The Evacuation of the Great White North

The depths of autumn have reached Algonquin.  Fall colors have peaked and so has the migration, and now most of the sombre-plumaged warblers have left the Park and the sparrows have replaced them. They too will soon be gone, and the Park will once again become a silent, dreary place. I will join the birds in only a few weeks, but for now I'm enjoying the tail end of the migration and some of the most beautiful scenery in Eastern North America.

 

The birds, too, have been pretty good. A lot of the resident species have become conspicuous again, including male Spruce Grouse in vain attempts to attract females. They won't succeed, because it isn't Spring, but the birds, influenced by the similar daylength and temperature, will try regardless.

 

As for myself, like the birds that I spent the summer with, soon I will bid goodbye to Algonquin and be en route to the tropics. I have been living in this Park for almost six months from late April, and witnessed the big influx of life into the Northwoods in Spring,

and now the great evacuation of life in Autumn in preparation for the Winter.

Not all life will leave, for there will still be much around to those who can find it, but for the most part the Northwoods will be a very lonely, quiet place.

The tropics however, will be hoppin'. Migrant birds will be settling in and by the time February rolls around much of the residents will have already been singing vigorously. In March, the Ficus will be in fruit and Lovely Cotingas will come with it. Bellbirds will make their way up the mountains to breed in the cloud forest. And I will be there to see it happen. 

Before all that however, I'll head to the northern recesses of Ontario....(New Liskeard) to band some of the last migrant songbirds and owls, attend a weekend of debauchery in North Bay, and otherwise see how much trouble I can get into in this country before I move on to the next one. Expect interesting updates.