Second Half of a Long Weekend...to Algonquin!

Where I left off last time was just finishing a visit to Killbear PP for the first half of the August long weekend.  For the second half of the weekend I was taken (by surprise!) to Algonquin Provincial Park for my very first backpacking trip (even if it was just an overnight one...it wasn't "car" camping!)

We went for a hike on the Western Upland Backpacking trail and made our way out towards Maple Leaf Lake. Our first stop was a few km in and it was near a giant beaver damn.  The water levels were obviously very low, leaving a lot of the area to be a mud flat.  I was actually very surprised that there were not more shorebirds there picking away in the mud!  Instead, we only saw one!  I am not the best yet at shorebirds, but I what we saw I have identified as being a Spotted Sandpiper! What an adorable little guy he was!

Spotted Sandpiper!

We continued further along the path. It seemed most of the time that all we were doing was walking uphill!  Isn't that always the way.  We stopped for a little snack on a rock in the middle of a little beautiful waterfall.  I don't think anything beats sunflower seeds and beef jerky when you are out in the woods! While here we had the most beautiful dragonfly land near a tree by us, so I took a few shots of it.  Turns out it is an Ebony Jewelwing! It was over all quite a quiet walk through the woods, I didn't really hear too many birds what so ever, minus the odd Chickadee!

Ebony Jewelwing Dragonfly

We finally made it to Maple Leaf Lake and spent the rest of the day collecting firewood, looking around, playing with chipmunks, and just completely vegging.   The sunset was absolutely beautiful on the lake and although it was too cold to actually swim we were able to put our legs in the water, hang out in the sun, and enjoy the loons with two young swim around the lake and listen to their haunting songs.  When the stars came out I could have almost sworn that I've never seen anything quite that amazing.  Half of me was scared that it was pitch black and I was just standing there (who knows what lurks!) and the other half couldn't move at the magnificence of it all. I hadn't seen stars like that since I was up working in Chapleau/Gogama area for a summer.  Just absolutely stunning.

The next morning I heard a very familiar song...one of the white-throated sparrow!  Now, I know that this is a fairly common bird but I had yet to actually SEE it!  So I went on a little hunt and was finally able to track this guy down.  What a beautiful bird it was!  Unfortunately my picture of it happened to turn out a little...hazy looking.

White-throated Sparrow.

White-throated Sparrow

Just before we left the next morning a little toad stopped by to wish us well!

American Toad

If anyone is thinking about taking a backpacking trip, Algonquin is totally the place to go. I am so glad to have been brought here, even though most people would scream at the thought of hiking about 16km in 24 hours! Maple Leaf Lake was also a beautiful place to stay. Not too, too far of a hike and was perfect for an overnight backpacking trip.  The lake itself was stunning and so clear, I wish it was just a little warmer to have swam (which is saying a lot because I hate swimming!)

The sights, the smells, the sounds...it was all just amazing. I really hope to head up that way again sometime in the fall because the colours will be nothing short of brilliant!

An adventurous long weekend.

I spent another fabulous long weekend at Killbear Provincial Park, the long weekend of August. Well, the first half of it anyways!

Our first adventure was out to Harold Point, the area of the park that has an amazing beach as well as a place known as the "jumping rocks".  The first thing I saw here, I have to say, are the absolute cutest thing I have ever seen in my life.  While beginning the hike I heard little peeping noises. All excited I knew there were babies nearby and after a few minutes of quiet searching...I spotted them!  What an amazing sight.  For sure I can tell you that they are flycatchers, although getting more specific may be a little more difficult.  The vast majority of people have agreed that they look to be little fledgling eastern Phoebes.  Unfortunately, I did not get that great of a look at the adult birds.  From the quick flyby that I did get, it looked like a certain possibility!

Potential Eastern Phoebe Fledglings

Female deer overlooking the Bay

It was another fairly quiet afternoon when it came to birds.  I did see a few flycatchers, although they
did not stay long enough for me to take a good look and ID them.  Common Merganser young were seen floating in the bay, yellow warblers also sung around us.  Our first mammal of the weekend was a very, very relaxed deer.  While walking along the rocks we saw ran into her, which shocked me a little as the last thing I expect to see is a deer out on rock cliffs!

