The Quiet Storm

It was exactly a year ago when a storm went through southern Ontario, with sustained high winds from the east. Wave action was impressive, as long as one didn't have to be out on the water! This first image is of the Erieau pier, with some of the waves almost obscuring the lighthouse.

Erieau pier, Oct 2, 2015

Birding was fun and productive for a few days especially between Sept 30 and Oct 2, at least in the sense that some less commonly seen species were around. There were several jaegers and at least a couple of Sabine's Gulls, my first for the Rondeau checklist area.

Sabine's Gull imm

Horned Grebes were abundant. Well over 100 would be seen in short order flying by, and on occasion up to a couple of dozen would be in the comparative shelter of the west side of the pier, close to shore.

A few shorebirds, including this Black-bellied Plover, were on the sheltered beach......

 .....as were a couple of White-rumps.

With the current brisk easterly winds these last couple of days and the reports of jaegers and even a shearwater emanating from postings by birders scouring the west end of Lake Ontario, local birders in southern Chatham-Kent were hoping for at least something out of the ordinary again at Erieau.

Certainly the weather conditions gave reason for optimism. Gulls normally well out on the lake were content to spend a lot of time loafing on the beach or passing by a little ways off shore.

Rondeau east beach, Sept 29, 2016

 The waves over the Erieau pier were impressive by normal standards, but not as much as a year ago.

Erieau pier, Sep 30, 2016

Erieau, Sep 30, 2016

And the birds? Well so far in the last couple of days there were no jaegers that I have heard of, let alone any shearwaters.

There have been large numbers of gulls in the Rondeau to Erieau area. Probably well over 6000 Ring-billed Gulls....by far the most numerous species. The other typical species were all present, including several Lesser Black-backed. But no Sabine's, not even a Little Gull. In fact of the smaller, hooded type gull, Bonaparte's was all there was, and even at that there were probably only 5-600, most of which were adults transitioning to their basic/winter finery.

There were sightings of other species, just to keep one interested. Caspian Terns are still around in small numbers.

Common Terns are as well, with several dozen flying by the Erieau lookout this morning, and heading east into the wind. Most were too far out to be photographed.

There were grebes, but only Horned, and no more than 15 or so, all flying east. At least one Surf Scoter was observed well off shore, and a few other ducks including Greater Scaup and mergansers.

So it hasn't been the banner couple of days for early autumn birding that we were hoping for, but that is the fun of it......if it was too predictable, why go out and look? The weekend is here, so maybe with more eyes scanning the water, beaches and wherever, something a little rarer will be found! And maybe that will be the subject of my next post!

More action in the prairie patches

Note: my apologies to viewers and commentors on this blog shortly after it was posted. I was making a minor edit, and all of a sudden the entire post disappeared! I think I have it more or less as originally posted.

Dwayne: thanks for your comment. I have been privileged to see lots of neat leps these last few days. And I, too, was slow to get going on ebird, and just recently attempted ebutterfly. Hope to see you on it in 2017.

Blake: thanks for your comment. I wonder what other lep goodies are out there?

 And now, back to the post.......

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I've been checking out a few prairie type patches in Lambton County and also in Chatham-Kent. Butterflies won't be very plentiful for much longer as the weather cools off, so with the sunny and warm days of late, it is worthwhile to get out and see what is lingering this late in the season.

 Bickford Oak Woods Conservation Reserve, in west central Lambton, is a hot spot. There are two areas, each of about 5 ha, that about a decade ago were converted from soybeans to a tallgrass prairie type of vegetation. It isn't exactly pristine by any means, but the dominance of prairie vegetation is encouraging, and according to the leps....they would seem to agree!

During some survey work there in 2014 and 2015, I came across a total of 32 species of butterfly. I've seen almost 20 butterfly species in the last 3 visits, all in September, including 5 species not recorded there in the past. Some of these new species were not unexpected, such as the Black and Spicebush Swallowtails. Common Buckeye wasn't a total surprise, and since it has been a good year for Common Checkered Skipper in southern Ontario this year, it was good to add that one. A mating pair of them was a bonus. The Variegated Fritillary is generally uncommon in southwestern Ontario, so it was nice to get this one on the list as well.

Black Swallowtail

Common Buckeye

Common Checkered Skipper

Spicebush Swallowtail

Variegated Fritillary

There were lots of the more typical species as well.

A few other spots were examined, including a recently planted prairie along the St. Clair Parkway at the Terra/CF Industries property. It had been mowed a few weeks ago to keep down the weedy species, so it wasn't all that exciting, but I was pleased to find a Wild Indigo Duskywing among a few other more common ones.

A private property along Tulloch Line that I had access to was worthwhile, as it had a mix of wildlife shrubs and about 4 ha of planted prairie. A couple of white-tail fawns were there to greet us.

Pearl Crescents were fairly common.

Silver-spotted Skippers were plentiful.

