Something I have taken a lichen to

 The winter season, when plants are not flowering, birds are not nesting, butterflies are not present, etc., is no better time to take advantage of exploring another group of organisms. Lichens! They are everywhere! Indeed many surfaces exposed to the out-of-doors will have some form of lichen on them, anything from tree trunks and branches, to stones, to building materials, steel posts, etc, if they are out long enough.

I admit that back in my university days, the topic of lichens came up in some botanically related courses, but that was many decades ago! And is spite of my interest in the natural world, I haven't given them a lot of thought over the years. Sure, I knew they were out there, and glanced at them from time to time, but never gave them their due.

Over the past couple of months, I have sometimes purposely left my telephoto lens in the vehicle, and taken my camera with macro lens and flash, to look for lichens.

Here are a few:

Candleflame Lichen

Cinder Lichen

Common Dusk Lichen

These next two are the same, known as Common Greenshield Lichen. Individual lichens can vary, due to the relationship between the fungus and alga.

This next one is the same kind as the one at the top, known as Common Script Lichen, quite an appropriate name in my opinion.

Eastern Speckled Shield Lichen

Lichens are not parasitic on the tree or whatever they are growing on. They are just using it as a surface to attach to. And technically they are not plants in the normal sense.

There can be several kinds on the same surface as shown in the next two photos. Some tree trunks are quite covered with spreading masses of lichen.

In other situations, there may be multiple 'individual' lichens scattered on the trunk.

Mapledust Lichen

New York Scalewort

Orange-cored Shadow Lichen

Powder-tipped Shadow Lichen

Powdery Goldspeck

Rim Lichen

Rough Speckled Shield Lichen

In spite of the overall abundance of lichens, of which there are supposedly around 20,000 species around the world, some are considered rare. This next one, shown in both photos, is called Speckled Blister Lichen, and according to the Natural Heritage Information Centre which keeps track of rare species in Ontario, it is rare in the province. In Canada, it is most abundant in Ontario, but does occur in provinces to the east. While I have photographed it several times at Rondeau, I have so far only found it along one trail. Like many lichens, its appearance can vary.

I am fairly confident that most of the lichens featured above are properly identified. Speckled Blister Lichen, of which I posted several photos on iNaturalist, were all confirmed by lichen experts. INaturalist was certainly helpful overall for that one and others. However there are some which may not be yet correctly identified, so there may be updates!

While looking for lichens, I come across other things that get my attention, but are not lichens. Some fungus can look surprisingly lichen-like. This first one is Ceramic Parchment, a fungus, as are the following two.

Ceramic Parchment close-up

Rosy Crust

Milk-white Toothed Polyphore

And finally, this one is apparently a member of the algae.

Orange Rock Hair

The world of nature is full of fascinating elements. I used to have the following statement as the trailer on my work email: "The more you know, the more you realize you don't know." It is nice to know one can never run out of things to learn about in nature! While I haven't explained a lot about lichens in this post due to my overall limited understanding of them, Wikipedia has a fascinating description of the complexity of lichens. Their ecological role in the natural world is incredible. If you want to learn more, check it out here.

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Whoopee....a Whooper!

 In the last few days, a Whooper Swan has been seen in the Rondeau Bay/Erieau area. It is the first time one has ever been seen in Rondeau checklist area, or even in Chatham-Kent as far as I know. However why it did get a bit of attention with local birders, birders from afar did not pay it much attention. The reason? It is likely an escapee from someone's waterfowl collection.

The Whooper Swan is a very large swan, native primarily to northern Europe and Asia. While there are occasionally legitimately wild records of birds in western North America, the fact that it is a sometimes popular swan for captive waterfowl enthusiasts to have in their collections, sometimes birds escape captivity and can show up in the area where they escaped from.

I am not aware first hand of who in the region has a few captive waterfowl, but I do know there are some, and there have been a few records of this species in wild areas across southern Ontario in the past. All have been treated as escapees. (Update: Mystery solved.....apparently a local fun park with various waterfowl recently had three of their Whoopers get spooked, and one headed in the direction where this bird showed up.)

Here is a size comparison with a Canada Goose, which looks fairly small beside it.

There is no question that a Whooper is an impressive bird, not only for its size. The all-white bird along with its massive mostly yellow bill, accented with a nice bit of black, makes it really stand out. A Bewick's swan, which is the European version of a Tundra Swan, also has a fair bit of yellow on its bill, but nowhere near as much or in the same configuration as a Whooper has.

The bird can obviously fly, since it has been seen in several areas in the vicinity of Erieau along the shoreline of Rondeau Bay, as well as a road-side pond north of Erieau where I got these photos. I am sure the bird did not leave one favourable body of water and walk across fields to get to this much smaller pond. Most owners of captive waterfowl will clip a birds wings, so they are unable to fly. There were no wing tags or leg bands either.

Regardless of its origin, it is nice to see it especially at this time of year when birds are not as abundant as they (hopefully!) will be in a few weeks time.

Just for a general comparison, here are a couple of photos of another exotic swan that has become quite abundant in the wild. It is the Mute Swan which is not native to North America but was released in the wild many decades ago due to its popularity in Europe. It is about the same size, but has a quite different and distinctive bill.

Smaller than both of the preceding species is our native Tundra Swan. It will migrate through southern Ontario by the thousands, and as is often the case, may spend the winter here if there is enough open water.

 A larger, native swan that is about the same size as the Mute is Trumpeter Swan, at one time totally eliminated from southern Ontario but re-established in south central Ontario a few decades ago. It is gradually becoming a bit more regular in its former Ontario range.

