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.