Bird numbers are building up, plus more species at risk

 Warblers, other passerines, and shorebirds continue their seasonal movements, with numbers increasing. Exploring places along the Lake Erie shoreline are great places to encounter them. This includes places like Erieau, Keith McLean Conservation Lands and of course Rondeau. And since due to the higher water levels minimizing these places for shorebirds, the local sewage lagoons are definitely worth checking out from time to time.

The warblers are fairly plentiful, that is until a cold front with its associated northerly wind comes through, and then a lot of them move farther south. But there often seems to be a fair number around. On some days, the number of warblers reported even rivals those days in mid-May! Getting photos of them is another story, however. 

The east South Point Trail of Rondeau can have pockets of warblers and vireos to capture ones attention. Here are some warblers that strayed within camera range long enough to get a photo, with some of them sporting a different plumage than they have in spring.

American Redstart

Bay-breasted Warbler

Black-throated Blue Warbler

There are lots of dogwood bushes along the trail, many of which are, or have been, quite laden down with berries. These birds are zipping in and out of the shrubs in their quest for the huge benefits these berries are as they build up their energy levels so they can go on the next leg of their migration. Many clusters of berries are half gone, as this next photo shows.

On my search for birds, I will come across other notable things, such as a few American Ginseng, a species at risk. It was not a great year for berry production, however, as some plants did not produce any berries, and even the ones that had some success, only produced one or two.

I also came across a new-to-me location small Black Ash. Normally Black Ash are found in wet areas, but this one was on a much drier than normal site. Ash trees in general have been hit hard by the Emerald Ash Borer, and Black Ash is now a Critically Endangered species in Canada. It is easily identified by its stemless paired leaves.....

...a brown pointed end bud.....

....and the underside of the leaves being hairy where they join the stem.

At the opposite end of the abundance scale is Great Blue Lobelia, especially common in open and damp forest edges.

At the Keith McLean Conservation Lands, the mud-flats are almost non-existent, and so it is not good for shorebirds. But Great Egrets and Great Blue Herons make good use of it.

The higher water levels have produced good habitat for Swamp Rose Mallow, and here I found another white variant of this species at risk.

Along the trail, several Cedar Waxwings were flying out from a willow tree going after insects, and occasionally came back and sat on a branch convenient for my photographic interests.

On another occasion I went to Erieau, looking for shorebirds along the beach, and whatever else I could find. With the regular beach hikers and dog walkers, on this occasion there weren't any shorebirds on the beach, but I found a few at the end of the lighthouse pier. There were a few Sanderling.....

...and at least a couple of White-rumped Sandpipers. They can often be separated from similar looking sandpipers by the longer wings, extending beyond the tail. The angle I got this photo of doesn't show it as clearly as I saw it from other angles, but didn't capture it with my camera.

Cormorants are present at Erieau by the dozens, even hundreds at times. This one was swimming and diving quite close by the end of the pier.

I scanned the horde of cormorants and gulls on the break wall across the channel. This large, predominantly gray gull caught my eye, and I managed a couple of shots, and after greatly cropping them, could only come up with this one. I am not quite sure what it is. It seems to be the size of a Herring Gull, but normally young birds of that species have a brownish colour to their plumage.  However Herring Gulls vary quite a bit over their huge breeding range, which extends from coast to coast, and it is possible it is just a young Herring Gull but not from a local Ontario population.

As I was pondering the gull, I heard a distinctive call approaching from behind. A large shorebird, with a long, down-curved bill flew quickly by, and by the time I was able to get a photo or two, all I got was its back end. It is a Whimbrel, one of the largest shorebirds to go through the area at any time of year, and much more common in the spring. I don't always see them in the fall.

Shorebirds at the Blenheim sewage lagoons continue to be fairly diverse and in good numbers. I certainly don't try and photograph the diversity each time I go, but try and get a few shots. The light wasn't great, but I did manage to get the following:

Baird's Sandpiper

Greater Yellowlegs

Short-billed Dowitcher

Stilt Sandpiper

While the St. Clair NWA isn't all that close to the southerly part of Chatham-Kent and the Lake Erie shoreline, it still can be quite worthwhile to explore and photograph the birds that make themselves visible. Wood Ducks are frequently seen flying over the NWA, and on occasion one will be resting either on some fallen branches.....

....or tucked under the woody vegetation along the shoreline.

A Belted Kingfisher was busily hunting for food....

...and a Sandhill Crane was feeding along the edge of a wet area.....

