Nesting season begins, as do some spring wildflowers

 Nesting season is upon us. Of course Bald Eagles and Great Horned Owls usually are at some beginning stage of their nesting season by mid-March or even late February. I have seen eagles on their nests, presumably incubating, in at least three different sites over the last several weeks. However perhaps the biggest surprise this year is the arrival and the nest-building of a species that has never nested in Chatham-Kent that we know of, and in fact has seldom even been seen here. It is the Black-billed Magpie, as shown in the header photo and what follows.

This pair was noted almost two weeks ago, at a residence just north of Shrewsbury. I have no idea how long one or the other had been in C-K, although there was one seen and photographed a bit earlier at the NE corner of Rondeau Bay. But for some reason, this pair came along and decided a residence near the corner of Fargo Road and Bisnett Line was the place for them. They normally live in and nest in open areas, and this site met those conditions.

Normally the magpies are a mid to far western species in Canada, although a small number occur in northwestern Ontario, specifically in the Rainy River/Lake-of-the Woods area. There was one or more birds seen in Elgin and Middlesex Co last year. But here they are.

On the occasion when I saw them, they were out in the field opposite the residence, either foraging for food or looking for nesting material. There have been many folks stopping by and watching them, and some have seen the birds carrying nesting material to the upper part of a tall spruce tree. Of course this nesting activity will be closely monitored over the next several weeks to see what happens, so stay tuned. It is definitely an interesting addition to the current Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas, now entering its 4th year.

On one of the warmer and sunnier days in the last week or so, I went to Rondeau doing one of my normal things, just to meander around to see what I could find. There hadn't been a lot of new bird arrivals, but Turkey Vultures are becoming more and more visible. As is sometimes the case, several decades ago it was rather unusual to see a Turkey Vulture in C-K, but nowadays, it is a common occurrence. Even this early in the season there are a few floating around.

Killdeer are getting paired up, and hanging around a likely nesting location.

On one of the sunnier, but not necessarily the warmest of days, Wood Frogs could be heard in some of the larger and more open sloughs. Wood Frogs are about the earliest amphibian to be heard.

On one occasion as I was walking the east South Point Trail, I came across this view. At the big S bend, where the former camp office was located in the 1960s and 1970s, the former road came close to the shoreline of the lake. With the regular east and southeast winds, the erosion has continued to the point where the road, and more recently not much more than a hiking/biking trail, is almost gone right here.

looking west

same vantage point, looking north

The concrete vault that is the remains of the washroom which was part of the camp office, has been seen close to the shoreline for several years. Now, as shown in the photo above, it is well away from the shoreline.

As shorelines of sandspits such as Rondeau regularly undergo changes, it is hard to say what to expect at this point in the near future.

On another occasion I went out to Clear Creek Forest Prov Park in eastern C-K. I was looking in part, for lichens (more on that in a future post), but also wanted to see if any spring wildflowers were showing. It was a bit early, I knew, but with the weather being what is has been, and that the park is a little more inland than Rondeau which results in the earlier showing of plants, I thought it was worth checking out. I saw a few things like Cut-leaved Toothwort and Yellow Trout-lily showing some development, but none in flower. However a really early spring wildflower was well along: it is the Eastern Skunk Cabbage.

When it first appears, even sometimes through the layer of snow, it will show the dark 'spathe' which is where one will find the developing flowers. Older spathes are quite dark in appearance, but younger ones apparently have more of a greenish tinge. The ones I saw were mostly older ones.

Flower developing inside the spathe

Unlike most wildflowers, the relatively large and vividly green leaves develop well after the flowering parts of the plant, and at this point are quite visible even from a little distance. The next two photos were taken in a previous year, as they are not anywhere close to this stage yet.

The leaves are quite a bit taller than the spathe, shown next.

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A well-known friend of nature has passed.

 You may or may not be familiar with Newport Forest. It is an area, formerly of mixed forest, steep creek systems, and former agricultural fields,adjacent to the Thames River in Elgin County and an extension of the Skunk's Misery Area of Natural and Scientific Interest. It is about 110 acres in area. It was acquired by Kee and Pat Dewdney in 2000. While Kee was a university professor who specialized in computer science and related subjects, and was on the faculty at Western as well as U of Waterloo, he and Pat always had a special interest in the natural world, which resulted in their purchase of this property.

I first met them in about 2000 as they assisted with part of the Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas in Chatham-Kent. I was invited to Newport Forest to enjoy the spectacular displays of Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia virginica), which was the first time I had seen this species in Ontario. It was almost overwhelming and of course I took a number of photos.

Over the years, I visited the Dewdneys at Newport Forest, and always came away amazed at the condition and diversity of the site as well as their absolute love and commitment to doing what was right for Newport. Kee had a passion for documenting as many different elements of the biota as he could. For example he would do net sweeps of the vegetation, trying to capture as many little creatures as possible. And over the years he would invite specialists that he knew to help document things in their area of specialty, which included the late Jane Bowles of Western University for her botanical expertise, Steve Marshall of U of Guelph for his invertebrate expertise and Greg Thorn of Western University for his expertise on fungus, as well as many other folks with varying types of expertise/interests in the natural world. Which is why Kee and I had some conversations about moth nights to document as many of those night-time critters as we could attract to our black lights. Not that I am an expert in the field of moths, but certainly have an avid interest and have done black lighting at various quality natural areas to see what will come to the lights. And so since 2018, we typically had one or two moth nights a year and a small number of other interested folks joined us. 

