Saga of Prickly Pear Cactus at Rondeau, Part 1

 

The presence of a cactus almost always gets one’s attention, especially when they are in flower. They are always a highlight if one is visiting a part of North America where they are a major part of the landscape, such as Arizona. Here are a few that I photographed in Arizona.

Pink-flowered Hedgehog

Saguaro

Santa Rita Prickly Pear

When it is in flower and one sees it here in southwestern Ontario it is definitely something to focus some attention on. There are a couple of places in southwestern Ontario where it is considered to be there naturally: Point Pelee National Park and Fish Point Prov Nature Reserve, the latter being on Pelee Island.

 It can be found at various other places in what appears to be good quality natural habitat, but in most cases there are records of it being intentionally planted in those places in the early half of the last century.

 It was never recorded at Rondeau Prov Park until quite recently. Since the middle of last century, there have been many accomplished botanists/naturalists present at Rondeau, either on staff, or out looking for plants. Imagine my surprise when in 1996 I discovered several small patches of it in the grassy beach dunes, all in the general vicinity of the current lighthouse!

 It was on July 12, 1996 according to my field notes, when I encountered not one, but five very small clumps of cactus pads with some in flower! I wrote out the details of my encounter on a full page of my field notebook describing the way that those five clumps appeared, in their precise location and relative to other shrubs, etc., as well as approximately to each other as spread across the grassy dunes.

These are scans of some of my clumps of that initial encounter.

 

 Clearly this is not the way the species normally grows like, with a single pad emerging from the sand vertically. If it had been there naturally, one or more pads would be laying on the ground, with subsequent pads growing from those lying flat. But these were put in vertically, and at least a year or two had passed since, as additional pads were growing upright, and in some cases, with a flower at the uppermost pad.

 This is an area which had been covered fairly well by those many botanist/naturalist folks over the previous decades, and would not have missed cactus!

Clump in July, 2014

What adds some certainty to the fact they were intentionally planted, is that all of the small clumps were growing the same way, and all were within a couple of metres or so to a small shrub. This would serve as a reference point for whoever planted them, to be able to re-locate them to see how they were progressing. Again, growing like that would not have been natural at all.

 Clearly cactus would be expected to do well in these very dry, sandy environments, and they have expanded. Here is what a couple of clumps looked like in 2025, in one case showing the lighthouse in the background. The clumps have expanded into numerous pads spreading out from the original with most lying flat on the ground or on top of other pads.

A now larger clump in close proximity to a shrub

I was on the provincial Lake Erie Sandspit Recovery team in the early 2000s, and one of the things we wanted to determine was what the genetics were of the various populations of cactus in SW ON, so a geneticist from U of Windsor did the testing. The results from the couple of cactus pads of Rondeau that were collected and tested, were determined to be the same as the population at Fish Point PNR, and one member of our team suggested the Rondeau ones were there naturally as they could have come across from water currents over the years. This was utterly ridiculous, as when they were first discovered, all clumps were at least 125 metres from the nearest shoreline, so if they had been washed ashore, why were they only occurring so far inland, especially since the general area had been visited by qualified naturalists for decades? 

 I have a couple of suspicions as to who planted them, both who were connected to Rondeau in the early ‘90s. One of them had a tendency to plant species that, although they were native to Ontario, were not native to the park. He even encouraged cottage owners to plant colourful species, not native to the park, but native to Ontario. Would he admit it? I don’t know as I never asked, and he has not been a resident of Ontario for many years as far as I know. The other person had a connection to Fish Point Prov Nature Reserve.

There is more to the overall story, which I plan to elaborate on in the next blog post.

July '26

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Lingering herps, leps and birds coming and going

 There is always lots to see at this time of year, but as the weather becomes more challenging for various things in nature, there will be a decline.

Some of the reptiles and amphibians are making use of the sunnier, slightly warmer days. Salamanders, such as this adult and juvenile Blue-spotted Salamander, shown first, will be going underground.

This Eastern Garter Snake will linger for awhile yet.

A couple of posts ago I showed an Eastern Gray Treefrog that was trying to change its colour to match the background it was on, so it would be more inconspicuous. This one was likely never going to change its colour to red, so just stayed green!

Similar to the salamander shown above, this Eastern Red-backed Salamander will be going underground very soon.

Leopard Frogs may linger a bit longer, at least on sunny days, before taking refuge at the bottom of wetlands.

A Northern Brown Snake was hanging out on a paved road, certainly a risk given the vehicles and bicycles it would have to contend with.

This Northern Watersnake was along a hiking trail, so a much lower risk for it.

And this Northern Ribbon Snake was also along a paved area. After I got its photo, I prodded it a bit but it never budged, in spite of not showing signs of any obvious injury.

Sunny days can also bring a few butterflies out. First off is a Question Mark. It is helpful to see the underside to see the white question mark, looking like a split comma....
 

...and the upper side of the same species. A little farther down these photos is an Eastern Comma, showing the more obvious white comma feature

Red Admiral

There are still a few Monarchs flitting about, trying to get enough energy to make it farther south in their migration journey.

Eastern Comma

Eastern Comma

Other lingering insects include Beech Blight Aphids which are always entertaining to watch, in spite of the fact that they are so tiny.

Yellow-legged Meadow Hawk

 Birds may be coming or going. Bald Eagles may sometimes be year round residents, but one of the local hawkwatches have already recorded almost 250 eagles that have passed by on their way south.

Waterfowl are building in numbers and will linger as long as there is open water. Canada Geese are quite plentiful.

Great Egrets persist in small numbers but most have already departed.

Of particular interest to birders was the presence of two Hudsonian Godwits in a couple of places in southern Chatham-Kent: at the Keith McLean Conservation Lands as well as the Blenheim Sewage Lagoons.

Yellow-rumped Warblers are probably the most abundant warbler around currently, and usually a few may linger all winter.
 

Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers are fairly regularly encountered, at least for now.

This Yellow-billed Cuckoo is definitely a late lingering individual.

Turkey Vultures are passing over the hawkwatch sites by the hundreds, sometime the thousands, every day depending on the wind direction.

Sandhill Cranes are still around in small, but dwindling, numbers.

Rusty Blackbirds are fairly abundant, at least for the short term, as they pass through on migration.

Pileated Woodpeckers are a year-round resident and always fun to watch.

As with the Canada Geese above, other waterfowl such as these Mallards, are quite abundant. The diversity of waterfowl species is building, although due to the hunting season, are quite leery of coming with in photo range.

Lincoln's Sparrows are one of the more common sparrows these days, but that will change over the next few weeks as they continue to migrate.

I came across this Eastern Meadow Vole quite recently. It was scampering through a grassy area, so I didn't get the photos I was hoping for, but I think this is the first time I have ever photographed even one!

I was surprised to see this Closed Bottle Gentian still in flower a week or so ago. Normally they are all finished by the end of September.

Berries are always  favoured by various birds, so they can build up their energy to continue their migration. The berries of this Winterberry Holly won't last long!

The leaves on so many trees are beginning to show their autumn colours, such as this Sassafrass cluster shown next. I'm looking forward to the next couple of weeks when they and others will be in their full autumn glory!

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