Late Season Orchids, Butterflies, and some Waterbirds

 Summer may be over, but the last couple of weeks of it and first bit of autumn is still a great time to be out looking at things.

A diminutive orchid I always try and find is the Autumn Coralroot. It is considered an Ontario and Canadian rarity, although that may be partially because it is so hard to find even when you know about where it is. It seldom grows more than 15cm (6") tall, and the flowers, if they open up at all, are droopy.

Another late season orchid is the Great Plain's Ladies'-tresses. It is quite restricted in its Ontario range, and is considered Vulnerable in Canada. It is one of the latest blooming of our native orchids. Only one species, much rarer, normally is in flower later than this species. Sometimes there is an obvious spiral to the rows of flowers, but not always. However the inside of the lip almost always shows a slight yellowish tinge, and when the plants are in peak flower, emit a fragrance that some have likened to a sort of vanilla. I sometimes think it is closer to the scent of a type of hot plastic! At any rate, it is quite distinctive, and on occasion it can be so prevalent that I can smell them before I see them.

I was at Rondeau yesterday, not specifically looking for birds, although I did see a smattering of warblers and others, as well as a lot of Blue Jays. They have been migrating in huge numbers this season. One of the hawkwatch observation points southwest of here, has reported tallying around 400,000 flying by so far. The thought is that since the food source farther north is limited, the birds are getting out of the country to where food is more plentiful.

I saw a good variety of butterflies, and most were in quite fresh condition.

Question Mark

This Common Buckeye is looking quite fresh. I have seen quite a few of this species in the last few weeks, but most are tattered and worn, since they likely arrived as a result of southerly winds. They are generally considered migrants from the south, but there are a few records of breeding in southwestern Ontario. Perhaps the reason this one is so fresh looking is due to a local breeding event?

Common Buckeye

Eastern Comma

The Eastern Comma above is in its overwintering form, given the relatively light colour of the hind wing. This next image is also of an Eastern Comma taken a few weeks ago, but it has a darker hind wing, indicating its summer form, which fits its rather faded and worn appearance.

There are still a few non-orchid species in good flowering condition along the trails of Rondeau.

Blue-stemmed Goldenrod

Bottle Gentian

This next one isn't a flowering plant per se, but a rare fern called Broad Beech Fern.

Do you recognize the seed pods here?

The shape and habitat (sandy open areas) are clues to it being that of the colourful Butterfly Milkweed.

Butterfly Milkweed

Spotted Jewelweed

Great Lobelia

Pale Jewelweed

Rattlesnake Root

Hairy Goldenrod

The dampness of late summer brings on the fruiting bodies of fungi, such as this colourful Russula species.

There are still lots of waterbirds around. I saw several Black-bellied Plover at Erieau a short time ago. It always helps to know for sure when one raises its wing to show the black feathered 'armpits' characteristic of this species.

Sanderlings are quite regularly seen.....

.....as is the all too common Double-crested Cormorant. If they just weren't so abundant and messy at times, one could consider them a nice bird to see!

I've stopped at Keith McLean CA a couple of times to see if I can catch up to the Nelson's Sparrows that have been reported. So far I've been unsuccessful, as have many others. They are furtive at best. Hopefully they stick around for a few more days like they have done in past years. So without seeing the Nelson's Sparrow, I took solace in enjoying a few of the other birds that come and go.

Dunlin numbers are starting to build, and as one of the later shorebird species to migrate through, I expect there will be lots of them over the next few weeks.

Semiplamated Plovers, on the other hand, probably won't be around much longer.....

...and the two or three Great Egrets that have been enjoying the shallow flooded fields here for many of the past few weeks, will likely be harder to find before long.

Pied-billed Grebes are still plentiful, with typically a dozen or more around. This one is checking me out as I photograph him/her.

There are lots of those aerial garbage cleaners passing through, feasting on washed up fish/cormorants/gulls/ducks/whatever.

One of the recent highlights was to catch up to this Whimbrel, along the Rondeau shoreline just south of the Dog Beach Access. Whimbrel are not often seen in the autumn, so to have this juvenile bird hanging around for a week or two is unusual. It is by itself, and is quite tolerant of humans. Presumably because it is a young bird, it has had little or no contact with humans until it arrived here, so as long as viewers do not threaten it, it carries on without any fear, it seems. Although I did have my 100-400mm lens on, at one point as I squatted down to be less intimidating, I had to zoom back to only 125mm in order to get the bird in the frame!

Some recent bird and butterfly highlights in Chatham-Kent

I've got some catching up to do.

It was a couple of weeks ago (was it really that long??) when a Red-necked Phalarope showed up at the Blenheim Sewage Lagoons. It was a distant view, so the photo isn't the greatest, but at least the light was good. Interestingly, while this species is not often seen in Chatham-Kent even on its southward migration, there have been several reports of them along the Lake Erie shoreline at Rondeau in the last few days.

While the Blenheim lagoons haven't had the attention it had when the Purple Gallinule was present for a few days, other spots in CK have picked up the slack.

