Rondeau Provincial Park

Spring migration and Carolinian breeding season at Rondeau, week by week

Late April to early July. Early to mid May for migrants; late May and June for the breeding specialties.

1. Late April – mid May

   The same migration, a tenth of the people.

   What arrives

   • The full warbler cast, on the same schedule as Point Pelee
   • Thrushes and vireos through the interior forest
   • Tanagers, grosbeaks and orioles at the edges
   • Waterfowl and terns off the beach

   What it asks of your optics

   Mature forest with a high canopy, so a lot more of the birding here is straight up than at Pelee. Sore neck, dim light, and birds a long way above you.

   • 8x42 binoculars with good close focus

     Same birds, same argument as Point Pelee. Field of view and close focus beat magnification on warblers.

   • A harness

     Rondeau’s canopy birding puts you with binoculars raised overhead more than almost any other site on the lake.

2. Late May – early July

   The Carolinian breeders, and the reason to come once the crowds leave.

   What arrives

   • Prothonotary Warbler in the flooded sloughs
   • Acadian Flycatcher and Hooded Warbler
   • Yellow-breasted Chat in the scrub
   • Red-headed Woodpecker in the older stands

   What it asks of your optics

   Birds are singing, stationary, and often deep in shaded slough or dense understorey. You are working from a sound to a bird in poor light, which is a brightness problem.

   • Bright binoculars

     Slough and understorey birding in June is dim work, and light transmission is what turns a singing silhouette into a Prothonotary.

   • A regional field guide

     Rondeau’s breeding specialties are birds most Ontario birders see once a year at best. Worth having the plates in hand.