Watersnake

The next exciting spotting was our first snake of the weekend, a beautiful Watersnake.  This guy was hiding in some tall grasses and we just happened to spot it slowly moving as we walked by it.  As it slowly slithered out of the grasses and onto the open rock we were able to notice that it was a really beautiful red morph.  I was fairly surprised at the number of people who walked by us, very set in their walk out of the area, and not being able to notice this little guy.  It makes me so happy that I and the person I am with, have such keen eyes and are constantly on the look out for this beauty.

Watersnake

We later decided to walk out into these beautiful back woods, still inside the park but taking an old path that seemed as if it hadn't been used in the past few decades.  The remnants of the path were still around, so we tried to follow them as close as possible to get ourselves out towards the rock outcrops.  We spotted quite a few different things while out there, another flycatcher sp., spring peeper, leopard frog, black-throated green warbler, yellow warblers, and a really big lump of fresh bear poo.  Naturally after seeing this, I was just a little bit on edge as by the sight of it we could assume the bear had been there within the last half hour.  Although I am used to working in bear country, I can't help getting a little nervous! 

Massie in the rocks

After getting a little "lost" (or as we like to say it wanting to walk in a giant circle) we reached the rock outcrops! It was such a beautiful outlook to the bay, it was almost breath-taking. We walked over to the first little patches of rocks and there in the middle was a beautiful Massasauga!  We took her back to the research station to get fitted, weighed, etc. and then brought her back out to where she had been previously found.  I was so happy to hear that someone called about us to the wardens making sure that we were not poachers collecting snakes.  I always love to hear when people do this because a lot of the time, people could really care less!  Hearing that someone was worried for the life of a creature that has often been so feared by humans, well that was just wonderful! 

So, that was the ending of the few days that we spent out at Killbear, although the next half of the weekend was a complete surprise to me.  Little did I know we were actually heading off to Algonquin Park!  To be continued...

Lookout of the Bay

Birding Hike at Tommy Thompson

Well, I am skipping ahead by one post as the next one is going to be fairly long..most likely a two parter!

Canada Geese and Mallards on Lake Ontario

This morning I went on the first fall Bird Hike at Tommy Thompson Park here in Toronto.  The hike is put on by volunteers for the Conservation Authority and runs every Sunday at 8am.  It was my first time today assisting with leading the hike, and hopefully next week I may be able to help out again!

We had two people attend the hike, one was even from Seattle.  Both wonderful ladies!  We were able to see a few great birds along the trails we went around on.  First we hiked the trail that is directly off the main entrance and runs along the water's edge of Lake Ontario.  Here we saw Warbling Vireo, Song Sparrows, Cardinals, Mallards, Canadian Geese, Goldfinch, Chimney Swifts, Downey Woodpecker, Barn and Bank Swallows, and Caspian Terns. We were even able to spot a few Cedar Waxwings and their young!  They were not what I expected them to look like and had they not had a little mask, I wouldn't have been able to know they were Waxwings!  Way up in the sky we were also able to see a Osprey fly overhead.

Waxwing Young

We then continued out onto the road and towards the wetland cells.  Barn, tree, and a few bank swallows were flying overhead making their usual friendly chatter.  We got to hear and see some Caspian Terns. One of the ladies joked about how she made the sound all the time to the young ones in her family and now she can actually say she's mimicking a tern!

Great Egret in the cattails

Jumping around in some bushes we got great sights of Baltimore Orioles.  I really never get tired of their melodies and whistles, or their brightness!  Kingbirds were also flying around, but I've learnt that there is NEVER a lack of them at this location!  It was really interesting talking to the lady from Seattle. She was so excited to see the cardinal as they don't have any there.  I often find myself taking 'common' birds for granted so I always love having people like this around as it reminds me of the beauty that they really do hold.

Looking over the wetland cells we spotted a beautiful Great Egret walking around amongst the cattails.  We even got a surprise sighting of one of my favourite herons...the Black-crowned Night Heron.  Unfortunately I wasn't able to get a great shot of it! The only other birds we saw where a whole bundle of Double-creasted Cormorants.  Every time I visit I am surprised at the vast amount of Cormorants that can be seen flying over.

