Flowering Dogwood

Comus florida

Presquile Provincial Park, Brighton, Ontario
September 8, 2005

Although common in the U.S. this tree occurs only in the extreme south of Ontario. The USDA Forest Service website says this about the importance of Dogwood to wildlife:

"Flowering dogwoods are extremely valuable for wildlife because the seed, fruit, flowers, twigs, bark, and leaves are utilized as food by various animals. The most distinguishing quality of dogwood is its high calcium and fat content (5). Fruits have been recorded as food eaten by at least 36 species of birds, including ruffed grouse, bob-white quail, and wild turkey. Chipmunks, foxes, skunks, rabbits, deer, beaver, black bears, and squirrels, in addition to other mammals, also eat dogwood fruits. Foliage and twigs are browsed heavily by deer and rabbits."

Yellow Legged Meadowhawk

I posted this as a Cherry Faced Meadowhawk a few days ago. There is a suggestion that it might be a Yellow Legged so I've posted pictures that show the legs. What do you think Nannothemis?

Winter Wren

Presquile Provincial Park, Brighton, Ontario

I'm still posting the results of my trip to Presquile on Tuesday. This Winter Wren was a new bird for my list. I was very fortunate to get this picture. It was at the very end of the day. I was doing the Marsh Boardwalk and was just heading back to the car. You can see the dry bulrushes in the background. This is just on the edge of the swamp and here is the Wren sitting on a dead log. I was walking by and he began calling loudly in what Sibley calls a "hard, double-note jip-jip." I looked for him and he hopped into view. I set down the scope and watched him with my binoculars. He was moving from spot to spot but I decided to try to scope him even though I was fairly close. I got the scope on him, he paused on this dead branch, and I pushed the button on the camera. I really didn't know if I had anything until I got home. Sibley says that this Wren is "Uncommon in damp shaded areas, such as at edges of wooded swamps, where it climbs around fallen logs and overturned stumps." This fit exactly his location and behavior. It was an exciting conclusion to a very enjoyable day of birding.

Oding in November

Cherry-faced Meadowhawk were abundant in the swamp at the beginning of the Boardwalk at Presquile Provincial Park today. These are always the last dragonflies I see each year.

Only Birders can spend a day at the beach in November

Mute Swans

All of these pictures were taken at Presquile Provincial Park, near Brighton, Ontario.

Bufflehead

Great Blue Heron

Great Black-backed Gull

Requiem for the Dead

I spent the day at Presquile Provincial Park, near Brighton, Ontario. I crashed this funeral service for what appears to be a Common Loon. I'm not trying to be deliberately morbid. I actually have a scientific purpose for the pictures that follow, bare with me, and parents, please supervise your children. This will get messy.

You can see by the feet and the bill that this is probably a Common Loon. What I want you to take a close look at is the little black dot at the bottom left of his belly. You see a line and just to the right of it is the little dot.

Here we have the remains of what appears to be a Long-tailed Duck. This would have been a new species for me but my son insists I can't count a dead bird. If any professional birders out there would like to contradict him please email me. But back to my point, please note the tiny bug on the centre front of the bird. CSI types, get to work!



Next dead bird, all on the same beach, all within a few hundred yards of each other. Note the speck on the centre of this bird. OK, here it is in a clear macro shot.


What is this beetle and why is it sitting on all these dead birds? I know that beetles are voracious eaters of small living things, but does this beetle specialize in the dead? Is it some kind of carion beetle. Calling all entomologists!

Presquile Provincial Park

A Great Day of Birding!

Great Blue Heron
Caspian and Common Terns
Sanderling
Semi-Palmated Plover
Greater Yellowlegs
Baird's Sandpiper
Pectoral Sandpiper
Red Knot
Ruddy Turnstone
Merlin
Northern Shoveller
Green Winged Teal
Mute Swan (Large Numbers)
Common Yellowthroat
American Golden Plover
Bonapartes Gull
American Widgeon
Pied-Billed Grebe
Wood Duck
Yellow Rumped Warbler
Northern Parula
Hermit Thrush
Red Eyed Vireo
American Redstart
Osprey
Nashville Warbler
Scarlet Tanager
Blackpoll Warbler
Marsh Wren
Northern Harrier
Palm Warbler
Semi-Palmated Sandpiper
Western Sandpiper
White Rumped Sandpiper
Common Moorhen