Mont Royal Park, Montreal
By Charlie • May 14, 2007 • 1 comment
Mount Royal Park/Parc du Mont Royal, Montreal, Quebec (Canada)
14 May 2007
To quote from Easy Expat, “Montreal is located on Montreal Island in the Hochelaga Archipelago, where the Ottawa River flows into the St. Lawrence River. The archipelago has more than 320 islands and about one-third of it is occupied by the city proper, which covers 177 sq km (68 sq mi).” which sums things up quite nicely I think…(Oh, and for anyone who doesn’t know, everyone here speaks French, hence the dual ‘Mount Royal Park/Parc du Mont Royal’ I use throughout)
There are a good number of birding sites in the local area, but none is more local than the 101-hectare Mount Royal Park/Parc du Mont Royal, a lush area of woodland criss-crossed with tracks and a gravel road that sits on the top of Mount Royal/Mont Royal (actually a big hill despite the grandiose name - the tallest of its three peaks, Colline de la Croix, only reaches 233 metres/764 feet) immediately north of downtown Montreal, the city to which it gave its name. Part of the Monteregian mountain chain which is situated between the Laurentians and the Appalachians, Mount Royal Park/Parc du Mont Royal’s trees and shrubs must (to borrow an excellent description from the info-packed Birding Montreal website) “be a welcome sight for migrating birds of all species as they flog across the flatlands of the St. Lawrance plain in spring and fall”. (The website doesn’t mention what a welcome sight it is from the window of a 747, but I’m here to tell you that after flogging across the Atlantic for five hours, it sent my spirits soaring and my birding antennae twitching nicely…)
Open woodland by the car park at Beaver Lake
Easy to reach by cab from downtown (a twenty minute ride to the large car park at the man-made Beaver Lake cost me about CAD$15.00/GBP8.00) or even by foot if you’ve the energy - I didn’t, but remarkably a set of steps, the Trafalgar staircase, goes all the way up one side of the “mountain” - Mount Royal Park/Parc du Mont Royal had an immediately ‘recognisable’ and easy ambience that made birding here very easy.
Well sign-posted and well threaded by both narrow tracks meandering through a mix of mature and younger mainly deciduous trees [the forest was badly damaged in the massive Ice Storm of 1998, but has since largely recovered] and a large gravel road used mainly by joggers and cyclists which winds back down the mountain (or up it of you start at the bottom), the Park felt somehow ‘familiar’: lo and behold I later found out it had been designed by Frederick Law Olmsted who also designed New York’s bird-friendly Central Park and anyone who’s birded Central Park’s gently undulating tracks and dark hollows will feel right at home here straight away…
That’s the geography and the history, how about the birding? When I woke up in the morning and peered out of my hotel window the weather was overcast, breezy, and looked surprisingly cold: perfect, I figured, for diverting soggy migrants from their northward journey into the trees to refuel. A quick shower, a quick breakfast (I know, I’m getting soft, what can I say..?), and a quickish taxi ride later there I was standing on top of the mountain hoping I was about to find myself smack in the middle of the biggest fall of warblers ever recorded in Quebec - but, you know, the chances of that happening now that the numbers of most warblers are plummetting as the tropics they winter in are being converted into soy and coffee plantations are pretty remote…
As it was, starting at the more spaced trees by the Beaver lake car-park and ending around the denser and more mature trees near the Belvédère Kondiaronk (a look out giving great views over Montreal), I saw reasonable numbers of warblers, particularly during two waves that went through the open areas between the lake and the children’s playground. Most species were just present in ones or twos (except for Ruby-crowned Kinglets and “Myrtle” Yellow-rumpeds which reached double figures), eg one Bay-breasted, one Chestnut-sided, one Cape May, Nashville, Blackburnian, Northern Waterthrush, Parula, Dark-eyed Junco, Olive Warbler (actually not an Olive Warbler - just thought I’d chuck that in to see how closely you’re reading this), plus twos or threes of Magnolia, Black and White, Black-throated Green and Black-throated Blue Warblers.
