Butterfly count--Rondeau

 This past July 10 was the annual Rondeau area butterfly count. It is always something to look forward to, although we went into it with some trepidation this year. The hot, dry weather for most of the last month or so, which followed a cooler and wetter spring prior to that has, I think, played a bit of havoc with invertebrate populations. Certainly pollinating insects in general seem to be less abundant than what we normally expect, and butterflies are not as abundant either. Other parts of Ontario even here in the south seem to have been blessed with a bit more precipitation as of late, so hopefully the dearth of invertebrates in this immediate area is just a localized condition.

At any rate, I began my usual route, at the McGeachy Pond Trail, at about 9 a.m. As I walked and looked, I began to think that my next blog post will have to feature something other than butterflies! I walked to the far end and back over a period of about an hour, and came up with two butterflies, both of which were Cabbage Whites, and even those two were only noted on the return. 

Yikes! This was not going as hoped. It didn't help that the butterfly bush that was located at the residence at the far western end of this trail had died.

But I kept on, and went next to the Erieau Rail Trail. The first part was quite shaded, and there was more bird action than butterflies. I had things like a pair of Carolina Wrens, Downy Woodpecker, and a Warbling Vireo scolding me to get my attention.

At the observation platform, there were Barn Swallows building a nest under neath.

There were a few butterflies to be found, especially where there were patches of Catnip. For some reason, the patches of Common Milkweed or Canada Thistle were not as interesting to the butterflies that were around. Catnip was the plant to check out, as these Red Admirals would attest.

I explored other areas as well, including one that Steve, Keith and Jim and I always check out just west of Blenheim. It didn't disappoint with the usual mix of Wood Nymphs, Little Wood Satyrs, Eastern Tailed Blues and such.

I continued on my way and the other three covered more of their typical territory. We had decided that the local sewage lagoons, sometimes a real hotspot for butterflies, would not be worthwhile this year. The extreme dryness on and adjacent to the berms, and the recent mowing, left very little to attract butterflies, so why bother.

One of the spots that never fails, is along the B-Fit trail at the south side of Blenheim. There are a couple of large cells designed to hold excess water, and a walking trail goes around. At one point a landowner has established a nice garden mix of native and non-native wildflowers that always attract insects. Except for the time I was there this year. There is a mix of Purple Coneflower, Bee-Balm and even Butterfly Bush among others. But there was not a single butterfly to be seen when I was there. I mean, butterfly bush is supposed to be a guarantee! But not this time.

Fortunately it wasn't a complete waste of time, as the one cell had a lot of dogbane and Swamp Milkweed in it, and there were at least 6-7 Monarch butterflies flitting around there.

I also spent some time along a wide road allowance, which has a seldom used railway line along it, and part of it is adjacent to a wet woods. For the size of the area, it was the most productive part of my day. There were of course a multitude of both Orange and Clouded Sulphurs and Cabbage Whites,

There were also a few Azures. One used to be able to call them Summer Azures with a fair bit of confidence at this time of year. However in recent years, at least some expert lepidopterists have decided/discovered that it isn't quite as easy to separate the different azure/Celastrina types as once thought. Even putting them on iNaturalist as a Summer Azure, someone will eventually respond declaring they cannot be separated, and downgrade the observation to Celastrina sp. So they are just Azures for now. Such is the realm of taxonomy.

I was pleased with the number of hairstreaks visiting some of the milkweed patches. I had at least 6 Banded Hairstreaks in just a few minutes.

I had the occasional Delaware Skipper.....

....and I was a bit surprised to see at least 4 Dun Skippers. I think the wet woods adjacent to this site was definitely the reason for them, as they are not generally a common skipper in my experience.

Dun Skipper

Hobomok Skipper

Silver-spotted Skipper, one of the largest of the skipper group, was fairly numerous, with at least 7 at this location.

I had been at Rondeau a couple of days earlier, scouting around even though it wasn't my territory. I thought I was fortunate to have seen and photographed this next one, a Black Dash. I don't think it is commonly seen either, and I haven't heard what the final tally for butterflies was on this count, so maybe it will only be a 'Count Period' record.

I ended up with a mere 17 species of butterfly, a little lower than usual, but not all that surprising given the recent weather, the somewhat limited habitat variation and the way the day began. Monarch numbers were lower than usual, as I only had 16.

 

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Butterfly Count Scouting

Tis the season for butterfly counts. While there are a number in the area, the only one I participate in is the Rondeau area one, coming up this weekend. So in order to get in the mood, I spent a bit of time last Monday at Rondeau checking out one of the most prolific patches for butterflies in the park. It is actually an old dump site, known as the Dillon Dump. With the high water this year, and a tree that had come down across the entrance to the trail leading to the dump, I don't believe anyone had been in there for weeks, possibly not for months. I talked with some of the park staff ahead of time, and one or more of the maintenance crew cleared a pathway at the entrance through the fallen tree limbs making access possible (thanks, Jon!).

One of the things that this site has going for it is that it is an opening of about one hectare, completely surrounded by deciduous woodland and swamp, and the main plant there right now is Common Milkweed. Fortunately it is in peak flowering condition right now. There must be upwards of 2000 plants, and with each of them having several flower heads and each head having at least several dozen individual flowers, there may be 10,000 or more individual flowers for pollinating insects to feast on. Butterflies were fairly abundant, not surprisingly. I spent about an hour there in the sweltering heat and came up with 14 species of butterfly. I'm sure there were others. There wasn't anything unexpected, but with the butterfly season to date seeming to be a little behind time, it was nice to see this diversity in one location.

I managed to get photos of the following species. There were Monarchs a-plenty, not surprisingly.

A couple of Banded Hairstreaks were nice.

