Nature In Canada's Deep South #1 - Sadler's Pond - An Underrated Birding Hotspot
Happy May! I hope you don't have a nasty case of "warbler neck" yet!
This is the first installment of "Nature In Canada's Deep South," a monthly e-mail newsletter by Mark Nenadov. Each issue contains a full length essay, a book review, and comments/links. Please feel free to share the following link with any who may be interested in receiving future installments: https://buttondown.email/NatureInCanadasDeepSouth
Section A: Book Review
Best Places to Bird in Ontario by Kenneth Burrell, Michael Burrell
Paperback, 280 pages Published May 7th 2019 by Greystone Books
This is an excellent resource featuring 30 general locations in Ontario that have the most to offer to birders.
The cover is beautiful and the layout is impressive. Michael and Kenneth are very well respected in the Ontario community and are very knowledgeable and demonstrate a great deal of attention to detail. They very vividly showed me how little I know of the natural areas outside of my county.
I did find that the author's accounts settled into a bit too much of a routine of describing driving directions at length. Obviously those details are helpful to those with visits planned, but I found myself wishing they proportionally spent a bit more time describing habitat or sharing personal stories—the ones they did share were great! It certainly would make it more accessible and useful for those who are unlikely to visit many of these places any time soon, but yet wish to get a feel for them I also wish they included more landscape/habitat photos (the bird photos are great, but in this context I’d love to see more of the places I describe). This is likely a result of me reading this book straight through rather than using it situational guide on an as needed basis. An additional minor point is that I wish the maps were at the beginning of each account rather than the end.
Those minor criticisms aside, I certainly don’t want to diminish the uniqueness of this beautiful book and I regard it to be a great addition to my library. Kudos to the authors for making this impressive effort. I hope I get a chance to visit a few more of the lovely featured locations some day.
Section B: Featured Article: Sadler's Pond - An Underrated Birding Hotspot
Introduction
Near the centre of Essex County is a small park, organized around two small ponds. Sadler's Pond Nature Park is largely unknown to most Essex County folks, but is near to the heart of many natives of the town of Essex. In my opinion, it's one of the most underrated birding hot-spots in our area.
The pond formed in the early 1900's when brickmakers left a hole from clay digging. The property was deeded to the town as a condition for development of Viscount Estates and opened to the public in 1977. In their announcement, a local paper noted the "usual species of herons." That must be the Green Herons, but I'm holding out hopes for a Western Reef-Heron to show.
To get there coming from Windsor, take Highway 3 until you reach Essex. Turn left on Victoria. From there take a left on Thomas Street and the parking lot is on the left off of Thomas. The park is approximately 10 acres, but it seems smaller. Besides the ponds, there's open space, a deck, a pavilion, one straight paved trail extending from the parking lot off Thomas Street to Highway 3. Off the main trail are leftward windy paved trails winding around the two ponds.
Specialties and Species Groups
What does "specialty" mean? A specialty isn't necessarily the rarest bird or the flashiest one. It seems as if a bird that is (a) too rare or (b) too common or (c) too dull, it can't be a specialty. It needs to be somewhat reliably seen and yet not so common as to become pedestrian to the highly exalted "tufted-duck-crossed-with-a-eurasian-wigeon-or-the-highway" snobs.
What are Sadler's Pond's specialties? Tough question! Let me take a crack at it: Green Herons, Belted Kingfishers, Wood Ducks, Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers , Carolina Wrens, and , of course, Warblers! Wilson's Warbler comes to mind. I wouldn't bat an eye if any of these were reported at Sadler's Pond in the right time of year, and yet at each makes my heart flutter a bit, especially when they are FOY (First of Year).
Sadler's is very warblery, featuring those darlings of spring (and fall) migration. With 22 reported warbler species, Sadler's is slightly ahead of Black Oak Heritage Park and slightly behind Derwent Park. Yes, I know you can easily get more than that in 7.2 minutes on a randomly assigned in mid-May at Point Pelee, but bear with me. During a good mid-May morning an hour walk with careful looking easily yields 30 species of birds, with 7-8 warbler species. And you don't have to work your way through hordes of people or pay to enter or ride a trolly or walk more than a kilometer or two.
Five Heron/Egret/Bittern species are reported, including a Least Bittern! Seven Flycatcher species are reported, including Olive-sided Flycatcher, which appears to be returning annually. Quite often my heart races while hearing its characteristic "Quick, Three Beers!" quip. Add to that impressive roster five Vireo species and six Thrush species.
Other notable species in groups not mentioned here include Sora, Pine Siskin, Scarlet Tanager, Solitary Sandpiper, and Merlin.