Can't wait for next Sunday. Hope everyone is having great times in the sun!

Cormorants flying over the wetland cells

Tommy Thompson Park - Toronto

Well I have been lucky enough to spend the past two beautiful Sunday's out at Tommy Thompson Park in Toronto.  What a unique location this place is.

"Beach"

Tommy Thompson is owned and managed by the Toronto Region Conservation Authority, but is still used today by the Port Authority.  It is also known as the Lesley Street Spit, and is completely human made through being a site for disposal of not only dredged materials, but also surplus fill/old materials from other development sites around Toronto.  Much of the "beach" is made up of old rebar, brick, glass, and other concretes. Because of this, it's not advised to go swimming in this area (there's plenty of other beaches nearby) but the paths are really wonderful for walking and biking.

I really enjoyed myself going onto the beach and checking out all the old weathered rocks.  You can find some pretty cool things out there, and there is lots of weathered glass (that's not sharp anymore) to collect!


More can be found about Tommy Thompson here: http://www.tommythompsonpark.ca/

View of the Toronto Skyline

The first weekend Mike and I took a 3 hour bike ride checking out the main biking paths.  The area in general was pretty quiet for birds this day.  We saw more Eastern Kingbirds than I could count, a few yellow warblers, a white egret, song sparrow, Caspian terns, and WAY too many double-crested cormorants to be normal.

Kinda cool shot of a tern with the CN Tower

We first stopped at the location where the Toronto Bird Observatory is!  Here they set up mist nests during migration and band birds that are caught there.  I am REALLY hoping that I will be able to volunteer here this fall (fingers are crossed!).  Here we were able to see a red-tailed hawk who had just caught a mouse sitting very close to us.  It was quite the site, although she was being stubborn and staying enough out of view to get a crappy photo.

My favourite part of this ride was the baby barn swallows that I spotted still in their nests. They were SO adorable and almost falling out they were getting so big!

Baby Barn Swallows

Momma Barn Swallow

This past weekend I went again for a Sunday bike ride.  The baby barn swallows had fully fledged (meaning that they were out of the nest), so that was a little disappointing. According to the TRCA worker they had left the day before.  I saw quite a few more birds this day than the weekend before.  While out by the first lookout area I got a great view of a Song Sparrow. The two of us "chatted" for a bit until he got fed up and left me alone making bird noises, looking rather dumb.  A bit further down the trail there is a lookout towards the skyline.  Here I saw dozens of kingbirds, Caspian terns, a cedar waxwing, yellow warblers, great egret, and one of my favourites...a Belted Kingfisher.

Cedar Waxwing

Belted Kingfisher looking for a meal

It was really cute when this little girl came by and was looking out at the skyline and birds with her dad, when suddenly she let out this piercing scream!! I turned and ran a little thinking that she had seen a snake (which made me want to see it!) but no...it was a caterpillar.  She was frozen in the middle of the path so I had to go, pick up the little caterpillar, and move it out of the way so that she could move.  It was so hilarious!

Song Sparrow singing away

Further on I biked past the bird observatory and spotted the Red-tailed hawk again just above me.  Got a FANTASTIC view, although camera wise..just a silhouette. I decided to try to take another trail leading into the back.  It had some great views of the skyline as well as an amazing view of the Double-crested cormorant colony.  It was a close up view..without getting too close. It's astonishing to think that not too long ago these birds were on the brink of extinction and we were fighting to save them!  I have no idea how many birds can fit into such an area, but all i could think of was "Man, I'm glad I'm not under them right now.."

Red-tailed Hawk

Baby Kingbird

While in this same area I happened to be screamed at by a baby kingbird!  Literally!  I turned around and suddenly this little thing was flying into my face screaming, so naturally...I screamed to!  And then followed it's screaming to figure out what the heck that was!  Standing trying to ID it was eaten by fire ants.  First time EVER being bitten by them and goodness, I know why they are called fire ants!

Overall, this is such a wonderful place to visit.  Being a disturbed site, there is a lot of more "weedy" species when it comes to the vegetation, but it still provides great habitat for resident and migrating birds.  Once in a while you can spot a little black-eyed susan poking out too!  If anyone is in for just a bike ride or some birding, definitely come check this place out.  I already can tell that I'll be hitting it up quite a few more times once migration hits!!

