Cape May Warbler male

BIRDING NORTHEASTERN ONTARIO

—ESKER LAKES PROVINCIAL PARK

 26 May - 3 June 2023

    Bay-breasted Warbler male

Having had the pleasure of observing the northward-migrating wood warblers at High Island, Texas, in late April (see my blog of 22-24 April 2023), I was eager to spend time with these beautiful little birds on their northern breeding grounds in boreal Canada at the beginning of the nesting season. Up north they would be on territory and singing loudly (at High Island they are mostly silent).

    Esker Provincial Park located by red pin

I used the eBird Explore tool to search for promising sites in Ontario where the elusive Connecticut Warbler nests. My thinking was that any habitat that hosts this rare warbler as a nester will be productive for many of the other 23 northern wood warbler species.

    Canadian Tiger Swallowtails on Esker beach.

eBird Explore highlighted a part of northeastern Ontario, near the border with Quebec, that had a scattering of prior-year Connecticut Warbler records in season. When I looked over this area in Google Maps, I found Esker Lakes Provincial Park, about twenty miles as the crow flies northeast of Kirkland Lake, Ontario. I booked seven nights at the Park in order to have a base of operations to hunt for Connecticut Warbler and the many other enticing breeding wood warblers. As made obvious in my 2018 book, North on the Wing, warblers are a passion of mine.

Google Maps informed me that the drive from Washington, DC to Esker Lakes was a good 16 hours—841 miles. This was, for me, more than a day’s drive. At 3 PM on Friday 26 May I departed from a doctor’s appointment and pointed my car north. I drove through western Maryland and Pennsylvania. In seven hours, after a couple of stops, I finished the day in Salamanca, New York, a bit south of Buffalo. I was in bed by 11PM at the Holiday Inn Express, well positioned for my push northward early Saturday AM.

    Brilliant sunrise - colored by a nearby fire?

My travel objective was to slip through the massive urban sprawl of Buffalo, Niagara Falls, Mississauga, Hamilton, and Toronto before traffic got bad on Saturday morning. These various merged urban areas, all linked by a spaghetti-bowl of highways, were crammed between the eastern end of Lake Erie and the western end of Lake Ontario. I departed Salamanca at 5:15AM and spent a couple of hours traversing this fearsome network of highways. Thank heavens for Google Maps! I had made my morning destination Barrie, Ontario, where I would stop at WalMart and stock up on food and provisions for my camping sojourn. Barrie is safely on the northern side of metropolitan Toronto, meaning I was free of the city.

    Snowshoe Hare in summer pelage.

Departing Barrie at about 9:30AM, I headed northward into Ontario’s fishing and summer-camp country. Roads got smaller, traffic stayed light, and the scenery got prettier and prettier. First, White Pines dominated the roadside, then these thinned out and White Spruce and Jack Pine took over, as well as aspens and birches. This is countryside much like the Adirondacks where I spent summers as a child. I love the northeastern boreal forests, and that was the main reason I was here for a week.

    Common Blue Violets. 

Esker Lakes Provincial Park sits atop Ontario’s largest post-glacial ridge (known as an esker) that is more than 100 miles long. It is dotted with kettle lakes, also remnants from the past glaciation.

I set up camp under a mix of spruce, fir, and aspens, in a drive-in spot in the main campsite. This is luxury camping, because there are amenities—washrooms with hot showers. What I did not plan for was the weather. The first six days in the park was hot, sunny, and dry, with afternoon temperatures in the high 80s (F). Crazy hot! I had to set up a green tarp over my sleeping tent to keep it from becoming an oven. Forest fires were burning all over Canada at this time of drought and heat. Luckily we did not get any smoke until the very end of my visit.

    Bay-breasted Warbler male

 The heat also brought out the biting insects. Black Flies were the most notable, followed by mosquitoes and deer flies. These brought back Adirondack memories from the 1960s…

    Chestnut-sided Warbler male

I spent the best hours of each day (5 AM to 10 AM) out birding, mainly by bicycle. Ontario Road 672 passes north-south by the east side of the Park, and was my main survey route. This paved two-lane road got very little traffic because it did not connect any towns at all. And it was quite flat. Perfect for moving about on bicycle.

    Nashville Warbler male (note partial chestnut cap).

Bicycle birding is done mainly by ear. And on this particular field trip it was done with the help of the Merlin sound app, which allowed me to use my cell phone to detect the presence singing birds in real time. I would bike along route 672 and stop at spots with good boreal forest habitat or with lots of birds in song. I would then bring out my iPhone, let it record for a minute or so, and then match up what Merlin found against what I was hearing.

    Northern Waterthrush male in song.

Although Merlin does make mistakes, it also is very good at “hearing” singing birds that I had difficulty hearing myself. “Cedar Waxwing” would pop up on the Merlin app, and then I would look up and there were a small group of waxwings flying over. Magic!

    Ring-necked Duck pair at Esker Provincial Park.

The two breeding birds Merlin really helped with were Golden-crowned Kinglet and Brown Creeper. Because their songs are high pitched and also quite soft, my hearing aids cannot usually pick them up. But they do not escape Merlin’s sharp ear.

    Ruby-crowned Kinglet male with crest erected.