I don't have the total number of moth species that we captured on digital film handy. I let Kee keep the running total. But there were several hundred over the years (on one particularly productive night we had 105 species come to our lights in about a 3-hour period) plus dozens and dozens of non-moth critters such as beetles, leafhoppers and such. With the vegetation diversity of Newport Forest, I would not be surprised if there were a thousand or more species of moths, so we had lots more to try and find/photograph.

What follows are some of the more exciting/vivid moths that we were able to photograph:

Abbreviated Button-Slug

Beautiful Wood-Nymph

Canadian Petrophila

This next one is a species of Underwing moth, easily told when its wings are at least partially spread exposing the distinctive underwing pattern and may be the same as the one that follows.

Charming Underwing

Dimorphic Eulithis

Faint-spotted Palthis (rare)

Glorious Habrosyne (rare)

Gold Moth

Harris's Three-spot

IO Moth

Johnson's Euchlaena

Lappet Moth

Northern Burdock Borer

Polyphemus Moth

The Saw-wing

Yellow-shouldered Slug Moth

Eventually Kee and Pat began the process of gifting Newport Forest to the Thames Talbot Land Trust, an excellent organization with involvement in a lot of quality natural areas. You can read more about Newport Forest on the TTLT web site, following this link.

I should also mention that over the years, Kee put out many bulletins that interested folks could subscribe to. The bulletins highlighted what he and others found as a result of the regular forays onto the property at various times of the year. He also had a wildlife camera in place, to document critters that came through along the trail. Some of those images were shared in his bulletin, along with things he found as a result of his numerous vegetation sweeps with his net. Overall, it was quite the undertaking!

Pat passed away in 2020, and sadly, Kee passed away just a week ago, on March 9, 2024. His obituary can be found here.

There has already been some very early thought given to continuing with a future moth night or two at Newport Forest to honour the vision and contributions to nature that Kee and Pat had.

Rest in Peace, Kee. 

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The season is getting noisier, and busier!

 As the days go by, it is definitely becoming more spring-like in the world of nature. Butterflies are more evident, as I saw several of these Eastern Commas flitting about on a sunny, warm day recently. Some paused long enough to land and soak up a bit of sun, so I managed to get a few photos.

The trails sometimes had amphibians out and about. I saw half a dozen of these out on the Rondeau Marsh Trail a short time ago.

Leopard Frog

Killdeer are showing up in increasing numbers. I saw at least 7 along the Erieau Marsh Trail. It is possible that due to the mild winter weather, some may never have left, but they are more abundant now than during winter, such as it was.

Red-winged Blackbirds are quite abundant anywhere there are wetlands...

....they are often singing, as only Red-wings can sing, clearly trying to establish territories. I have seen them in conflict with other males fairly frequently.

Sandhill Cranes are more frequently seen now, but more often heard first. I had at least 7 along the Rondeau Marsh Trail, some of which were paired up, and making themselves heard.

Even though this is a pair, take a closer look at the one on the right. It is missing its right eye, but other than that, seemed to be acting and sounding quite normally.

American Robins are increasingly abundant, and they provide easy targets for the photographer. Mostly the males at this point, although I think I have seen the occasional female.

Northern Cardinals are more apt to be singing, although often they are partially obscured in a coniferous tree or some other tangle making it hard to photograph them.

Almost all of the waterfowl species are back, and getting paired up. With so much open water, many of them are not often in good photo range, but these three Northern Shovelers cooperated reasonably well.

Some waterfowl are becoming notable by their absence. There are very few Tundra Swans around now, as most have begun their northward journey.

Pileated Woodpeckers can be more often heard these days, as their distinctive drum roll tapping becomes apparent as they re-affirm their territories, which presumably were much more flexible over the winter. It won't be long before they are getting down to some serious egg-laying!

Red-bellied Woodpecker, another year-round resident, can be found more easily.

Wild Turkeys have been harder to find lately. Of course up until there was an Ontario re-introduction program established in about 1984, they were impossible to find. But after 1984, the population in Ontario expanded rather nicely. However in the last few years, they are less frequently seen in fields or at the edges of wooded areas. I suspect it is partly because the warm dry weather last autumn allowed many landowners to till the soil rather than leave it in stubble that the turkeys would forage in. I also suspect that the increase in coyotes over the years has taken its toll on the turkeys and their ability to nest and raise young. So it was nice to find a good-sized flock of about 62 birds widely scattered in this grassy field in between a couple of woodlots.

Of course Eastern Screech Owls are also year-round residents, and on occasion one will be quite evident as it looks out of its wood duck nest box that it over wintered in.

There are other things going on. While walking some of the roads and trails of Rondeau, I noticed this Raccoon, wandering around. It was walking rather erratically in the middle of the day. Not a healthy sign for this species. It had no fear of me, and as it got closer and I was able to get this photo, I could see its right eye was non-functional, and even its left eye showed some cloudiness. Quite likely it was suffering from distemper, which happens regularly with raccoons on a 3-4 year cycle. When they get to this stage, not much can be done about it, and so this individual's fate is likely sealed.

On a brighter note, at least from a native mammal point of view, the Eastern Chipmunks have been quite active in the last week or so, and occasionally one will stop long enough at a suitable distance to allow for a photo. They are always a crowd pleaser.When their population gets quite large, one sees more road-killed chipmunks. So far I haven't seen any road kills, but then the park visitation hasn't been all that abundant yet.

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