Swamp Tromp

Last week my friend Darren invited me to check out a wonderful wet woods  in eastern Chatham-Kent. Wet woods are generally known as 'swamp' as per the wetland classification system. Most people don't get overly excited about hiking through a swamp, as it conjures up visions of getting ones feet caught in the oozing, black, bottomless, muck while being surrounded by a gazillion mosquitoes. Certainly that can be the case under extreme circumstances, but at this time of year with the sunlight beaming through the leafless woods and the relatively cool temperatures, hiking a swamp can be kind of fun if you are prepared for it.

Swamp in early summer

 Good knee-high rubber boots are a necessity, unless you are like a former MNR colleague of mine who loved wetlands and swamps in particular. He would just wear an old pair of sneakers, put on an old pair of pants and strike out wherever the mood took him. Are you reading this Gary? That is one way to do it, and then you don't have to worry about having the water go over the top of your boots so that you end up walking around in wet boots the rest of the time. Although I have done it that way, I prefer a good pair of rubber boots. Go ahead and call me a wimp, but it keeps my car a lot cleaner at the end of the day!

So with boots in hand.....er, on feet, Darren and I struck off. At times we were hiking through more upland woodland to get to our destination, all the while surrounded by carpets of developing spring wildflowers. There was Bloodroot, Spring Beauty and Yellow Trout-lily (a.k.a. Dogtooth Violet), which I have included images of in a couple of my most recent posts. Wild Ginger and Blue Cohosh were also noted, and there was even a White Trillium that was just ready to pop open.

Wild Ginger

Wild Ginger flower close-up

 The flowers of Wild Ginger are often under the leaves, as they are pollinated by ground beetles.

Blue Cohosh

But the lower areas beckoned, where the residual water of snow melt and spring rain was responding to the tug of gravity, and the accumulation of water meandered along the contours of the forest floor, winding its way towards the Thames River not all that far away. Spicebush is an abundant wooded wetland shrub; its waxy yellow flowers were ready to burst open as well.

Spicebush

 The woods were relatively devoid of bird song.....not all that atypical for interior woods this early in the season. But we enjoyed the gentle sounds of water trickling by. A few butterflies were noted, including Eastern Comma and my first of the year Spring Azure.

Eastern Comma

 An occasional frog was briefly seen plopping into the water, only to disappear at the muddy bottom. They could have been either Wood Frogs or Chorus Frogs. In spite of the sunny day, we saw only a single Eastern Garter Snake.

Skunk cabbage, which is related to the more well known Jack-in-the-Pulpit, is plentiful in these wet woods. Their actual flower emerges early in spring, well before the leaves do. The following image shows what is left of the flower in between the much larger leaves which now predominate.

Skunk Cabbage close-up

Skunk Cabbage dominating the swamp

Water Cress is plentiful, and clusters of Marsh Marigold are more and more obvious. Some marigolds had flowers already open and in just a few sunny days their brilliant yellow will be dominant, looking something like the following images, taken at another wet woods in a previous year.

Wet woods featuring Marsh Marigold

Marsh Marigold

 As with any natural area, the views keep changing as the weeks pass by. I encourage you to get out and explore a local swamp!

Black is beautiful, and more

When it comes to the health of tallgrass prairie and savanna, that is, black at this time of year is a beautiful sight and means there is something to look forward to in the very near future!

If you have been to Rondeau in the last couple of days, you may have noticed that some formerly grassy areas which showed the beautiful dried grasses of a healthy prairie or savanna and looked like this.....

.....were now looking like this:

The park staff carried out a much needed burn a few days ago. Fire is a natural phenomenon required to maintain healthy prairie vegetation. And healthy vegetation results in a healthy mix of prairie adapted fauna, including insects, herps, birds  and mammals. If the prairie was not burned and the nutrients not recycled quickly, the prairie plants would get smothered. Shrubs and trees would eventually take over, shading and crowding out the prairie plants and stifling the prairie fauna that requires prairie habitat to live in.

The results of such a burn are dramatic. The soil, now temporarily covered with black ash, absorbs the sunlight energy more readily, and warms the earth to stimulate the prairie vegetation to start growing. In just a few weeks it will look something like this, with wonderful displays of colourful wildflowers to attract butterflies (and photographers :-).

