Prairie plants and other colourful elements of nature

I thought it was time to give the Sandhill Cranes header a rest, and this new header features a beautiful day-flying moth called a Nessus Sphinx. It was quite active visiting some Common Milkweeds in my yard, so I snapped a bunch of photos, as you might expect :-).

In spite of the greater heat and humidity of late, it is still worth getting out from time to time. A popular plant to see and photograph these days is Butterfly Milkweed. 

This site is at the north end of Rondeau, immediately across from the campground. This photo was taken several years ago, and although it had grown rather shrubby of late, it has been burned in the spring over the past 2-3 years, so it getting more open again, and the Butterfly Milkweed is fairly abundant.

It is always worth paying attention to other things that are around. On one occasion several years ago when I was photographing this patch of Butterfly Milkweed, I caught a glimpse of a large butterfly visiting a nearby patch, and realized it was not a species I was familiar with. So I grabbed my other camera and got this one photo before it took off. I tried to follow it, but it could fly much quicker than I could get through the vegetation!

Once I got home and checked to see what it was, I discovered it was a Gulf Fritillary, and it was the first photographed/confirmed individual for Canada! You can see the wings are a little tattered, so it likely got blown off course via a southerly wind, and ended up at Rondeau. One just never knows what might be out there waiting to be found...

 Something to be aware of regarding these prairie/savanna habitats at this time of year, is the presence of something called Chiggers. They are the larval stage of a type of mite. They are very tiny creatures, which you can barely see even with a hand lens. They will get onto clothing, and eventually on your skin, and a few hours after they catch on to you, you may notice some little red itchy spots! They aren't known to spread any disease like deer ticks that can pass Lyme Disease on, but they can be quite itchy for a few hours. Some people react more strongly to them than other folks, but it is worthwhile to be aware of them. Something like calamine lotion will alleviate the itch fairly quickly in most cases.

 This sandy prairie site is a good spot for other prairie/savanna plants. A common but rather small one is Pale-spiked Lobelia, and it, too, has been in flower for a few days. 

The flowers can be almost pure white, or have a distinct tinge of blue.

 And another prairie species, mainly towards the north and open sections of the Marsh Trail is this next one, Tall Meadow Rue.....

 

 .....and Wild Bergamot, which also grows in prairie-like settings.

A close relative, but more woodland than prairie, is Scarlet Beebalm. It is quite uncommon.

Some other prairie/savanna species, although not found at Rondeau, include Foxglove Beardtongue...

Foxglove Beardtongue

...and Climbing Prairie Rose, which when found often is climbing up a small open tree. I have even seen this species growing along roadsides in Chatham-Kent, which of course are quite open and have dead trees so provide a good climbing medium.

 

Next is a plant that is quite rare in Ontario, called False Indigo Bush, which normally grows in prairie/savanna habitat. It is not native to Rondeau, but was likely intentionally planted by someone who may have been the same person who planted the endangered Prickly Pear Cactus back in the early to mid 1990s, and is found in the same general area.

I have been keeping an eye on the progress of another Species At Risk, American Ginseng, which is indeed native to Rondeau.

 

 

 The flower buds were developing earlier in the season....

...and eventually put out a few small flowers, which aren't very showy....

....but have developed into a few seed capsules, that eventually will turn red.

 

A few other things to feature on this post, include a couple of fungi such as this Goblet Waxcap...

...and one with only a Latin name, called Crepidotus nephrodes.

Another plant which can grow in a variety of places, including the edges of woodlands, is Common Selfheal.

This next plant is a shrub, and like many others growing along trails and roadsides, is not native. It is Common Privet.

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Lark Bunting, and more!

 Certainly the most intriguing bird of recent days was the occurrence of a Lark Bunting, seen at the grassy/shrubby pasture along Stefina Line. It is a young male due to the brownish feathers above the obvious white ones in the wing. It is possible it showed up here due to the very dry conditions in its normal western range, and also perhaps of the air quality caused by the proliferation of wildfires.

This first photo shows what it typically looks like as it perches on a fence post. I was fortunate to take this photo in Grasslands National Park, in southern Saskatchewan a few years ago. 

Even though I spent several hours over a couple of days watching this particular bird at the pasture, the photos I got were not as high quality as I was hoping for. It spent most of its time 100 metres or more well out in the pasture, and although it was observed doing its aerial flight and singing, it seldom came very close. There were many dozens of birders from various parts of Ontario that lined up along the road, to see this unusual species, and in looking at the photos posted on eBird, occasionally someone would get a fairly close photo when the bird stopped by at a good spot for at least a few seconds. Here are a couple of my photos that I managed to get. This first one is when it landed on a steel gate by the corral.