Happy birding!

View of the Double-crested Cormorant Colony

A Slithering Saturday on Bloor West

As some of you may know, I volunteer for a wonderful organization that is called Sciensational Sssnakes!!!  Anytime they are in the GTA (at the moment) and need a hand, I try my best to be available and ready to help, after all, who wouldn't want to talk to kids and play with massive snakes all day?!

Me and Ross

This festival was for the Bloor Street West Village Fest!  Although I actually have no idea what went on in the rest of the festival, our little set up was a huge hit with the young and old!  My morning was spent with Ross, the Everglades Rat Snake.  I made sure that during this time I stayed close to the two Black Rat Snakes, this way when I talk about Ross I can directly relate him to these cousin's of his, who are native to Canada!  The later part of the day I spent with a snake named Fertenande (or as I say Fern for short) who is a Bullsnake from the west coast of Canada.  Both, are the absolute sweetest!

A friend from school, Rob, was able to also come out and help us, which was wonderful because we had so many people to talk to and entertain.

Rob teaching a boy about Steph, the Cornsnake

My favourite thing about talking to people is telling them all these really cool facts about snakes and also listening to Jenny talk about the snakes and learning even more from her.  For example, who knew that a painted turtle can breathe through it's butt!  She is such an enthusiastic personality with so much knowledge, it's no wonder she does this for a living because it suits her so well.   I really am so lucky to have met and be able to help her out!

Jenny and her Boa, Bailey.

A lot of people are incredible cautious when first approaching us, some even scream when they first see a snake in our hands!  After talking to them for a while, explaining that unless A) you were a mouse, rat, frog, or other thing they eat or B) really threatening them, that a snake wont bite you; or that its using it's tongue to smell you not to taste you because snakes rely heavily on their sense of smell to know what is around them.  So many kids, as well as adults were really curious and asked so many questions. I really love it when people ask questions and really engage!  Even a few people were able to get over their fear for the first time and touch, sometimes even hold, one of our snakes.  It's a really exciting thing to be able to be a part of.

So!  Check out the website and see where Sciensational Sssnakes will be next and go for a visit!  There's always someone new slithering around and a never ending amount of things to learn!

Add caption

You can check out Sciensational Sssnakes at: http://www.scisnake.com/

Long Weekend in Killbear Provincial Park

Hairy Woodpecker!

For the past long weekend, a group of my best friends (and our counterparts) decided to go camping up at Killbear Provincial Park.  This wasn't meant to be a birding or herping trip, but of course, I just couldn't help myself.

Baby American Toad

It was a pretty cold weekend for camping, which means it was also a little cold for snakes.  There were a few times where the sun peaked out for enough time to run around on some trails, but for the most part, the joys came from the views.  We went on a few hikes around the area, but unfortunately found very few snakes. The weekend consisted of finding one garter snake, one live massasauga, and a dead massasauga.  I was able to see a bunch of birds like a playful hairy woodpecker, black-throated green warbler, american redstart, blackburnian warbler, yellow-rumped warbler, and one red-eyed vireo who would not stop talking at our campsite!

Eastern Garter Snake

Although it was a slow weekend for herps and for birding, I was still able to see a few of my favourites that I had seen throughout the spring.  I was also able to drive around the park with my boyfriend (Michael Colley) and get to learn all about his Master's Project (With Laurentian & Queens University) taking place there.  As some of you may know, Killbear Provincial park has been installing underground eco-passages throughout the park for reptiles (mainly for Massasauga Rattlesnakes)

ECOPASSAGE: A series of fences leading to under-road tunnels that allow wildlife (and in this case snakes) to safely cross roadways

Dead Massasauga Rattlesnake

The purpose of his project is to assess if Massasauga Rattlesnakes (or any snake for that matter!) is actually using the passages. When the road was put in, it separated the snake population into two isolated sections on either side of the road.  In the short term, the ecopassage will hopefully help the snakes move across the road from one habitat, to another more wetland habitat. The passages are a needed component to the ecosystem to allow the snakes to populate both sides of the road without getting hit in the attempt, because similarly to humans, it's not good to have a limited gene pool.  In the longterm, the hopes are that the two snake populations will fill in the gap left from the road.

