Bioblitzing--Days 1 and 2

Saturday, April 21

Saturday was the first day of the week-long Blogger Bioblitz event. Hot day--fierce sun, and I got a late start, so I thought I'd just do a reconnaisance of a location in the cedar bush, where the stream runs through, that I thought might be interesting. I'd hoped to list flora, but was frustrated in that the only recognizable flora were ones I already knew were there, i.e., exactly where. Nothing else was far enough along to identify (or in most cases to find). There is a common fern back there that's just coming up now--but I don't know its name, and there wasn't enough of it to work on. That was one of a series of very warm days, followed by some rain, and more to come (maybe) over the next few days (along with cooler temperatures, though not real cold)--so I'll go back there again next Saturday when more might be up and recognizable. As it was I listed a few of the plants that were up and about, a frog, and birds:

Weather: hot and sunny
Temperature was 20C when I left the house around 9:00 am, and up to 23C an hour later.

Flora
-white cedar (Thuja occidentalis

-white birch (Betula papyrifera) This birch was in the middle of the cedars--the only one there, which led me to speculate that it is older than they are. bot are relatively fast-growing trees, and I don't think the birch would be able to get going in the shade of the cedars. There are a number of dead birches and poplars in the wetter parts of the area.

-marsh marigold (Caltha palustris) Well leafed out, no sign yet of the blossoms.

Frogs
- spring peeper (Pseudacris crucifer) One calling (not really their time of day).

Birds
I just counted birds I heard or saw that belonged to the habitat--the area of bush and swamp is small, and I could also hear birds singing in the field beyond.
-Ruffed Grouse (Bonasa umbellus)
-American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos)
-Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus)
-American Robin (Turdus migratorius)
-Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis)
-Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus)
-American Goldfinch (Carduelis tristis) Okay, the goldfinches don't really belong here--but at this time of the year they are hanging around in large, noisy flocks, insisting on being recorded.

Mammals
-red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus)

Walking back through the fields I saw my first Tree Swallows of the year. And later in the day I saw my first Barn Swallows. Finally second (or maybe third) wave migration is well underway.


Monday, April 23

Monday I got out early, around 6:30 am, to avoid full sun and to look closely at the edge of the far field. This time I ignored the flora--I am hoping now to have a flora day at the end of the week. I don't know if I'll count the sumach, prickly ash, red cedar, etc., but I'll get up some kind of list.

So, I set out, again, at a dawdle, back through the fields. I saw Grizzly Man over the weekend, so I had bears on the brain--but the only bear sign I saw was from last summer (turned-over rocks). No vibe of large animals, lots of fox and coyote tracks, as ever, but nothing conspicuosly fresh.

Mammals
What was fresh was a set of racoon tracks (Procyon lotor).
Who was out there with me? An eastern cottontail (Sylvilagus floridanus)--way at the northwest corner of the far field. (I'm not counting the cottontails I have to push aside to get out of the yard.)

Birds
Because of the time of day, and the temperature, around 15C (i.e., not 2C), there was lots of bird activity. I should do a list in order, but I think I'll stick to narrative.

A flock of 100 Canada Geese, heading north, flew overhead, followed moments later by another of about 50. Robins were singing in every corner of the field. A single cardinal was as well--moving all around a couple of acres. I saw two field sparrows, and listened to another two, my first clear hearings of the year. Chickadees followed me along the edge. The noisy flock of goldfinches made lots of noise. A flicker called. A ruffed grouse drummed (and I flushed a another out of the edge of the cedar bush as I went by). Song sparrows were everywhere.

Someone must be nesting now--I know that chickadees may be, and the song sparrows and blue jays show signs that they are too. But I figure cowbirds know. I saw a courting group (first three then six or seven males following a female, strutting and posing) moving around the treetops at the field's edge. but best of all, a pair of Belted Kingfishers. Sometimes these birds nest well away from the water where they feed, at the end of long tunnels they excavate into banks of earth. I don't know that they've nested back there--but I've seen them scouting there before. It was a pleasure to see and hear them there again.

I'd hoped that there might be warblers, and there is a chance for one or two by the end of the week (last year my first was a black and white), but it really is just a little too early. Just yesterday I saw my first chipping and white-throated sparrows.

Blogger Bioblitz Starts Today!

Finally, suddenly, it is warm here. I went for a walk yesterday along the road through the Stoco Fen, and got downright hot. The skunk cabbages are up, leaves just starting (this is a few weeks later than last year: here is my post on them from April 3, 2006).

April 2, 2006--Way ahead of 2007
They're mostly further back from the road than they were last year because the water level is way down. Saw no turtles, but was treated to the din of a chorus of mink frogs--in water just close enough to the road that I could see them dashing about--not close enough that I could identify them by sight. Mink frogs (Rana septentrionalis) aren't all that easily identified by sight, apparently--easily confused with both green and leopard frogs--so perhaps it just as well I could hear them better than see them. I saw a frog too--reddish brown back, grey underneath. I don't yet know what it was. Too large, I think, to be a tree frog. No mask, so I think not a wood frog... No camera, hence the words only. Browsing as I write I came across wood frogs at Burning Silo--no mask! So perhaps that's what it was--according to other accounts the colouration is within their range of possibilities.

Today, another warm one, is the first day of the Blogger Bioblitz. Should be lots more to see than there would have been last Saturday. On the right, an intrepid crocus braving the snow last Saturday morning. That snow, which fell the Thursday and Friday before was gone by the afternoon, then Sunday night the nor'easter blew in and there was snow on the ground once again. Now we are spending a few days in summer, with cooler temperatures forecast for the early part of the week. As I think I've mentioned before--we are constantly surprised by our weather in southern Ontario, year after year, in spite of its constancy of variation.

The rabbits continue to visit the yard. I now think that there are one or more enterprising males taking advantage of the fact that the availability of bird seed through the winter has made this a regular stop for many rabbits. So they hang around ready to dance with whomever comes along. Because I see them so often, I've got a rabbit search image seared into my brain. Walking yesterday evening I was sure I saw one that turned out to be configured from a combination of grasses and a clod of earth. but then I saw the one below--just about the way it looks in the photo, and this time, rabbit indeed.

See the rabbit? Look for the reddish patch at the back of its neck.
Maybe one or two will turn up to be listed for the Bioblitz. I'm heading out this morning--and have decided to include a little patch of the swamp in the cedar bush as well as a piece of the edge of the far field. So we'll see what we see.