Male Blackburnian Warbler Dendroica fusca
Male Black-throated Green Warbler Dendroica virens - investigating a cocoon or spiders nest
Male Yellow-rumped Warbler Dendroica coronata coronata
“Squarula Warbler” - the first ever photo of a hybrid between Parula Warbler and a Squirrel (possibly)
Singing Magnolia Warbler Dendroica magnolia
Other migrants incuded a pair of Great-crested Flycatchers, a single Veery, and two Chipping Sparrows (one that was completely tailless had a silhouette that really had me scratching my head for a moment). Surprisingly though there were very few “common” birds around: I had reasonable views of a drumming Pileated Woodpecker that - unlike a very confiding Hairy Woodpecker - just refused to show itself properly hence the lack of photos of a bird I really want to be able to feature on this homepage one day - and just a handful of Song Sparrows for instance, and no White-throateds (so photogenic in New York a few weeks before). I kept checking the sky for raptors, but except for one accipiter which I only saw very briefly (but was almost certainly a Sharp-shinned Hawk) the skies remained decidely empty of very much except clouds…
Hairy Woodpecker Picoides villosus
Great Crested Flycatcher Myiarchus tyrannulus
Chipping Sparrow Spizella passerina
To be honest there may well have been more birds than I’ve recorded here. I wasn’t really concentrating very hard - I’d had a call from Jo before I’d left the hotel saying that my grandmother (a remarkable woman who practically brought me up) is sick and fading quickly. She’s 97, so it’s not a huge surprise, but, you know, it’s hard being so far away from home sometimes…
Anyway, I don’t suppose the following is really related in any way, but the most remarkable thing happened while I was out and musing on things: I was walking through some really nice mixed woodland when I noticed a dazzling male Scarlet Tanager gleaning through the foliage at the top of a tree. Not a bird I get to see very often I raised my camera to get a photo, and as I looked through the viewfinder at it I saw the Tanager drop out of the tree towards me - and seconds later (and I swear this is true) IT LANDED ON MY LITTLE FINGER (which was sticking out at an angle from the hand supporting the lens like in the parody of an Englishman drinking a cup of tea)! It perched on my finger for at least five seconds, just kind of looking at me calmly. I could feel the tiny weight of it, the grip of its toes, almost see myself reflected in its bright, black eyes - but could I get a photo to prove any of this? Take a photo of a small bird inches away with a 100-400mm lens? Not a chance. But I did get a good shot when it flew up into a tree, looked at me again, and then disappeared off into the canopy. My Nan always said she’d come back as a bird, but as she was still very much alive and I’m not likely to get spiritual in my middle-age after so many years of cynicism and doubt, I’m not going to read anything more into what was a one-off of the most charming sort - but if anything could have cheered me up any better at that moment I can’t think of it…
Male Scarlet Tanager Piranga olivacea - shortly after giving me its blessings(?)
Having a totally wild migrant drop out of a tree onto my finger was the most memorable moment of an interesting morning of course (of the year so far actually). As I said I’m sure I missed a few bird species (which no-one can help with me now of course), but I have had help to ID these two plants, which have been kindly identified for me by Craig Kern (see “recent comments”): the White Trillium (the State flower of Ohio and Ontario apparently) was growing in the shade pretty much all over the woodland, but I only saw the slender, yellow Trout Lily (photo lower left) on two occasions. Both are regionally common, but they’re rather lovely plants I think you’d agree…
Trout Lily Erythronium americanum (left), and White Trillium Trillium grandiflorum (top and above right)
(Thanks to Craig Kern for the ID)
Trip List:
Ring-billed Gull Lars delewarensis c)10; Mallard Anas platyrhynchos 4; Mourning Dove Zenaida macroura 10+; Pileated Woodpecker Dryocopus pileatus 1; Downy Woodpecker Picoides pubescens 1; Hairy Woodpecker Picoides villosus1; Least Flycatcher Empidonax minimus 5-6; Great Crested Flycatcher Myiarchus tyrannulus 2-3; Blue-headed Vireo Vireo solitarius 2; American Crow Corvus brachyrhynchos 10+; Barn Swallow Hirundo rustica 3-4; Black-capped Chickadee Poecile atricapilla 5-8; Veery Catharus fuscescens 1; American Robin Turdus migratorius c)10; European Starling Sturnus vulgaris 20+; Northern Parula Parula americana 1; Cape May Warbler Dendroica tigrina 1; Chestnut-sided Warbler Dendroica pensylvanica 1; Magnolia Warbler Dendroica magnolia 2-3; Black-throated Green Warbler Dendroica virens 2; Black-throated Blue Warbler Dendroica caerulescens 2; Yellow-rumped Warbler Dendroica coronata 10+; Blackburnian Warbler Dendroica fusca 1; Bay-breasted Warbler Dendroica castanea 1; Nashville Warbler Vermivora ruficapilla 1; Black-and-white Warbler Mniotilta varia 2; Northern Waterthrush Seiurus noveboracensis 1; Scarlet Tanager Piranga olivacea 2;
Eastern Chipmunk Tamias striatus, Mount Royal Park
Getting to Mount Royal Park from downtown:
By FOOT: there are several ways to get into parc du Mont-Royal, notably from Park Ave. (corner Rachel), from Pine Ave. (via Peel) and from Côte-des-Neiges Road, via the Trafalgar staircase or Remembrance Road.
By BICYCLE: Olmsted Road is a picturesque bicycle path that starts at the George-Étienne-Cartier monument on Park Avenue. Rachel St. links it to Montréal’s network of bicycle paths.
BY PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION: the no. 11 bus (STM) runs to the summit of the park from Metro Mont-Royal and Côte-des-Neiges Road.
BY CAR/TAXI: take either Camillien-Houde Drive or Remembrance Road. Pay parking is located by Beaver Lake, the Smith House and the Camillien-Houde look-out ($2.50/hour, $7/day).
(Information from http://www.lemontroyal.qc.ca)
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I have a baby pine to plant that was given to me to do exactly that. May I plant it on Mount Royal or do I need some kind of permission? I would love to give back to the mountain because it has given me so much over the years.