Massasauga Rattlesnakes are the only venomous snake in Ontario!  They have only three populations which can be found in the Georgian Bay (largest pop), a small area in Niagara, and a small area in Windsor.

This project involved a crap ton of surveys, which is mainly walking and biking up a variety of roads and collecting data on dead snakes that are found as well as collecting and processing live massasaugas.  "Processing" the snake involves first placing a tube around it's upper potion (so that it can't bite you).  The lower buttons of the rattle are then painted colours and they are pit-tagged (which is similar to microchipping).  The paint allows the snake to be detected as having been caught before while in the wild, while the pit-tag allows electronic readers at either end of the ecopassage to detect when a snake has used it. The reader will bring up a number associated with the tag and then researchers will be able to know which snakes (ie. sex, approx how old, etc) have been using the passage and if populations are able to mix.

Massassauga being processed

It seems like a really awesome project and I am so excited to be able to learn more about it through Mike, and sometimes even get to help out!  Massasaugas have gotten a really bad rep, since they are venomous, and are often purposely killed by people driving (for that matter, all snakes have this problem also).  Having a project like this in such a busy Provincial Park not only helps snakes move around like they were naturally supposed to, but it also helps to educate campers on these awesome creatures, who often shy away from human living secretive lives.

Mike and the Georgian Bay Sunset

It was so sad when the weekend was over.  Great food, great friends, an unbelievably beautiful sunset, and amazing little creatures.  Of course, the weekend ended with much more sun and warmer temperatures leading to the last find....helping a Blanding's Turtle cross the road!

Till next time!  Happy Outdoorsing!

Me and a Blanding's!

Mind of a Raven - Bernd Heinrich

This was a really interesting read for me, although I'll admit it took forever for me to finish.  Maybe it's because I kept falling asleep on the subway, but it really was interesting! It was almost as if someone had written a novel about the background to their scientific journal articles, but instead of all the sciency stuff I usually skim over because I don't understand it, it reads like a regular book.

I hadn't before separated ravens from crows (horrible, I know), but I hadn't known that there really was a difference!  Being up North I had probably seen a bunch of ravens, although hadn't been a bird person yet I never really took notice.  In Chatham, crows are EVERYWHERE.  It's pretty much watching Alfred Hitchcock's "The Bird's"  in real life.  Walking down by the Thames River and needing to watch where you step so you don't get pooped, I never liked them that much.  After reading this book, I became to really like ravens and their unique character.

Bernd took in Ravens to study them at close proximity, raising many from when they were young and conducting a variety of studies from behavioural to raven culture.

My favourite snippit in the book was when he learnt that Ravens would often mimic just about anything:

"...in early June in Olympic National Park, he distinctly hears, 'Three, Two, One, Bcccchhhhhh', the sequence repeated at least three times.  He wrote to me saying ' It sounded so realistic that i looked around for the speaker and even called 'Who's there?'.  It turned out that speaker was a raven, perched on a nearby snag.  Park rangers had conducted avalanch control the previous week and apparently the raven had heard and been impressed."

Photo from: christophermartinphotography.com

There were so many little projects in this book that were conducted with Ravens that I found to be so, so interesting.  The ones that most intrigued me were ones that dealt with the birds social behaviour.  Ravens have an interesting way of placing dominance among themselves in a group, which allows them to be loud, reproduce, big, while others who are less dominate are quiet, heads are often low, and although they may have a partner, may not reproduce.  Once this dominate bird is removed, the other may suddenly have the same attributes the dominate one had.  If that makes sense!

The second is their ability to remember individuals.  This is both creepy and amazing!  Ravens treat individual ravens differently, almost seeming like they form an opinion on them.  Ravens not only see individuals within their own species but also within humans, carnivores, and just about anything else that moves.  So next time you go shooing one away...just remember..it knows who you are! Haha.

Anyone who's got some time on their hands, loves to learn about birds, and has an interest in reading about a guys research...this is definitely a book for you!