Golden-winged Warbler.

June 14 2016. Bruce Co. Ontario. We spent a long day with like-minded friends exploring the back-roads and trails of Ontario’s Bruce Peninsula looking for birds and plants, especially orchids, for which ‘ the Bruce’ is rightly famous. We couldn’t have had a better day; sunshine and just warm enough to be comfortable but not enough to inspire mosquitoes, Black Flies or Deer Flies. It was a richly colourful day in which probably the most compelling image was that of Rita alone on a quiet road backed by two young Black Bears.  Rita stayed a safe distance away, the bears were young and soon left. 

I don’t know where else in the world you could see orchids in such abundance, particularly Yellow Lady Slippers. Where some parts of the world might be yellow with Dandelions, on the Bruce it is Yellow Lady Slippers. In places we also found the smaller (and fragrant) variety, Smaller Yellow Lady Slipper. Apart from being smaller overall, the enlarged lip is backed by very dark brown petals, in contrast to the usual pale greenish yellow. We also found an early, extravagantly pink Showy Lady Slipper, some fading Ram’s Head Orchids and a couple of spires of Tall White Bog and Tall Northern Green Orchids; the last two favouring squishy lake margins.

But what of the birds? It might have been impossible to choose a bird of the day in the face of so much, but an almost chance encounter with a pair of Golden- winged Warblers nudged the competition aside. Competition that included an Upland Sandpiper, Virginia Rail and a Northern Harrier.

Golden Winged Warblers are unwittingly losing a battle for their existence against a very near relative, the Blue-winged Warbler. The blues are expanding their range to the north and east, and where blues encounter the golds they all happily breed and hybridized. Presumably neither species minds particularly; after all breeding usually involves some level of receptivity if not consent. But what’s happening is the genetically dominant blues are swamping the golds. Hybrids: Brewster’s and Lawrence’s Warblers, appear in the wake of this eviction, but after a few generations the hybrids are no more and it’s all Blue-winged Warblers. Golden- winged Warblers are becoming increasingly rare and Blue-winged Warblers increasingly to be expected. It’s fascinating to observe; perhaps it’s an evolutionary surge.

We ended the day pink from too much sun (I know, I know!) and with a list of bird and orchid sightings to warm a winter evening, Birds also included: hearing but not seeing both Sora and Virginia Rails, a number of Chestnut-sided Warblers, Bobolinks, Eastern Meadowlarks and Eastern Bluebirds in lush meadows and both Black and White and Pine Warblers in a dry expanse of Jack Pines. So many of the migration must-sees of May are here nesting.