Wildlife will be attracted to it, either very soon or next season. A fire doesn't have to happen on a prairie every year. In this part of the world a fire every 3 years on average would be about right, depending on the condition of the prairie site.

While I was at Rondeau yesterday, an American Woodcock was ditsy-doodling right along the road side, in an area of a prairie site that had not burned. It was rooting around in the soil, searching for worms or grubs, and did not seem in the least bothered by my presence. I was able to use the car as a blind and got several shots.

At one point after several minutes, the bird must have been startled by something in the leaves....perhaps a mouse or something. It jumped up, turned around and raised its tail feathers showing some agitation as demonstrated in the next image. But only for a minute or so, and then it resumed feeding.

Eventually the bird wandered farther from the road side, getting more difficult to see. One can see that its mottled coloration blends in quite nicely with the dead leaves and grasses.

The east winds had picked up, and birds that were around earlier in the day seem to have moved on.....or moved back south! At any rate, birding had diminished.

Even though a deer herd reduction had taken place at the park late last fall, they are still around in good numbers. They do look a little tattered this time of year, as they shed their winter coat of gray-brown to be replaced by their summer coat of reddish-brown over the next few weeks. Hopefully they don't need their winter coats any more!

I decided to check out Clear Creek Forest Provincial Nature Reserve. I hadn't been there in awhile and I have a spring wildflower hike scheduled there in a couple of weeks.

The spring wildflowers are coming on, but not all that quickly due to the slow spring. Hopefully the timing of the hike will match the peak of the wildflower display. Some of the earliest wildflowers are already visible in small numbers, such as Bloodroot and Spring Beauty.

Bloodroot

Spring Beauty

There is a huge amount of Dogtooth Violet appearing, with very few in flower. This shot was taken in a previous year.....I only saw a couple of single flowers out during this visit, but this is what to expect in another week or so of sunny weather.

Dutchman's Breeches are also out, but just barely.

The creek itself doesn't have a lot of flow at this point, but its gravelly bottom and some spring flow is enough to attract some fish to spawn.

Clear Creek

I noted these two suckers spawning in the shallow gravelly area of the creek.

A third one had been there moments before, but didn't stay. I am not a fish expert, but I believe these are Longnose Suckers, which are known from the area and enter cool streams along the lake to spawn. Clear Creek is one of the few streams remaining in Chatham-Kent that could be classified as a cold water stream, as there is some type of forest vegetation along its entire length to this point. Most other streams in C-K have little or no forest vegetation to shade the water, and are now considered to be warm water streams.

I also had the opportunity to catch up with a couple of salamanders, in this case a Red-backed Salamander and a Lead-backed variation of a Red-backed Salamander, both of which were resting under the same bit of debris.

Red-backed (L) & Lead-backed (R) salamanders

Red-backed Salamander

Sun, cloud, warmth, cold, wind, rain....it's all happening!

If you don't like the weather, wait 5 minutes, or at the most a day......the ups and downs lately are really spring like....all over the place, although maybe more like late March than mid April.

The burst of warmth for a couple of days recently has ushered in some action, especially with respect to spring wildflowers, butterflies and frogs. Birds....well it has been a start, but not nearly as well represented with rarities than some other places east and west of Rondeau. Maybe there needs to be more people out looking???

Regardless, some of these recent days have been wonderful to be out. On some days with a bit of warmth and virtually no wind, it has been most enjoyable. Although Rondeau sticks out into the lake which makes the weather cooler if the wind is off the water, there are some more sheltered areas where things are happening. Wildflowers started really popping up. One day last week there was nothing to be seen, and two days later, I noted Bloodroot, Sharp-lobed Hepatica, Spring Beauty and Dutchman's Breeches all showing up. Colt'sfoot, a non-native species, was also in flower.

Hepatica

Bloodroot

Bloodroot

A pair of Killdeer were acting suspicious near the parking lot of the churches, and I thought I picked out where a potential nest might be. After they left the immediate area, I checked and found these two eggs.

Knowing that the adults wouldn't start to incubate until at least the third of four eggs was laid, I checked a couple of days later, and sure enough there was an adult sitting on the nest. I didn't go too close and the next image shows not much more than the head of the incubating bird.