I was contacted by a friend about a Cattle Egret that showed up at their place. I went out almost immediately in hopes that this uncommon visitor was still around. Some years the species is regularly seen in a number of places in southern Ontario, but not 2020. In fact in checking eBird at the time, this was the first Ontario report on that database for the whole year! Unfortunately, it occurred on private property and well away from any publicly accessible location, so I was unable to post about it anywhere. As far as I am aware, it was only seen by one other birder very briefly at a nearby spot.

I was treated to some great views, and photo ops of this bird. Most of the time it was busily searching the wet grassy areas for something to eat. Normally it eats grasshoppers and other insects stirred up by the presence of livestock in a pasture.

On this occasion, it came across a frog, probably a Green Frog, and promptly grabbed on to it.

It wrestled with it for several minutes, trying to get it in the right position in which to swallow it, which it eventually did as the second photo following shows.

It posed nicely at times. 

 On another occasion, I went to the Mitchell's Bay North Shore Trail. It has been officially closed since last fall, due to some repair work required along the ARDA dyke. As far as I can tell, the repair work has not been completed, so that part of the trail remains closed. However the part of the trail that goes to another part of the wetland area is accessible, and is usually worth a look.

It was getting a bit late in the season for Swamp Rose Mallow to be in flower, but there was one plant still hanging on to a flower. It is a Species At Risk.

Pokeweed was in flower, and will soon have juicy looking dark blue berries. Birds love them, and as delicious as they might look to the human eye, they are not edible, and even considered poisonous.

There were numerous wildflowers along the trail, many of them being tallgrass prairie types. Here is a day-flying moth known as Corn Earworm, feeding on this flower. Some of you probably knew I would get a moth photo somewhere in this post :-).

A Common Buckeye was along the gravel trail.

There was a lot of Missouri Ironweed along the trail, much of it still in flower. This Orange Sulphur butterfly was busily sipping on the nectar....

.....while this Bronze Copper was visiting a Canada Thistle.

In the wetland channels nearby there was at least one Great Egret. Since they nest at Walpole Island which is in sight of this vantage point, egrets are a regular occurrence here.

Caspian Terns are gathering in the lower Great Lakes, and there were several dozen in the area.

I also took time to roam around St. Clair NWA. Birds were not plentiful in view at the time of my visit, but there were other things of interest. Again, there was a variety of prairie wildflowers along the trail, although not all are native to Ontario. Nonetheless, they are attractive to the human eye, and likely to some of the native critters. This Whorled Coreopsis, easily identified by its finely dissected leaves, was in fine shape, scattered along the trail.

Pied-billed Grebes were often seen, sometimes quite close-up.

An Osprey, sometimes known as a Fish Hawk as they dine almost entirely on fish, are passing through the area. I am not aware of any nests of this species in Chatham-Kent, although there is one or two possible suspects along a quiet and inaccessible area along the Lake Erie shoreline.

The sky was bland, making photography a challenge.

I had an interesting observation along the trail. I was watching and following a couple of butterflies: Common Buckeye and Viceroy. The Viceroy was fairly cooperative, but kept on the move.

At one point it took a brief rest on an overhanging flower head of Phragmites. As I approached it to get a better shot, it fluttered down and landed on the gravel path. Or I should say it almost landed.

Just as it set down, I noted it flutter its wings rapidly and try and escape something. It was then that I noticed a Leopard Frog on the path, and it had grabbed onto the Viceroy's wing. The butterfly did escape after a few seconds, and as I approached the frog, I saw a bit of the Viceroy's wing still clenched in the mouth of the frog.

Fast forward to today. Marie and I went out to Rondeau, but first swung by the Morpeth Cliffs where, depending on the wind direction, it can be a good observation point to watch migrating raptors. The best winds are from the northwest to the northeast. But by the time we got there, they were much more to straight on east, so raptors were likely passing through the area a little farther inland. I did see an adult Bald Eagle well inland, but too far for a photo. There were a few Turkey Vultures floating back and forth. The highlight was this immature Bald Eagle which soared right over head, back and forth for a few minutes before eventually disappearing to the west. The bright blue sky made it a whole lot better result than for the Osprey above.

While at Rondeau a little later, I got a couple of messages about a Cinnamon Teal at Keith McLean Conservation Area. So off we headed, arriving just in time to get a few glimpses of it well out on the far pond area, mixed in with both Blue and Green-winged Teal, and often obscured by quite a few Canada Geese. I tried a few photos, but due to the distance and heat haze, was not able to get anything worthwhile. But at least I have the memories.

Much more cooperative was a Great Egret, a regularly occurring species at this place.

We also noticed this Search and Rescue plane flying repeatedly along the shoreline of Lake Erie, sometimes going out and almost out of view. It seemed to be going in a pattern, and undoubtedly was assisting in the search for a missing boater who went out in a small sailboat from Port Glasgow a couple of days ago. The capsized boat has been found, but so far, no sign of the boater, unfortunately, so it undoubtedly will be a sad ending.