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.

Hot and cold birding

Late last week and on the weekend brought some really up and down weather. The first couple of days were quite pleasant....warm and if you were in the sun and out of the wind, even hot at times. There were some new migrants appearing on the landscape. Rose-breasted Grosbeaks were widespread.

 Eastern Kingbirds were also fairly plentiful.

Northern Parulas were more abundant than anytime I have seen in the past. It used to be that getting a few in a season was considered good, and even at that, one seldom had more than one or two in a day. On these days there must have been a fallout of a large number of migrating parulas, as it was not uncommon to see 8 or more in a single day, with as many as 19 being reported by a single observer.

Northern Parula

 Blue-winged Warblers are always a good find, although they aren't always easy to photograph as they skulk around the leaves and ground vegetation.

Blue-winged Warbler

 At least a couple of male Hooded Warblers were reported, and I caught up with one of them.....skulking around in the lowest shrubby levels, of course, making the auto-focus of the camera impossible to use. Manual focus on a quickly moving bird is not easy! Most of the shots were deleted.

The relative warmth was also good for reptiles. This Eastern Garter Snake was enjoying a sheltered spot with good exposure to the sun.

 Within about a metre of the South Point Trail was this beautiful Eastern Fox Snake, an endangered species here in the southwest. It had probably been there for quite awhile, hours even, while hundreds of birders went on by searching for warblers. The sharp eyes of Denise D discovered this critter and got my attention just as I was about to exit the trail. Even though it was partly curled up, we estimated its length to be well over a metre.

Shortly after photographing this latter snake and then leaving the South Point Trail parking lot, I looked out towards the lake shore and saw someone at the edge of the dunes. I looked at them through binoculars and she looked right back at me through her binoculars....it was Tianna, and she was waving me over. An hour or so earlier we had been alerted by Steve C of 6 Whimbrel out along the beach and had gone over to investigate. Even though it was only 15 minutes later, the birds had left. But apparently they had not gone far. Tianna had re-located them! A slow and careful approach, and using a good telephoto lens, resulted in this following image.

Whimbrel pass through the lower Great Lakes in a relatively narrow window of time, and these were the first ones reported not only for Rondeau, but for the entirety of the Ontario side of the lower Great Lakes as far as I am aware. Unfortunately they did not stay around for a lot of others to view.

Other water birds had recently arrived in good numbers, including many Common Terns. At least 500 were noted at the Erieau harbour area, and a similar number were seen a day or so later along the east beach of Rondeau.

Some of the ~500 Common Terns

This next bird isn't a recent arrival, or even an uncommon bird, unfortunately. However this close-up shows why it is called a Double-crested Cormorant as the two feather tufts are quite visible here.

The weekend arrived, and as predicted, the weather deteriorated in a big way. Colder temperatures, strong winds and rain. The only good thing one could say about it was that the birds were staying low and easier to see. There was little or no bird song.....I think the only sound they were making was their beaks chattering!

Birds were fluffed up to provide a bit more insulation from the cold.

Fluffed up Song Sparrow

Fluffed up Swamp Sparrow

The Wood Thrush in this next photo was totally exhausted, sitting in the grass by the picnic area, allowing a very close approach. I'm not sure whether it was the cold or the exhausting flight or both.

And then it snowed. In mid-May! Snow and ice pellets came down quite heavily on a couple of occasions, but fortunately not for long. It isn't the first time ever and it likely won't be the last, but the birds were not enjoying it. Nesting birds refused to leave the nest, not wanting the developing embryos or recently hatched young to suffer from the cold.

The Blenheim Sewage Lagoons was a busy place, and you know it is windy when there are white-caps on the water there! Wind speeds were reported to be in the 30-45 km/hr range, so it wasn't surprising to see the white-caps.

There was a huge number of swallows there. I estimated there to be at least 1500 of them swooping low over the water, over the pathways and over the grassy areas, hoping for an insect or two to help sustain them. Many were just resting on the ground or on a low branch.

Tree Swallows were by far the most abundant, with an estimate 1000 or more.

Tree Swallow

Bank Swallow

Barn Swallow

Cliff Swallows were fairly abundant....I don't recall ever using that term to describe Cliff Swallows here before! At one point I could see at least 35 in a narrow strip. There could have been well over a hundred altogether.

Cliff Swallows

Fluffed up Cliff Swallow

The water temperature was warmer than the air temperature, by a considerable margin, I expect. I am not sure what insects were hatching, but the swallows were at least trying for any insects that were emerging.

I have often wondered about the health of birds that feed on insects emerging from sewage ponds. The insects are abundant in such waters, but what chemicals are concentrated in their systems, which will only accumulate to a potentially serious level in any bird that feeds on them? After all, the water is cleaned somewhat from the organic material that is flushed or otherwise gets into the system, but what about all the chemicals that come from potent pharmaceutical materials, prescription drugs, etc, that are also flushed into the water system but aren't removed? Some of that will be absorbed by the insects living in these sewage ponds and passed on to any insect eating birds and bats.....it can't be a good thing!

Shorebirds weren't busy feeding...they were taking refuge from the bitter cold!

This Turkey Vulture was feeding on the remains of a Raccoon. Presumably the Raccoon had neglected to sign up for lessons from the local chickens on how to cross the road successfully :-).

Fortunately the cold only lasted for a couple of days, but I am sure that it seemed a lot longer than that for some of the birds that had to endure it.