Along the Tuliptree Trail, an Eastern Phoebe was building its nest under the boardwalk. Note the bit of mud in this one's beak.

Chipping Sparrows are abundant. It is not hard to find 30-50 birds in various places over the course of a day.

Eastern Bluebirds are scattered about in small numbers or pairs. This one, or one just like it, has been in the vicinity of the east side of the campground for at least a couple of weeks.

Brown Thrashers and Eastern Towhees are widely scattered in the various open areas and forest edges. Towhees are particularly abundant.....it isn't hard to find a dozen or more at least via their song, if not actually seeing them.

Brown Thrasher

Eastern Towhee

White-throated Sparrows are appearing, and although there may be the occasional one that survived the winter in the vicinity of a feeder, they seem to be showing up in other places, and are likely migrants.

Turkey Vultures are abundant as well. It isn't uncommon to see a couple of dozen soaring over the park. I think in recent years they have nested somewhere in an old tree trunk. On the colder mornings, when there aren't many thermals to ride along on, they will be roosting in trees like this one.

Along the Erieau Rail Trail, someone has put up a couple of Wood Duck boxes. The Woodies haven't discovered them yet to my knowledge, but Tree Swallows have! It seems a bit odd to see a Tree Swallow investigating a Wood Duck box given the size difference, but this one was going into it on a regular basis!

Nearby this Wood Duck box, was a Painted Turtle basking in a sheltered part of the cattail vegetation.

 The warmest days brought out the frogs, too. There are still decent choruses of Wood Frogs and Spring Peepers, and Leopard Frogs can be heard giving their 'snoring' call. This shallow marshy spot at the beginning of the Marsh Trail had a lot of Leopard Frog activity. There was lots of calling, some actual mating, as well as evidence of egg masses. This next image shows a Leopard Frog with its calling sacs partially inflated while nearby, the reproductive efforts of a pair of frogs is evident by the cluster of dark eggs in a jelly-like mass. If the water remains long enough, the eggs will hatch in a few days, and numerous tadpoles will begin a more active stage of life. Of course many may end up as tasty morsels for a variety of predators, including raccoons, herons, water snakes, other frogs, various species of fish, dragonfly larvae and even larger tadpoles of their own kind!

Another frog species that so far I've only seen and not heard this spring is the Green Frog. I noted several out thermoregulating (i.e. basking) along the Spicebush Trail. Interestingly when I looked at this photo on the computer, I noted that in addition to the adult, there was a tadpole from last year's age class also in the photo....it is situated just a bit above the stick towards the upper left of this photo.

Also noticeable by their increasing numbers were butterflies, especially on the warmest and sunniest days. I saw at least a couple of dozen Mourning Cloaks, and about half as many Eastern Commas. Trees with a wound in their bark, causing the sap to run down the trunk were very attractive to butterflies and other insects looking for the sweet sap for sustenance.

Mourning Cloak

Eastern Comma

There were at least a couple of Red Admirals flitting around, but did not stick around long enough to be photographed.

FYI, all of the above images were taken with my new Canon 100-400 mm II lens. My older, first version of the Canon 100-400 lens which served me faithfully for a few years and is in very good shape, is still available for sale.

At one of the main camera dealers in Ontario, a used one is listed on their site for ~$1300. I am willing to sell mine for $950, which  also includes a Pro 1 77mm UV filter.

Even bigger trees, herps and dragons

The last few days have been quite nice to be out in. Regular readers will know that I am trying to document as many of the largest trees in Rondeau that I can get to. At the moment, I have documented over 200 individual trees. The main details I've included are species name, diameter at breast height and the GPS coordinates.

On the weekend I came across the biggest tree I've measured so far. It is an Eastern Cottonwood, but instead of its normal open habitat setting, this one was in one of the deeper parts of the Rondeau forest.

