Odes, wildflowers and a couple of uncommon birds

I haven't done a lot of birding, per se, lately as other than shorebirds, there isn't a lot happening in the bird realm these days. But that will change very soon. There are numerous other things to enjoy, and on several occasions I've been out looking for orchids and dragonflies for example.

On one occasion a few days ago, I spent several hours checking on a couple of orchids that are at Rondeau: Small Green Wood Orchid and Nodding Pogonia. I thought it was just a bit early for both of them and sure enough, neither were in flower at the time. They are now, and more on that in the next post I expect.

I did see a few other plants of interest while I was out, including:

Monkey Flower

Fringed Loosestrife

 This next one is Red Mulberry, an Endangered species in Ontario and Canada. The best populations are found at Rondeau, Point Pelee, Fish Point on Pelee Island, and in the Hamilton area. There are at least 15 good quality trees of Red Mulberry at Rondeau, and once in awhile a new one or two are discovered. I say "good quality" because it can hybridize with the non-native White Mulberry, which degrades the genetics of this overall declining species.

 I actually did find an orchid in flower, but not one of the ones I was hoping for. It is Helleborine (Epipactis helleborine). It is not a species native to North America, however. Regardless, it is found frequently but scattered in woodland situations as well as many other habitats.

I spent some time checking out a few waterways and other wetland areas. The old gravel pits at Clear Creek Forest Provincial Park are always interesting, especially for dragonflies. I had been hoping to get a look at a Comet Darner which others have seen. Burg Birder (Blake Mann) posted a photo of one on his blog a couple of weeks ago. And I did get a look through the binoculars as one or two were well out over the water patrolling the area. They never seemed to land anywhere, nor did they come very close. My attempts at a photo were far from satisfactory, but given the size and colour combination, even such a poor photo as this is still fairly identifiable.

 Others were quite a bit more cooperative.

Eastern Pondhawk

Widow Skimmer

Other places I wanted to check out were a couple of places where the road crosses over the Sydenham River. This river is well known for its superb diversity of mussels due to water quality, especially compared to the Thames River. So one of the places that I often check along the Sydenham is the Dawn Mills Road crossing. I saw a few American Rubyspots and a few other dragonflies and damselflies, but none were very close and the river bank was rather slippery. I didn't want to get very adventurous while carrying camera equipment, so I decided to go to the village of Florence, which straddles the county line between Lambton and Chatham-Kent. The best access to the river is at the corner, in C-K. And the odes were quite close by.

American Rubyspot (male)

Am Rubyspot (female)

 In another week or two, I intend to check here for the much rarer Smoky Rubyspot.

A species of Dancer (Argia sp)

Blue-fronted Dancer

A species of Bluet, I think

 A damselfly that is fairly common in places, and always catches my eye, is the Ebony Jewelwing, with its large black wings and shimmering green body

 I came across this Black-shouldered Spinyleg; it is the first time I've managed a photo.

 While I was cautiously approaching the various odes this Green Frog swam right up to me.

 The Sydenham River is also known for its large populations of an uncommon plant species, called Lizard's-tail. This next photo shows a very large patch of Lizard's-tail just upstream from the bridge at Florence and there must be hundreds of stems here. A slightly smaller patch was across the river from my access point, and I could see additional patches farther down stream. If one had a kayak and could cover a lot of the river, I expect there would be thousands and thousands of stems of this uncommon plant.

 The appearance of its flower is how it got its name, not surprisingly.

The last few days haven't been entirely devoid of interesting birds, however. I came across two Yellow-headed Blackbirds at the Mitchell's Bay park. The species nests in some of the cattail islands about a kilometre out in the lake at Mitchell's Bay. Earlier in the year adults can be seen foraging at various locations around Mitchell's Bay. Now that the nesting season is over, adults and young-of-the-year can be seen. This is likely a young male. The other one I saw was an adult female, but I didn't get a decent photo of it.

 Finally, I had been out at the Tilbury Sewage Lagoons about 10 days ago, doing a shorebird survey. The shorebirds were few and far between, so I had to be satisfied with this American White Pelican. Since the species is now nesting on some of the islands in the western basin of Lake Erie, they are more often seen at various points along the north shore than they used to be. I think this is the first record for these lagoons.