Merlin also is good at distinguishing similar songs—like those given by two wood warblers—Bay-breasted and Cape May. These are also easily overlooked because they are weak and high-pitched. But Merlin did not miss them. They happily confirmed that I could hear and identify each to species by song alone (in earlier days I had had trouble separating these two).

     Ruffed Grouse male on his drumming log.

I would do bird surveys from ca. 6-10 AM and then return to camp for breakfast, after which I would transcribe my Merlin data and personal results into my field notebook.

    Ruffed Grouse foraging at roadside in the Park.

The wood warblers in late May in northern Ontario are vocal. Here is a warbler sample from a single early-morning survey based on my bicycle-powered strip survey: 22 Magnolia Warbler, 13 Nashville Warbler, 11 Ovenbird, 9 Tennessee Warbler, 8 Northern Parula, 8 Yellow-rumped Warbler, 7 Blackburnian Warbler, 7 Bay-breasted Warbler, 6 American Redstart, 5 Cape May Warbler, 4 Black-and-white Warbler, 4 Common Yellowthroat, 3 Yellow Warbler, 4 Chestnut-sided Warbler, 2 Black-throated Blue Warbler, and 1 Palm Warbler. That is 114 individual wood warblers of 16 species, from 31 one-minute survey counts along a single strip of route 672 about five miles in length.

    Pink Slipper Orchid

One morning, in a boggy part of Alfie Creek, I encountered a pair of American Three-toed Woodpeckers, one of North America’s rarest boreal forest birds. Ontario Province had only six breeding season reports for this species this year.

    American Three-toed Woodpecker male on a small cherry.

I found both a male and a female, which I presumed were a mated pair. I hunted for this species’ close relative—the Black-backed Woodpecker—but did not find this (more common) boreal species on this trip.

                   American Three-toed Woodpecker female (black cap).

I spent a lot of time listening for the loud and distinctive voice of the rare Connecticut Warbler (which is a boreal bog forest breeder). I found lots of likely habitat, but route 672 was, sadly, free of singing Connecticut Warblers.

    Cape May Warbler male

Checking the eBird map for clusters of sightings from recent years, I found a site about an hour northeast of Esker Lakes in Quebec. I got up pre-dawn and drove the back roads to the site.

    Brown Creeper

Back roads are great places to see wildlife early in the AM before the traffic starts.

    Blue-headed Vireo

I came upon two Moose.

                                      A yearling Moose.

I came upon two Black Bears.

    A yearling Black Bear on the roadside allowed close approach for photography. This photo taken with my iPhone.

And I glimpsed a Fisher (a large mustelid—an oversized mink about 3 feet long) running across the road.

    Greater Yellowlegs sounds off on a lakeshore in Esker Provincial Park.

Getting to the site where I had found the cluster of Connecticut Warbler records from previous years, I was disappointed to find no suitable habitat nearby. Why the cluster of eBird records from monoculture planted Jack Pine? Strange! I did walk along an ATV trail nearby, which took me through some nice mixed boreal habitat. Here I encountered lots of wood warblers, but no Connecticut.

    Philadelphia Vireo eating a small spider.

Kevin Sasseville, a knowledgeable and friendly Esker Park staffer, took me under his wing and gave me lots of useful intel about the park, the park’s wildlife, and the natural history of the region. He had all sorts of interesting images and recordings on his smart phone—which added to our list of birds present here—Northern Saw-whet Owl, Eastern Whip-poor-will,  American Woodcock, Bonaparte’s Gull, and Yellow-headed Blackbird (which he videoed walking into the maintenance office on a rainy day).

    Bonaparte's Gull at Esker Park.

Kevin introduced me to Mike Leahy, the local birding expert. I arranged to go out with Mike and his partner Ann Black on my last morning before departure. I drove down to Swastika, a suburb of Kirkland Lake, and met Leahy and Black at their home.

       A singing male Alder Flycatcher in a clearing in the Swastika Municipal Recreation Area.

From their home we took a very pleasant four-hour bird walk through the Swastika municipal forest recreation area, visiting Elsie Lake. This is a place where Mike and Ann had seen a Connecticut Warbler in July 2022. This morning we counted thirteen warbler species (55 individuals) and had a Canada Jay, which was new for my trip list. Other highlights were Alder Flycatcher and Mourning Warbler.

    Ann Black and Mike Leahy at Elsie Lake, near Swastika, Ontario.

It was great to spend time with local experts who know so much about the geology, botany, birdlife, and history of the region. Mike is a retired minerals prospector, and knew this part of Canada like the back of this hand. This is big-time mining and timber country. During our walk through the woods we could hear the low industrial sounds of a nearby large gold mine that had been operating for more than a century.

    A male Mourning Warbler skulking and singing by a wet thicket of alders.

Rural Canada is a place where “wilderness” and industry often are found standing side by side.

    Stacks of White Birch logs, as part of commercial clear-fell operation near the Park.

I drove the first leg home on early Saturday morning, passing for several hours through thick smoke and haze from nearby forest fires. It was very unpleasant.

    A male American Thee-toed Woodpecker flies from perch.

As I wrote this blog at home, I checked eBird to see about this spring’s reports of Connecticut Warbler from Ontario. A few migrant records from the far south, but not a single breeding record for the species this year at this point (6 June). These birds are very rare, and also Ontario has relatively few birders out hunting for warblers on breeding territory. There is still work to be done!

    Red smog from a forest fire nearby on the start of my drive back to the US.