Eastern Comma

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

Hobomok Skipper

Pearl Crescent

Question Mark

Silver-spotted Skipper

Little Wood-Satyr

There were a few that I didn't get photos of, including Summer Azure, Red Admiral, Tawny-edged Skipper and Northern Broken Dash, as well as a couple of skippers that skipped away too fast to get any kind of decent look at. And there were likely others that I didn't see, but might have if I stuck around long enough. I did get a Viceroy a bit later on.

There were lots of dragonflies as well, although almost all of them were of the Meadowhawk type. I just wasn't sure which one, as the three possible ones are often difficult to distinguish in the field.

 There were lots of damselflies as well, but I only tried to get photos of this one, a type of Spreadwing in the Lestes genus.

Hopefully the upcoming butterfly count will have a decent result, but time will tell. However unless someone wants to venture out the officially closed Marsh Trail, a significant part of the count area will not be covered. This next photo shows the north end of the trail, at a location where hundreds of birders stood patiently last September and October waiting for the famous Great Kiskadee to show itself. Things have changed considerably, due to the record high water levels of the lakes; hence the closure of the trail.

I also had some things to do in the vicinity of Clear Creek Forest Provincial Park, so I took a bit of time to look for butterflies and dragonflies around the open area and ponds at the north side of the park. The butterflies were much the same as what I got at Rondeau earlier, but with less diversity. The dragonflies were plentiful though. Again, nothing really unexpected but it was nice to have so many to choose from in such a small area.

Blue Dasher

Calico Pennant

Common Whitetail

Twelve-spotted Skimmer

Widow Skimmer

 There were quite a few Eastern Pondhawks, including young males with their thorax still transitioning from green to pale blue.

With all of the dragonflies around, it was no surprise to see the exuviae still clinging to the tops of dead stems, where the nymphs had climbed out of the water to subsequently emerge as adults.

Whilst on the watch for dragonflies, I noticed this Bronzed Tiger Beetle scurrying across the sandy edge of one of the ponds.

There were a couple of dragonfly types that just wouldn't land and so I never got a chance to identify them let alone photograph them. Maybe next time.

Birds, butterflies and orchids, mostly in Chatham-Kent

I haven't gone too far these last few days, but enough to find some interesting things.

Dickcissels are around again, but not in nearly the numbers of 2017, nor in 2018. I had found a few at the Dealtown Crown Land prairie both of those years, and have been there twice this year.  I had a good variety of shrubby/grassland birds as well as aerial insectivores, some of which gave me some good photo ops, but no Dickcissel.

Bank Swallows were quite abundant, not surprising though since this site is only about a kilometre from Lake Erie where the steep clay cliffs often have this species nesting in.

Bank Swallow

 No Bobolinks this year either, but a couple of Eastern Meadowlarks are there.

There are some early southern-bound shorebird migrants. Usually the local sewage lagoons are the places to find them, and there is a very small number there, but with all of the flooded fields to choose from, they will be spread out wherever there is shallow water. Lesser Yellowlegs are the more common shorebird so far, although a few others have also shown up.

 I've checked the flooded fields along Lagoon Road where a lingering Franklin's Gull has been seen on occasion, but I did not catch up to it. There were Lesser Yellowlegs and lots of Killdeer. A few of the typical summering gulls were around, as well as a few Caspian Terns.

 The Blenheim lagoons have good conditions for shorebirds, but except for lots of Killdeer and a few Lesser Yellowlegs, the shorebirds have not made a point of hanging out there yet. But there are a few other waterbirds, including a few Ruddy Ducks, this pair of Blue-winged Teal....

....and a Ring-necked Duck. There had been a pair of Ring-necks not that long ago, but the male was not visible on this visit.

I stopped at Erieau on one occasion. As has been the case throughout the spring, the water continues to be very high. The pier gets washed over periodically, even when there is very little wave action.

 On the vegetated part of the beach dunes, the Common Hop-tree is in full flower. It is Special Concern, one notch lower than Threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

Of course I managed to get to Rondeau a couple of times. Birds have been fairly typical, just the usual breeding species or vagrants. American Redstarts are scattered about the forest.

 A couple of pairs of Prothonotary Warblers continue along the Tuliptree Trail. I can never get enough of these critters!

While watching the Prothonotaries for awhile, this Green Frog was plinking like a banjo string in the slough nearby. It is surrounded by a plant called Frog-bit, which is not native to North America but arrived several decades ago. It was first discovered at Rondeau in 1976 when I was out canoeing in the Rondeau marsh with my university Aquatic Vascular Plants professor. It has expanded at Rondeau considerably since then, being found almost anywhere there is some sunny, quiet water.

The White-winged Dove continues along Lakeshore Road, south of the Visitor Centre. The stainless steel chimney at 17168 continues to be a favourite hang-out.

Earlier in the week I was out to show some friends a small population of Puttyroot, an orchid they had never seen before. The Puttyroot had finished flowering and had developing seed capsules. But before these folks left the park, they checked out a couple of trails and came across another orchid: Ragged-fringed Orchid. It is not a common species anywhere, but can be found in wet woods and sometimes in wet grassy meadows. This particular individual was at the base of a tree in a slough. I had access to a pair of hip waders to get close enough for these photos.

On one occasion I ventured beyond the boundaries of Chatham-Kent. Fellow blogger Blake had reported that the Oak Hairstreaks had appeared at the Reid Conservation Area in southern Lambton, so one partly sunny and very hot morning I headed there. There were lots of European Skippers, several Banded Hairstreaks, and at least two Oak Hairstreaks.

Banded Hairstreak

Oak Hairstreak

The butterflies were not as prevalent as they often have been for the time of year, so it will be interesting to see if the upcoming butterfly counts show this trend or not.