Hillman Marsh, Ontario 18 May 2005

Hillman Marsh is the fourth largest marsh in Essex County, and covers 980 acres (400 hectares). A narrow beach separates the marsh from Lake Erie and there are lowland woods, scrub thickets, and successional old fields present on the reserve. Species seldom seen in Ontario but seen at here include Bald Eagle, Black Tern, King Rail and Yellow-crowned Night-heron. A large flock of Bonaparte’s Gulls often holds small numbers of Little Gulls.
Hillman Marsh is designated as an Environmentally Significant Area by the Essex Region Conservation Authority as well as a regionally significant Area of Natural and Scientific Interest and a Provincially Significant Wetland by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources.

Directions: From Windsor take Highway #3 to Leamington. Take Oak Street approximately 7 km east of Leamington. The main entrance to Hillman Marsh is located on County Road 37 at the 2nd Concession Road.
(For more information go to Hillman Marsh Conservation area)

The photos below were taken in the late afternoon/early evening after a day spent at the nearby Point Pelee (about 10km south-west - for a report and photographs go to Pelee May 05) where a group of us stayed from about 08:00a.m to 18:00p.m.

We made a quick stop at Hillman Marsh principally to look for Little Gulls - this is a prime site in eastern Canada for them - and lingering shorebirds. In amongst a large flock of several hundred Bonaparte’s Gulls and small numbers of Forster’s Terns we eventually found 5 Little Gulls - 1 adult, 1 first-summer, and three first winters. In the photos below notice the paddle-shaped wings of the Little Gulls with their dark underwing coverts, as opposed to the whitish underwings and sharply-pointed primaries of the Bonaparte’s. (We also found a single Black tern that unfortunately made just a few passes in front of us before flying off to another part of the marsh.)

 

 

Bonaparte’s Gulls - mixed ages

 

 

Little Gulls

Little Gull - adult, with Short-billed Dowitcher and adult Bonaparte’s Gull

Little Gulls - adult and 1st summer

Little Gulls - adult and two 1st winters

Little Gulls - adult and 1st summer

Species recorded at Hillman Marsh not recorded earlier in the day at Point Pelee: (note, numbers marked with a “+” are approximate).
English and scientific names mainly from “The North American Bird Guide”, Sibley D, Pica Press, 2000:
Great Blue Heron Ardea herodias 3; Turkey Vulture Cathartes aura 10+; Red-tailed Hawk Buteo jamaicensis 1; Bald Eagle Haliaeetus leucocephalus 2; Ring-necked Pheasant Phasianus colchicus H; Black-bellied/Grey Plover Pluvialis squatarola 10+; Semipalmated Plover Charadrius semipalmatus 1; Killdeer Charadrus vociferus 1; Spotted Sandpiper Actitis macularia 1; Dunlin Calidris alpina 20+; Short-billed Dowitcher Limnodromus griseus 20+; Little Gull Larus minutus 5; Bonaparte’s Gull Larus philadelphia 200+; Ring-billed Gull Larus delewarensis c)10; Forster’s Tern Sterna forsteri 10+; Black Tern Chlidonias niger 1; Northern Rough-winged Swallow Stelgidopteryx serripennis 1.

All photographs © Charlie Moores.