By: Sheila Craig, Vice-President, MMLT

MMLT’s annual Festival of the Wild Child takes place in late August which happens to be peak migration time for wood warblers and many other passerines.  Most of these colourful little birds migrate at night, and at dawn, descend to feed on arthropods, often in mixed foraging flocks with the local Black-backed Chickadees.  The chickadees act as guides for finding tasty morsels, and also as sentinels sounding the alarm in case of predators.  

In the week leading up to the festival, this year, warblers had been exceptionally abundant in eastern Ontario.  I’ve never seen such “fallout” conditions around Ottawa before at this time of year.  It was reminiscent of spring birding at Point Pelee National Park, one of the best places in North America to see songbirds during migration.   Many of these birds breed in the north of Ontario in the boreal forest, and here in the “south”, we only see them during migration.

On the date of the festival, August 24, I had my Nikon and telephoto lens with me and was able to capture photos of some of the birds I saw on an early morning walk.  Warblers are difficult to photograph because they are small, hang out in the tree canopy, and move around very fast.  I certainly saw many more birds than I was able to photograph, and heard but did not see others.  Altogether, I observed 46 species over 5 hours.  Here, I’ll share some highlights, with a full list of sightings at the end of this report.

As I approached High Lonesome Nature Reserve, I stopped my car on the roadside as I could see bird activity in the trees.  Just outside the perimeter of the reserve, I heard a Yellow-billed Cuckoo, at the very northern edge of its range. These skulkers call from deep within shrubby foliage, so I wasn’t surprised I didn’t get to see it.  I was excited to see two Wilson’s Warblers, the first I’d observed this year, although I wasn’t able to get a photo of them.  These are northern boreal forest breeders, uncommon in Eastern Canada, and passing through our area only in spring and fall, so seeing them at all is a treat! 

I did get some nice photos both here and within the nature reserve of a group of Black-throated Green Warblers, one of my favourites.  These warblers breed locally but are hard to see in summer as they spend all their time in the very top of the forest canopy where their zoo-zee-zoo-zee-zoo-ZIP can be heard a long way, even when the singers are invisible.  In migration, fortunately, these birds often come lower in search of food and are quite approachable.  While many warblers can have very dull plumage in autumn, Black-throated Greens are still very colourful with bright green backs and yellow faces.

 

Shortly after 8:00 a.m., within High Lonesome Nature Reserve, I loaded up with my binoculars and camera and hiked up White Pine Way trail, after greeting volunteers starting to set up for the festival.  This trail offers a variety of habitats, including mixed forest, scrub, and marsh, all of which attract different birds.  In the marsh, I encountered a Wood Duck, which flew away at my approach, and more surprisingly, an Eastern Wood-Pewee.  This flycatcher species is more likely to be found in deep forest, so it was a pleasant surprise to see one out in the open.   You can tell by the orange gape (the corner of the bird’s mouth), that this is a newly fledged bird. Young birds are often less “choosy” about where they hunt for food.

Further down the trail, I discovered a mixed flock of warblers and other songbirds in the woods at edge of the marsh.  I studied them for quite a while as they flitted around the forest around me, hunting for insects.  This wonderful group included 9 warbler species, a Scarlet Tanager and two species of vireos: Red-eyed Vireo and Blue-headed Vireo, as well as Black-capped Chickadees, and both White-breasted and Red-breasted Nuthatches.  I was able to capture some of these birds on camera.

Red-eyed Vireos are a very common denizen of the summer forests throughout most of Canada, known for singing their short whistling “Look-at-me!  Here I am!” song non-stop all day long from the tops of trees, where they are, in fact, very hard to see.  They’re slightly hooked bill helps distinguish them from the superficially similar wood warblers.  As adults, they show the red iris that gives them their name.

Another common bird of these woods is the Pine Warbler, found almost exclusively in pine trees, as was the case with this individual.  They are striking birds, yellowish-green of body, with black wings showing two white wing bars.  Like the Red-eyed Vireo, they prefer to spend their days high up in the forest canopy.

This next bird, the Cape May Warbler, breeds mainly in the northern boreal forest, and we tend to see them in eastern Ontario only during migration, but then in huge numbers. The following two pictures are of two different individuals.  The first is of a “drab” female and the second a more colourful male, showing how different the fall plumage can be.  In fact, this male is also fairly “drab” compared to the spectacular breeding plumage it will display next spring.  I’ll cheat and show a comparative photo of a spring male as well (seen at Britannia Conservation Area in Ottawa in May 2024).

Female Cape May Warbler (Setophaga tigrine)

Male Cape May Warbler (Setophaga tigrine)

Male Cape May Warbler (Setophaga tigrine) in spring showing full breeding plumage

Another northern breeder is the Northern Parula.  While not quite as spectacular in fall as in spring, these tiny fluff-balls are still plenty colourful, resembling small ripe mangos – but with wings!

On my return hike, I encountered two Pileated Woodpeckers communicating with their eerie laughing cry.  The largest extant woodpecker in North America, these spectacular birds always give me a thrill. The photo below shows an adult male, with his red cheek stripe.

Ending my walk at the welcome centre, I looked around for a bird that is a summer staple at this site.  Sure enough, I spotted an Eastern Phoebe, a flycatcher that prefers to build its nest under the eaves of human-made structures. 

These approachable little birds are easy to see and photograph as their habit is to return again and again to the same preferred perch, as they fly in short sallies to pluck flying insects out of the air.  I find their understated grey and white plumage charming.  The gape and orangey wing bars tell me this is a newly fledged bird.

At this point, I transitioned from bird photography to volunteering for the festival, and so put my camera away.  However, as I walked the trails with festival goers, I continued to keep my ears and eyes tuned to any bird activity and I continued to see other gems throughout the day.  What a fun time of year to be out in the woods!

Here is the complete list of my sightings, in taxonomic order.

 

1 Wood Duck 4 Mallard 1 Yellow-billed Cuckoo 1 Ruby-throated Hummingbird 1 Turkey Vulture 1 Red-shouldered Hawk 1 Hairy Woodpecker 2 Pileated Woodpecker 5 Eastern Wood-Pewee 2 Least Flycatcher 1 Eastern Phoebe 1 Great Crested Flycatcher 2 Eastern Kingbird 3 Blue-headed Vireo 7 Red-eyed Vireo 7 Blue Jay

1 American Crow 1 Common Raven 5 Black-capped Chickadee 4 White-breasted Nuthatch 4 Red-breasted Nuthatch 1 Brown Creeper 3 Gray Catbird 1 Veery 1 American Robin 2 Cedar Waxwing 1 Purple Finch 2 American Goldfinch 3 Song Sparrow 2 Swamp Sparrow 1 Common Grackle

1 Black-and-white Warbler 8 Common Yellowthroat 2 American Redstart 2 Cape May Warbler 1 Northern Parula 1 Magnolia Warbler 6 Bay-breasted Warbler 2 Chestnut-sided Warbler 1 Black-throated Blue Warbler 1 Pine Warbler 5 Yellow-rumped Warbler 15 Black-throated Green Warbler 2 Wilson’s Warbler 1 Scarlet Tanager 1 Rose-breasted Grosbeak