Monarchs are migrating, and often seen nectaring on the various sunflower species that are prevalent in a prairie.

Sometimes there are several on a single plant!

Three's company??

 Eastern-tailed Blues were fairly abundant.

Mating Eastern-tailed Blues

A brief stop at Peer's Wetland just east of Wallaceburg did not have many butterflies in the prairie patch while we were there. But we did see a Common Checkered Skipper.....they are everywhere this year, it seems.

No doubt the most abundant butterfly at any of the sites I've been to are Cabbage Whites. And by the looks of it, more will be on the way.

Not quite as abundant but still one of the more common butterflies is the Clouded Sulphur.....

.....neck in neck with the Orange Sulphur.

 Viceroys are not common at all....only one or two here and there.

Of course there are many other invertebrates using these heavily vegetated patches. Grasshoppers are extremely abundant. Less common are things like this rather large Chinese Mantid. I am always fascinated by the way this species can turn its head to peer at you, and with its protruding green and black eyes on a triangular shaped face, it reminds me of E.T. of movie fame.

Black-and-yellow Garden spiders are abundant, and they often have captured a grasshopper in their web. If you aren't paying attention, it is easy to run into them.

Argiope sp

With all of the goldenrod and asters currently in flower, pollinators are abundant. Honey bees in particular fill the air with buzzing.

A couple of days ago I was at the wetland/prairie complex at the north end of the Mitchell's Bay North Shore Nature trail. Among some of the more common butterflies, I was pleased to find Fiery Skipper and my first of the year, Little Yellow.

Fiery Skipper

Little Yellow

Some late season Black Swallowtail caterpillars are still around. I've seen several in garden patches that have dill or fennel. This one was in a nearby garden plot, and one was still developing in our garden earlier today. It may overwinter in its pupal stage and emerge as an adult in the spring.

I've been entering some of my findings on ebutterfly, which is very similar to ebird. One thing that I find surprising is how few Ontario butterfly records there are submitted to that database, especially since it seems many birders are also keen to watch for butterflies. Any thoughts on why this is so?

Prairie patch action, #1

Prairies are great places to explore, for all kinds of reasons. Unfortunately there aren't many left! So sometimes small patches of vegetation that appear somewhat like prairie have to do instead.

I've been to a few of those lately. One place is a narrow strip along an active railway line just east of Thamesville. A few posts ago I highlighted some of my findings. As I was in the area recently, I decided to check it out again. Not surprisingly, the Ironweed that was dominant and highly attractive to butterflies at my previous visit, was just about finished. But as often happens in the natural world, another species takes its place. This time it was Prairie Thistle (Cirsium discolor).

Prairie Thistle is quite uncommon in Ontario, being ranked as S2. It is a much paler purple than the abundant, and not native, Bull Thistle (Cirsium arvense).

Prairie Thistle

And the butterflies loved it! This first image is of a very tattered Giant Swallowtail visiting an equally tattered Ironweed. I was impress by how easily this worn individual could still fly. I am sure that it must have been much more taxing given the lack of lift these wings could provide.

This is another Giant Swallowtail, not quite as tattered as the previous one. During my previous visit I had as many as eight Giants, but there were only about three this time.

 There were at least a couple of Great Spangled Fritillaries around.

Great Spangled Fritillary

And several Monarchs....it was hard to keep track of their numbers as they moved around constantly.

This next image shows not a butterfly, but a day-flying moth known as a Hummingbird Clearwing. In flight it very much resembled a hummer.

Other winged invertebrates included a few damselflies, such as this Eastern Forktail.

But butterflies were the main attraction, and there were the usual common species, such as Viceroy, Black Swallowtail, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail and this Peck's Skipper on the much darker Bull Thistle.

I also visited a friend's family farm north of Thamesville, where several hectares have been planted into various mixes of prairie grasses and forbs. There was much the same mix of butterflies, but I lucked out and got a couple of rarer ones, such as the not-so-common Common Buckeye....

Common Buckeye

.....and the even less common Common Checkered Skipper. It has been an excellent year for this species. I have seen more this year than in all my previous years of looking for butterflies!

Common Checkered Skipper

Where there are wide grassy roadsides in rural areas, there are often a few Groundhogs....at least until the predators get wind of them!

Even more recently I have explored some prairie patches and restoration areas in Lambton. I will be highlighting them in a future post.

Passenger Pigeon, Japanese Barberry and.....Lyme Disease

September is the month when we mark the anniversary of an avian tragedy: it was on September 1, 1914, when the last remaining Passenger Pigeon died. A species that went from an estimated 3 billion to zero in the space of a human's lifetime. Not that the population was always so numerous....it was a species whose population was believed to fluctuate dramatically, as described in this article in Scientific American.

