This is post #600 of my blog: Nature Nuggets. Little did I know at the time back in early 2014, how this would unfold. Thanks to many readers, I find doing this highly satisfying.
It is a great time to be out exploring, with camera in hand, of course.
The local sewage lagoons have been productive, especially for shorebirds, although things have tapered off in the last 3 days or so. But there has been a good variety continuing to show, such as the following:
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American Avocet
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Baird's Sandpiper
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Typically lots of this next one, a Lesser Yellowlegs....
....and always at least a few Pectoral Sandpipers.
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Short-billed Dowitcher
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A highlight for at least a couple of days, was this young Willet, a species that breeds a fair way to the west of us here.
Not a shorebird, obviously, but a hunter of shorebirds. From one to three Peregrine Falcons have been seen swooping and diving after shorebirds. This young Peregrine one was a fair distance away, but hovered briefly, allowing me to get this shot.
At Rondeau, there are lots of birds moving through, although they are hard to photograph with the dappled/contrasty light, and lots of leaves.
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Northern Parula
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Philadelphia Vireo
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I also saw almost a dozen White-throated Sparrows, the first ones I had seen this late summer. In pretty short order, they will be one of the most common migrants passing through.
In my previous post, I showed some close-ups of the Autumn Coralroot. Here is an overall view, showing how obscure this little orchid really is! It is about 15 cm tall and in full flower.
In the past few days, Great Plain's Ladies'-tresses are showing up in various grassy places at Rondeau.
The flower spikes have a spicy vanilla fragrance, and the centres of each flower shows a creamy colouration.
I always like seeing a young White Pine seedling make an appearance. Will this one survive to maturity, or will it become nutrition for a White-tailed Deer?
I have been to Clear Creek Forest Prov Park a couple of times, partly to look for a very rare butterfly (Marine Blue) that had been seen, but partly just because the open meadows are great for butterflies and the quiet woods of this old growth type forest is just so inspiring.
I didn't find the rare butterfly, but there was a good variety of more typical ones, including, Common Buckeye, which were actually common.....
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Common Ringlet
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Common Wood-Nymph
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This next one, an Eastern Tailed Blue, was as close as I could get to the Marine Blue.
I was pleased to find at least a couple Great Spangled Fritillary busily feeding on various sunflower types.
Viceroys were fairly common. In fact they outnumbered the similar looking Monarchs.
The couple of Monarchs that I did encounter liked the Teasel...
...as did the Orange Sulphurs.
Red Admirals were very few, at least of what I saw.
I only saw this single Silver Spotted Skipper, but there were likely more.
As I was walking through the open meadow, I noticed this dead tree full of roosting Turkey Vultures. They have been gathering and migrating southwesterly, and the local hawk watch sites have reported them in increasing numbers over the last few days. There are tens of thousands on their way!
In other news, last night I had the black light on in the back yard. Most things I got were fairly typical, but I'm glad I paid a little more attention to this one. It is a Coffee-loving Pyrausta, and is the second one I have had come to the lights in my yard. The first one was back in August, 2020, and at the time it was the first record on iNaturalist, and the first record for Canada. Since then, it has been found in a small number of places elsewhere in Ontario, and someone who was digging through their old moth photos, posted one that was photographed near Leamington back in 2017.
This morning, while enjoying my second cup of coffee in the back yard with Marie, I saw this butterfly come in. I got a quick look, then went and grabbed my camera but it disappeared. Fortunately it came back and I managed to get a couple of photos. It is Horace's Duskywing, a late summer migrant from the south. According to iNat, it is the first record for Chatham-Kent, with only a handful of other records in southwestern Ontario. Most are in Essex Co, with a single record in north Lambton and a couple in the Toronto area.
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