Late Winter/Early Spring Algonquin Provincial Park

24 February – 2 March 2018

American Marten

After two successful trips to Algonquin Provincial Park in the winter of 2016-2017, I decided to return to do some more winter camping at Mew Lake campground in early 2018. Work kept me from going until the end of February, by which time, spring was definitely beginning to make its way into south-central Ontario. I arrived at Algonquin at the beginning of the spring thaw, probably two months earlier than would have been experienced in the late 20^th Century. The ice was already starting to disappear on the lakes and streams, and virtually no snow fell during the week I was there. Instead we got rain and freezing rain, as the day time temperature typically rose above freezing.

Blue Jay

When I arrived at my campsite it was raining and the site itself was entirely covered-over in about an inch of ice. I thus had to set up my tent and large tarp atop an expanse of shiny ice. Getting the stakes into the ice was a challenge, and throughout my stay, the stakes kept slipping out of their stake holes because of the melting ice. After a couple of days, my tent stood in a pool of meltwater atop the base of ice, and I was forced to move the tent over under some pines where there was some crusty snow I could set the tent upon. This was an improvement and my tent stayed dry inside.

Common Raven

I spent my days looking for birds and mammals in the transitional weather. I walked the boreal conifer woods of the Spruce Bog Trail, visited the Visitor Center, walked other trails near Mew Lake, and also walked the Opeongo Road. Days varied from very dark and dreary with low cloud and temperatures hovering around freezing, to bright cloudless sunny days with temperatures well above freezing.

Evening Grosbeak

The most predictable place for photography was the back deck of the Visitor Center, that looked down on several feeders and a suet cage. This attracted flocks of various winter finches: Evening Grosbeaks, Purple Finches, Pine Siskins, and American Goldfinches. Red Crossbills came in to collect grit from the bare ground under the deck, and they also perched in adjacent spruces.

North American River Otter

At kilometer 53 along the main highway 60 that cuts through the Park, the stream there was losing its ice cover and on several occasions I found an otter hunting fish or crustaceans in the stream and consuming the prey out on the ice.

Black-backed Woodpecker male

The Spruce Bog trail was productive during this visit. On two occasions I came upon a pair of Black-backed Woodpeckers in the Black Spruces. It was apparent that this pair was planning to set up a nesting territory here, as they carried on various interactive displays in a favored stand of spruces.

Spruce Grouse male

On my first two visits to Algonquin, I searched for Spruce Grouse in vain. This year, I finally located an adult male foraging on the needles of a Balsam Fir.  These birds are very tame, but also silent and usually difficult to locate when up in the branches of conifers. They are best looked for later in the spring, when the males are doing their courtship displays, which includes a noisy display flight. Over the six days of visits to the Spruce Bog, I encountered the grouse only a single time.

Gray Jay

Gray Jays were present in decent numbers but were always and everywhere outnumbered by the more aggressive Blue Jays. The Blue Jays spend the winter in the Park in big numbers. The Gray Jays are a bit like the Spruce Grouse—unwary but rather quiet and easily overlooked. Still, I managed to run into this species virtually every day.

Pine Siskin bathing

Pine Siskins were in the park in big numbers and were noisy. It appeared they were starting to think of spring and I regularly heard songs of this species from treetops and as birds were flying about over the forest canopy. This was the most common winter finch during my visit.

Pine Siskin male

Purple Finches were common and I regularly heard males giving their song, something I typically expect in late spring. It seems many of the winter finches were either actively breeding (e.g., White-winged Crossbill) are preparing to breed in the near future.

Purple Finch male

On one occasion, when I return to the stream at kilometer 53 to photograph the otter, I instead found beavers out of their stick house and feeding up on the ice on branches that had been stored under the water the preceding fall. At one point, three individuals of the beaver family were futzing about in a small opening in the ice. The otter was nowhere to be seen.

American Beavers

Perhaps the stars of the show in Algonquin in February were the crossbills. The Red Crossbill was particularly common and the White-winged was widespread in small numbers. I found both species every day I was out. Both were visiting the roads to collect the rock salt and grit deposited by the snow trucks. The Red Crossbills were usually in small flocks, whereas the White-winged Crossbills were in male-female pairs. I had heard from the assistant superintendent that this latter species had been found to be nesting in the week prior to my arrival. This record was a first for the Park, I believe. Along the Opeongo Road I heard male White-wings singing from spruce treetops and it was pretty clear this species was in high breeding mode in the area.

Red Crossbill male

It was a joy to come upon small groups of Red Crossbills—either at the back deck of the Visitor Center or out on parking lots and along the highway. They allowed close approach on occasion. On a typical day I would encounter 15-20 flocks, which is out of the ordinary.

Red Crossbill young male

The three plumages of the Red Crossbill made for some nice photographs.

Red Crossbills on ice

White-winged Crossbill male

Wild Turkeys have colonized the Park in recent decades. They spend the winter here. I found small parties both at Mew Lake campground and at the Spruce Bog. The birds I came upon at Mew Lake were surprisingly unwary, allowing close approach.

Wild Turkeys

Both Hairy and Downy Woodpeckers spend the winter in the Park. The Hairy is common at the Spruce Bog and shares this forest with the Black-backed Woodpeckers.

Hairy Woodpecker male

The Red Fox is a year-round resident in the Park. I came upon a single individual on this visit. In January 2017, I was surprised to find that a road-killed Moose had been dragged into the open bog below the Visitor Center, allowing a long-distance view of various predators feasting on the carcass (Eastern Wolf, Fisher, American Marten, and Red Fox). Under normal conditions, seeing predators is a rare event.

Red Fox

This year, on my last day, I found an American Marten coming in to the feeders at the Visitor Center. This close encounter with the marten was perhaps the high point of this year’s visit to Algonquin.

American Marten

My six days spent in the park netted me 25 species of birds and 6 mammal species—not bad for late winter! For those who want to make a winter visit to Algonquin Park, the Mew Lake campground is open through the winter and for those not interested in tent-camping, there are yurts available for rent, which include electricity and various amenities.