Comparing Sadler's With Other Hotspots
Comparisons are the way our brains work, and yet they have their pitfalls. Let's throw caution to the wind, though. I know everybody reading this wants to make some outrageous inferences from eBird data in order to contextualize Sadler's Pond,
Only 10 eBirders have reported from Sadler's Pond. Its species list is at 134--slightly ahead of local gems like Ojibway Tallgrass Prairie, Derwent Park, and Ganatchio Trail. To balance that out, it's a bit behind Jack Miner's and Black Oak Heritage Park. These spots are substantially bigger than Sadler's. For instance, Sadler's is 1/10th the size of Black Oak, 1/3 the size of Ojibway Tallgrass Prairie, and half the size of Derwent Park.
Let's get a bit more reckless here. Sadler's has a superb SRPA (Species Reported Per Acre), a metric I just made up right now and is surely next to worthless, but sounds smart. Sadler's pond bats at roughly 13 SRPA. Sounds pretty good next to Hillman Marsh's piddly 0.3 SPA, eh? Who'd want to bird at such an unbirdy place as Hillman? (Locals will know I'm joking)
If we compare Sadler's SRPA with Derwent's (remember, twice as many acres as Sadler's), our lovely Essex gem (13 SRPA) still edges out Derwent (4.9 SRPA). It seems the differential between size and species count is skewing things. I can't seem to find a fair comparison, in other words: an eBird hotspot with roughly the same size as Sadler's and yet a similar frequency of reporting. Udine Park in Windsor matches Sadler's size but is rarely eBirded--AND YET, cheers to Udine, it's only 0.1 SRPA behind Derwent.
In processing this data, we can conclude SRPA is meaningless and I am horrible at this sort of thing. Or Sadler's Pond is a MEGA MEGA hotspot. Or both. Maybe if we pivot to another metric we can salvage things. WRPA (Warblers Reported Per Acre). Sadler's Pond has a WRPA of... I'm joking.
Sadler's Pond is doing pretty well given its size and lack of popularity among birders. I don't want Sadler's Pond crowded (especially not in these troubled COVID-19 times), but I'd love to see what new species would be added if we got a few more birders visiting now and then?
Some Tips
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Don't forget to check the parking lot. The bushes separating the parking lot and entrance from Soft Suds Carwash can be decent. Also check the water tower (Peregrine Falcons are seen there from time to time) and the little round "pond" (puddle?) next to the water tower (saw a Solitary Sandpiper there once).
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If you have limited time, I suggest walking down the paved trail and continue about 100 meters past the second left turn off. Then walk back down to the first turn off and go to the deck which overlooks the pond (near the pavilion). Then walk a few steps up just around the corner past the pavilion, and then back to the parking lot. That can make for an excellent quick stop.
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The straight paved trail that goes out to Highway 3 brings you by a farmer's field on the right, and it might have some shorebirds (such as Solitary Sandpipers or Dunlin), ducks, and geese.
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There is an often muddy and overgrown path running along the pond (more or less parallel to the main paved trail). It is good for closer views of the pond, warblers, and was where the Least Bittern was spotted.
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In the right season, be sure to scan the tops of bare trees for Olive-sided flycatchers. Almost every sighting has been on a tree near the pavilion, or on a tree on the pond side of the main paved trail.
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If you are already at Sadler's Pond, consider visiting the Essex West Lagoons, which are just five minutes away on the other side of Highway 3.There is open public access with a gravel trail that connects to the Greenway. It is an excellent place to see shorebirds and ducks at the right times of the year.
Conclusion
I confess that I've successfully resisted the urge to blackmail Ken and Mike Burrell into including Sadler's Pond in the next edition of their excellent "Best Places To Bird In Ontario."
Sure, Sadler's Pond will never be as magical as Point Pelee, Hillman Marsh, or Holiday Beach. Still, there is unique value to Sadler's Pond. It's a surprisingly productive local jewel and should be considered significant in our birding community and in bird ecology in Essex County.
Section C: Featured Links
(on the theme of collaborative tools)
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Xeno-Canto - https://www.xeno-canto.org/ - a website for sharing recordings of sounds of wild birds from all across the world.
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Mushroom Observer - https://mushroomobserver.org/ - along the lines of iNaturalist and eBird, Mushroom Observer is an in-depth community focused on recording observations of mushrooms.
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Spider ID - https://spiderid.com/ - A spider identification community.
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Thanks for reading,
Mark Nenadov Essex, Ontario https://buttondown.email/NatureInCanadasDeepSouth