 This individual measured 163 cm dbh at first, but since I had to go around a large Poison Ivy vine, I decided to reduce the diameter to 158 cm. This is more than 20 cm dbh larger than the next largest one I had measured to this point in the project. I had my tripod with me this time, and with the delayed shutter, I was able to get myself into the photo for scale. I purposely converted it to black and white....the reason being that an historically well known and significant tree was photographed in B&W back in 1908, and is shown below. It is of a huge Sycamore tree. I posted this one a few weeks ago. Big Syc, as it was affectionately known, died in 1969, fell over in 1972, and even today is still a large decaying log on the forest floor. At its peak, it measured about 165 cm dbh, which is just slightly larger than the Eastern Cottonwood I came across a few days ago, so the similarity in size, and the similar wet woods habitat, gave me the idea to put myself in a similar pose. The big difference, however, is that Eastern Cottonwoods grow relatively quickly and seldom live more than 100-125 years. Sycamores, on the other hand, grow more slowly and may live for more than 300 years. Given the normal growth and longevity for Eastern Cottonwood, it is possible that this individual may not be any more than 125 years. However I think that the figures normally quoted for their growth and longevity are for open grown trees under very good growing conditions. In my opinion, growing in the middle of a wet maple-oak-beech type forest, the growing conditions may be somewhat different, and it is possible that this individual may be quite a bit more than 125 years of age. We will probably never know, since the inside of the tree is likely mushy and there is no way to count the rings even with a good increment borer tool. Nonetheless, since cottonwoods apparently grow about 2 cm diameter per year, it may just surpass Big Syc in a few short years. You can bet I will be out remeasuring it to see!

Big Syc in 1908

A short while after discovering this huge cottonwood, I came across another, not quite as large. It was a mere 142 cm dbh. I expect I will find more, and when I get around to measuring some of the large Silver Maples, another fast growing species of wetland habitat, there may be some trees that supersede the cottonwoods I measured this day. I will probably have to wait until a drier time of year to get the right height for measuring at the standard breast height....right now most are sitting in up to a metre of water.

Oak trees grow much more slowly than cottonwoods do. I was pleased to find this large Red Oak, measuring 123 cm dbh. Right close by and in the background of this next photo is a White Oak, which is just shy of a metre dbh. The Red Oak shows a decided lean, a typical characteristic of an old growth tree. Undoubtedly both of these oaks, even though they are smaller than the big cottonwood, are considerably older.

While covering the section of forest I had planned for, there were a good number of birds out and about. No warblers, however, but lots of Northern Flicker, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Brown Creeper, Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers as well as smaller numbers of Eastern Phoebe, Pileated Woodpecker (I think one was creating a nest hole), Hermit Thrush, Winter Wren and the like. Turkey Vultures were plentiful, and an adult Bald Eagle floated overhead.

It was a rather warm day, the kind where it makes one think of a tasty ice-cream treat, which made me think of the caption for this next photo.

Baskin' Robin

I noted a couple of Mourning Cloak butterflies, as well as Eastern Garter Snakes and a Northern Brown Snake.

Eastern Garter Snake

The Northern Brown Snake was on the move and did not want to stick around for my photography efforts.

The sunny warm conditions encouraged amphibians to get busy. There were lots of Wood Frogs vocalizing throughout the sloughs, along with a few Spring Peepers. A single American Toad was noted dead on the road.

Wood Frog

Today I went to check some areas along Lake St. Clair, specifically the Angler Line wetland where Yellow-headed Blackbirds were found last year, as well as the Lake St. Clair Trail and the waterfront of Mitchell's Bay. It was another warm day, but much windier.

The land birds were not of a great diversity, but I did see things such as Eastern Phoebe, lots of Tree Swallow, Northern Flickers, etc. There were still lots of waterfowl on the lake, but well out from shore since the wind speed and direction made it popular for wind sailors/surfers.

In the quieter areas of the old canal that goes along the trail, I found a lot of Painted Turtles.....about 46 in all. I'm sure they were trying to play catch up on getting their internal physiology going, now that at least for the short term, the weather is warming up.

'Tired' Turtles

I also saw my first dragonflies of the year. This pair of Common Green Darner were already 'in wheel', so the reproductive phase of their season is now underway!

I didn't see any Yellow-headed Blackbirds.....they may be out there but the wind might have kept them lower.

At the northeast corner of the waterfront parking lot was this quite large Eastern Cottonwood. It is open grown on a very good site. It measured 143 cm dbh.