The Year of the Proton..

With the lower Great Lakes at near or record high-water levels, particularly along the Lake Erie shoreline, the number of Prothonotary's in Ontario are at numbers comparable to the late 1980s. Sites directly influenced by Lake Erie are particularly being positively influenced.

By my estimate, Norfolk has 7-10 pairs, Chatham-Kent has 4-6 pairs, Essex has 8-15 pairs(!), along with at least 3 pairs in scattered other locations.

Male Prothon surveying his territory.

Female Prothonotary making food 'runs' for her young.

Same female (background) and young (foreground) Prothonotary looking for food.

Male removing a fecal sac from another Prothonotary nest.

Since 1996 there has actually been a fair bit of new information (relatively speaking) that's been discovered/understood in terms of the distribution of Prothonotary Warblers in Ontario, with at least 4 new sites being found, some of which have been in use for over 10 years.

Another piece of information that I thought interesting is the population estimate for Michigan;  estimated at 300 pairs. It's likely that the Ohio population is potentially twice as large as this (or more).

So, with high water levels likely to be the situation on Lake Erie for at least another year or two (or more) one direct way we can help birds at sites that are directly influenced by Lake Erie is to put up nest boxes. Alternatively donating to Birds Canada, which runs a monitoring program, c/o Ian Fife is another great way to help.