Passenger Pigeons (PAPI) fed on the seed produced by various trees in the eastern and mid-western forests, specifically acorns from various oaks, nuts from the American Beech as well as chestnuts from the American Chestnut. American Chestnut was once one of the most common trees in eastern North American forests, but a serious blight that arrived in the early part of last century devastated the forest of that species. It is a legally endangered species due to its extremely limited occurrence in Canada.

Open oak forests were particularly attractive to PAPI, since not only did the acorns provide a valuable source of food, but the large and sturdy spreading branches were safe places to roost and/or build their nests.

In this first photo is a mix of acorns of the Red Oak and beech nuts of the American Beech.

 This next image is a close-up of an opened chestnut bur, showing the seeds in side the husk.

American Chestnut leaves

White Oak

These tree species are known to produce large quantities of seed for one or two years, and then very small quantities of seed for the next few years. Years of high seed production are known as 'mast' years. If several tree species produce mast in successive years, it might result in very high production of young PAPI causing the population to get to the estimated 3 billion. But that wouldn't last, and the productivity would then decline. This process is certainly beneficial for the trees. If the seed production maintained a consistent level over the years, those wildlife species that fed on them would maximize their production, and most seed would likely be consumed. By having most years of seed production at lower levels, the wildlife species would remain at a relatively lower level, so that when seed production increased briefly, more of it would survive to germinate and produce an age class of trees for the future.

Regardless, when the population of PAPI was reduced to zero, it resulted in a lot of seed not being consumed. And this was a boon for other species of wildlife that fed on those seeds that would normally be competing with the PAPI, such as White-tailed Deer, squirrels, mice, Wild Turkey, etc.

The numbers of those remaining species of wildlife would likely have increased substantially, now that there weren't a billion or more PAPI to compete with.

Japanese Barberry
Japanese Barberry (Berberis thunbergii) was introduced to North America in the late 1800s as an ornamental shrub. It leafs out early and has many flowers. It also has sharp spines along its stems.

It is a prolific seed producer, and birds love the bright red berries. But when the birds travel and defecate elsewhere, the seeds are spread far and wide. The sharp spines ensure that browsing by deer is minimal, so there are virtually no controls on the spread of this species. As a result, Japanese Barberry is one of the more insidious invasive species in our eastern forests. It is especially distinctive in the fall when their leaves turn a deep red.

The density at which Japanese Barberry can grow unchecked in a forest is great for mice! Their normal predators, such as owls, hawks and foxes will not penetrate the dense, prickly stand of barberry, so it is a safe haven. Numbers of mice where barberry is plentiful are known to be higher than areas where barberry is low to non-existent.

And that brings us to the unfortunate result of the loss of PAPI and the invasion of barberry. You see, mice are critical hosts to ticks, both the American Dog Tick (a.k.a. Wood Tick) and the Black-legged Tick (a.k.a Deer Tick). It is the latter species that is the prime vector of the spirochete which causes Lyme Disease. I have written several blog posts on Lyme Disease, specifically related to my several experiences with it. The most informative one can be read here.

Deer Tick

Ticks thrive where there are high populations of their deer and mice hosts. The blood meal, which is critical for the development of both nymph and adult ticks, is readily available from each of those mammal species when the host populations are high.  Also, where there is a dense stand of barberry, the relative humidity remains higher, which is also beneficial for the ticks.

It takes ticks two years to reach the adult stage when they will produce young. It is interesting to note that two years following a year of mast production of the acorns and seeds mentioned at the outset of this post, there is a greater abundance of ticks.

In simplistic terms, now that the billion or so PAPI are long gone, a high production of acorns and beech nuts attracts greater numbers of deer and mice. Mice are predominant hosts to the nymphal stage of the ticks, and deer are hosts to the adult stage of the ticks. So two years after the mast year, are more ticks, and the greater the chance of encountering a tick capable of transmitting Lyme Disease!

On a related note, I have read where in rural areas, free-range chickens, guinea fowl etc, are great at controlling ticks in their immediate area. It is possible that Wild Turkeys have a similar effect, as they feed on numerous small vertebrates and invertebrates alike. Wild Turkeys were extirpated from southwestern Ontario many decades ago, but beginning in 1984 were successfully re-introduced in several areas of the province. A decade or so after their initial re-introduction, saw Wild Turkeys move in to Rondeau Provincial Park, and they seem to be doing well. Perhaps they will help control ticks in areas of the park that they spend much of their time in.

 There are many sources of information on parts of what I have written. Some of the more useful references I found and used include:

1. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/3-billion-to-zero-what-happened-to-the-passenger-pigeon/
2.  https://mnfi.anr.msu.edu/invasive-species/JapaneseBarberryBCP.pdf
3. http://omnilearn.net/esacourse/pdfs/lyme_disease.pdf

The last one was particularly interesting, and is a pdf of an article that appeared in Birding magazine several years ago, entitled "Passenger Pigeons, Lyme Disease and Us: the unintended consequences of the death of a species" by David E. Blockstein. I couldn't find the article in the Birding archives, but managed to locate it via this online source.