in the yard Setophaga fusca In springtime, rival male Blackburnian Warblers perform remarkable territorial conflicts that recall an aerial ballet. They chase one another through and around the treetops, flying in loops, plummeting downward through the branches in a whirling pattern, gliding with tail raised and spread, or slowly flapping in exaggerated “moth flight,” as researchers call it. Once territories are established, the aerobatics die down. source -Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Milkweed tussock moth, Rondeau Provincial Park, August 2, 2023. Evidently a swarm of caterpillars is unusual for this species. Leave it to Anne to find something like this. Euchaetes egle, the milkweed tiger moth or milkweed tussock moth, is a moth in the family Erebidae and the tribe Arctiini, the tiger moths.

Another migrant, Bay-breasted warbler, Rondeau Provincial Park, Aug 2,2023. Don't recall having a bay-breasted at this time of year, particularly one with such good colour. Setophaga castanea. Bay-breasted Warblers are voracious predators of spruce budworms. One study concluded that they consumed over 13,000 budworms per hectare (about 2.5 acres) in just 41 days. source -Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Yellow-rumped warbler, Rondeau Provincial Park, August 1, 2023. This is the earliest we recall having a yellow-rump at the water. Setophaga coronata. When Yellow-rumped Warblers find themselves foraging with other warbler species, they typically let Palm, Magnolia and Black-throated Green warblers do as they wish, but they assert themselves over Pine and Blackburnian warblers. source -Cornell Lab of Ornithology

A pair if house wrens passing food for the chicks in the house. Rondeau Provincial Park, July 31, 2023. Troglodytes aedon. The House Wren has one of the largest ranges of any songbird in the New World. It breeds from Canada through the West Indies and Central America, southward to the southernmost point of South America. source -Cornell Lab of Ornithology  

Black-billed magpie, near St. Thomas, Ontario, July 30, 2023. Very far away, heavily cropped and processed. Saw 5 of the possible 6 in the area. Unusual visitor this far east. Pica hudsonia. The Black-billed Magpie makes a very large nest that can take up to 40 days to construct. It's a lot of work, but a study found that it only used about 1% of the daily energy expenditure of the pair. Laying eggs, on the other hand, takes 23% of the female's daily energy budget. source -Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Eastern cicada killer wasps are back at Rondeau. They are harmless unless you are a cicada. Interesting animals. Rondeau Provincial Park, July 28, 2023. Sphecius speciosus Mild mannered female cicada killer wasps are active during the summer, intent on their tasks of 1) digging underground burrows and 2) provisioning them with paralyzed cicadas that will be food for their grub-like larvae. The wasps will be very focused on these tasks for several weeks.

A young white-tailed deer being targeted by the Vampires of Rondeau. Our yard,July 26, 2023. Taken through the Wonderful Wildlife Window.' Rondeau Provincial Park. Odocoileus virginianus.

Rose-breasted grosbeaks, Rondeau Provincial Park, July 24, 2023. Pheucticus ludovicianus. Two males share the record for the oldest Rose-breasted Grosbeak. Both birds were at least 12 years, 11 months old when recaptured and released during banding operations. One was banded in 1972 in Vermont and found in the same state in 1984. The other was banded in Maryland in 1976 and recaptured in 1987 in the same state. source -Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Rondeau Provincial Park, July 23, 2023. A multi-legged visitor beside the pond. The black and yellow mud dauber, Sceliphron caementarium (Drury), is a common and widely distributed solitary sphecid wasp that hunts spiders and builds characteristic mud nests for their offspring. In each cell of her nest, a female mud dauber lays a single egg which she provisions with up to twenty-five live, paralyzed spiders. source - University of Florida .

Punk Rock Cardinal, Rondeau Provincial Park, July 23, 2023. Northern Cardinal strutting around the yard this afternoon. Cardinalis cardinalis. The oldest recorded Northern Cardinal was a female, and was 15 years, 9 months old when she was found in Pennsylvania. source -Cornell Lab of Ornithology