Moving on from swans, I have noted a few other things in my travels. For example another white species of waterfowl, is Snow Goose. There were several at the St. Clair National Wildlife Area. I think they have been in the region all winter, but aren't always seen.

They are usually mixed in with the Canada Goose population, and this next photo includes a blue phase Snow Goose, seen at the middle back.

Sticking with a bit of a white theme, Snowy Owls have been mostly noticeable by their absence this year, at least compared to last year. I hadn't seen one since December, but finally saw one the other day. It was on a pile of rubble, which had lots of grasses to partially hide it from a distance.

I managed to maneuver the vehicle slowly to where I could get a relatively clear photo of the bird.

Not far away from the Snowy, I glanced at a Wood Duck box along another road, and saw this Eastern Screech Owl peering out. I have checked this box a few times before, but never seen it occupied until this time.

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Barred Owl continues, plus hints of spring

The Barred Owl that has been at Shrewsbury since late December or earlier, continues to hang around. It does move around the village regularly, but always seems to find a roost to spend the day time hours. This, of course, makes it a real challenge for birders looking for it and basing their search on where it was seen the day before. Especially frustrating if one comes from a distance, and keeps striking out, which has happened in at least a few cases.

I was out a few days ago, and with quite up-to-date information on where to find it, was successful. I was able to approach it carefully and quietly with a long telephoto lens. While the owl saw me it did not seem to be all that concerned.

In the few minutes I was there, it spent most of its time with its eyes closed, apparently unconcerned and even ignoring me. That was fine with me, I was not offended in the least :-).

With the above normal temperatures lately, even shorebirds are starting to appear. There have been up to 3 Killdeer seen regularly along the Erieau Marsh/Rail Trail. It is possible that they never left, but if so, where were they over the last couple of months as they were not reported at any of the usual birding spots by birders out and about in various places. At any rate they seem to be predictable at this location. This first one was one of three seen on Feb 8.

I was out again today (Feb 16) and saw at least three.

Interestingly another shorebird, a Lesser Yellowlegs, was photographed in a slightly flooded field in the area, beside McGeachy Pond, just yesterday. Given the warm temperatures, up to about 15C, one might expect birds to be confused and tempted to get moving. I checked the area today, but as is often the case, the bit of water in the field yesterday, was pretty much gone today. There were other ponded areas, but I did not come across the bird. Perhaps it got a little concerned in the past 24 hours as the temperature had changed considerably, as did the wind direction, and it might have headed back a little farther south. I had one at the foot of Rondeau Bay back on Feb 27, 2017, but this one certainly has eclipsed that previously earliest date.

Regular readers will notice my mention of lots of Bald Eagles as of late. That continues, with numerous sub-adult birds frequenting the area. They are always fun to photograph. I haven't got tired of them yet when they cooperate.

The adults are paired up, and hanging out in their territory. This pair was in the Shrewsbury area, and there are two nests within 2-3 kilometres of where this pair was seen, so it is likely from one of those territories unless there is another territory I have yet to discover.

While it takes 5 years for a Bald Eagle to attain fully adult plumage, with both a white head and tail, sometimes slightly younger birds will mate if there is territory available. I came across this sub-adult checking out the nest seen from along the west South Point Trail at Rondeau a few days ago. Unless one of the adults that occupied this territory in previous years has met its demise, I expect this particular bird was just checking out the nest, maybe getting some ideas of what it had to put together in a future year.

A new nesting pair has shown up in the Keith McLean Conservation Lands area. Perhaps it is the pair that showed interest last year in the nesting platform that is quite visible along the trail at that conservation area, but maybe felt a little too exposed with the many birders and hikers exploring the area? At any rate, this nest is considerably more secluded. In fact I estimated I was at least 800 metres from the nest when I got this highly cropped fuzzy foto, and that was from about as close as the official trail goes. In scanning around, it was the white head that first got my attention, otherwise I probably would have missed it.

I have checked some of the other nests that I know about in southern Chatham-Kent, and often see an adult perched on the side of the nest or on a branch very close by. Late February is very typical of the beginning of nest occupancy, so if you get a chance to see a nest, take a closer look to see if there is the white head of an adult in a position that indicates it is incubating one or more eggs.

Certainly not an indicator of spring, but while checking out the Clear Creek Forest Prov Park area a few days ago, I saw this Rough-legged Hawk soaring over the grassy field. It is normally a wintering species, although they have been very few and far between this winter. Some will linger, or be late spring migrants, as on one occasion several years ago, I and another birder had one at Rondeau in very early June!

While there was still ice on Rondeau Bay, a swan of some type was caught in the ice, or died and remained there. A young Northern Harrier, found it worthwhile to dine on.

A few days later I saw this young Northern Harrier, possibly even the same bird as it was only about a kilometre away from the previous spot, perched at the top of this evergreen shrub at the KMCL.

The water treatment outlet on the Thames River in Chatham was not a productive spot to see much diversity of waterfowl this year, unless one is content with Canada Geese, Mallards and American Black Ducks. The only other species of waterfowl I saw this winter, so far, was a single Green-winged Teal. But I partially satisfied my photographic urges when there, focusing on the Mallards and Am Black Ducks. The latter species used to be the more abundant of the two species here in the east, if you go back far enough to before settlement opened up the landscape. Here is a pair of MALL, with the female in the foreground and a male in the background.

Next is a pair of ABDU, with the male in the foreground.

And here is a comparison of a male ABDU in the foreground and a female  MALL in the background.

Unless there is a major return to winter over the next few weeks, I don't expect this water treatment outlet to be a place to see much until next winter!

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