This next one is when it was perched on one of several of its favourite shrubs a long way out. Both photos are heavily cropped.

The Lark Bunting is officially considered Threatened in Canada, and is limited to the western prairie regions, most commonly in southern Alberta and Saskatchewan. It is more abundant in the mid-western USA. 

As I was waiting for better photo ops, I managed to get this dragonfly perched on some grass by the road.

Widow Skimmer

Tis the season for dragonflies, of course. When I was out at St. Clair NWA one late afternoon, as it was slightly cooler, I photographed these two. 

Halloween Pennant

Blue Dasher

I got a few birds along the way, either at this NWA or on another day at the similar type of habitat a bit farther north, at the Mitchell's Bay North Shore Trail. This first one is an adult Bald Eagle that for some reason was hanging out along the roadside. It probably was after something in the canal immediately adjacent to the road, but after allowing me to get a couple of photos, it decided to move on, so I did also.

This Eastern Kingbird cooperated nicely before heading off to chase an insect.

The adjacent wetlands are often used by Great Blue Herons....

...and Great Egrets, that are always fun photo opportunities.

A critter that isn't often up and visible is this Groundhog, that paused momentarily on the trail before scampering out of sight.

Of course Killdeer are quite common...

....and Red-winged Blackbirds are super abundant, but don't always like sitting up for a good photo at a close distance.

 They are often busy squawking about something.....

...or just hanging out, perhaps keeping an eye on a nearby nest.

If the birds don't cooperate, there are usually other things that are more tolerant of my approach, such as this Yellow Iris, attractive but not native.

This female Northern Map Turtle was busy laying eggs along the side of the trail. Usually if a turtle is well underway in the egg-laying state, it will remain tolerant, unless it feels particularly threatened. I just walked quietly by, got a photo, and let her carry on. Hopefully more of this near threatened species will be emerging from the nest in a few months!

This Northern Blue Flag, in the same family as the Yellow Iris shown earlier, is a common native species found in wetland areas.

Next is a large bracket-type fungus called Dryad's Saddle.

Flowering Rush is another common, but not native wildflower common in or adjacent to wetlands.

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A couple of endangered orchids

 Orchids are fascinating to find. There have been 19 species known from Rondeau, with all but one being native. Of course probably the best known of these is the Nodding Pogonia, which for the past several decades, has only been known in Canada from Rondeau. And of course due to its small size and extreme rarity, is probably the least often seen, as its whereabouts are kept fairly confidential. It only flowers in August, so I will feature that species a little later in the season.

One of the orchids that I like to keep close tabs on at Rondeau is the Puttyroot (Aplectrum hyemale).

 

  

I have mentioned this species in previous posts, as during the late fall and through until spring, its leaves are quite distinctive and visible. But as it puts up a flowering stem, the leaves have all but disappeared, or at least look very shriveled. I have seen this species in 6 different areas of Rondeau, although two of the spots have either not been checked in recent years, or in the case of one, seems to have disappeared altogether. I managed to find a new population earlier this year. 

In several of the places where it has been found the number of leaves have been quite few, usually less than about 6. The number of leaves in a population is the best idea to get some sense of how many plants there are, as very few will put up flowering stems, which is why I try and check on the various populations in early spring. The largest population that I have been following for several decades, have had as many as about 75 leaves on occasion, but I have seldom seen more than about 15 flowering stems appearing in that one. This year in that population, I only saw two flowering stems.

Another endangered orchid is the Large Twayblade (Liparis liliifolia). It is not, at least at this time, known to occur at Rondeau, but it might be tucked away somewhere and yet to be found! It is known from Clear Creek Forest Provincial Park in a rather out of the way location. When I first went out this late spring to see how it was progressing, this is what it looked like.

 

And this is what it looked like in peak flowering condition shown next. Another individual in leaf form only is visible right next to it. Maybe it will flower next year?? 

 Close-up views of the individual, delicate flowers are always fun to photograph!

And while I was looking for this one, another species was developing close by. It is the Fen Orchid (Liparis loesellii), not an endangered species, but not common either. It occurs in one out-of-the-way location at Rondeau, although I haven't looked for it lately. A careful look at this individual will show a very small flowering stem starting to appear, as well as the remains of last year's flowering/seed stem.

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