.....while this trio of cranes flew over and headed for the far corner of the marsh, presumably to find a spot to spend the night.

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Woodland Orchids and other wildflowers

 A walk in the woods these days can be very quiet. Bird song has diminished greatly, and already warblers that passed through in May on their way to the more northern breeding grounds, are making their way back south. But they aren't singing, so all is very quiet. There aren't even many mosquitoes!

That's okay, as there are lots of other things to be captivated with. There are things to see and photograph no matter where you go. Certainly in the last week or so I have been on the prowl for mid-summer plants, some of which are extremely rare.

One of the target species at this time of year, is to find one of Canada's rarest orchids: Nodding Pogonia (Triphora trianthophoros). As far as anyone knows, the only place in Canada where it occurs is at Rondeau. It is legally endangered, and due to that status and the extreme difficulty in finding it, it is not something that can be show cased, much to the great chagrin of serious orchid enthusiasts.

It is not like it is even a large orchid that can be appreciated from a safe distance. It is typically only about 8-10 cm high. The flowering is triggered by specific weather types, and all of the buds that are ready to open will do so on the same day, and only for that day. It may be a week or more until another weather event triggers the next round of flowering. Even when it is in flower, it can be difficult to see. When it is not in flower, which is most of the time, it is extremely difficult to see, even when you know it is right close by.

I've been out a couple of times recently, trying to time my search for a day when it is in flower. I missed out on the first attempt, but yesterday I managed to time it perfectly. In an area that I have been monitoring since the 1970s, I encountered about 115 plants, most of which were in flower. On occasion they will be in a small cluster, as shown in the first photo.

Sometimes a plant will have two, or rarely three, flowers in bloom simultaneously.

But typically only one flower will be open at a time. Upon a closer examination, it clearly is an intricate little flower. To give you an idea of size, this flower is about one cm in height!

A much more widespread, but not common, orchid is this Small Green Woodland Orchid, or Club-spur Orchid (Platanthera clavellata), which typically grows in fairly wet spots such as at the edge of a slough.

Aside from orchids, there are many other wildflowers to take note of, scattered here and there.

Small-flowered Agrimony

This next one is American Spikenard. It isn't a common species, and this particular individual was one of the largest I have ever seen. The actual flowers are small.....

...and the leaves and their arrangement are distinctive.

Climbing Nightshade is fairly commonly scattered at the edges of openings.

This next one is Cup-plant (Silphium perfoliatum). It is a tall plant, with distinctive leaves joined at their base to give its 'cup'.

It is a member of the sunflower family. I don't believe it is naturally occurring at Rondeau. It is an obvious plant, and I only saw one cluster in an are of the park that has recently been left to be naturalized. It is not on the park's previous plant checklists and this is the first time I have seen it. I can only conclude that someone decided to introduce this species, and likely without permission. It is native to Ontario, and is not uncommon along the Thames River in flooded woodland edges.

Hoary Tick-trefoil

Great Lobelia

This next one is fairly rare, called Hairy Mountain-mint. It differs from some of the more common mountain-mints due to its quite hairy stem, as shown in the close-up.

Marsh Skullcap

A fairly common species, especially in open damp areas, is Spotted Joe-pye-weed.

The stem is typically heavily spotted with purple....

,,,,and sometimes the stem itself is mostly purplish.

A closely related species is this Sweet Joe-pye-weed. It usually grows in more wooded areas, and the stem is mostly free of any purple.

I came across another Species At Risk, this one being Black Ash. Ash species in general have been greatly affected by the Emerald Ash Borer, but Black Ash has always been uncommon. It is identified by its blackish terminal bud, as shown in the first photograph..... 

 ....and by the leaves that are joined right at the stem without having a petiole, and the underside of the leaves are fuzzy/hairy.

 Royal Fern is not common, but can be found in sloughs and wet wood edges.....

...nor is Red-berried Elder common. The berries are not edible, unlike its relative, the Common Elderberry.

Water Parsnip is fairly regular in grassy damp areas along the edges of woodlands.

Woodland Sunflower is very common at the woodland edges, but looks quite a bit like others in the same genus.

One of the main differences is that Woodland Sunflower has leaves that do not have any petiole or stem, and are tightly joined to the main stem of the plant. Also, the leaves are rough to the touch on both upper and lower sides.

There are a lot, and I mean a lot, of different sedges. Most of the time they mystify me, but there are a few that I kind of recognize. This one is probably Hop Sedge (Carex lupulina). However there is another one that looks almost identical, and is extremely rare. It is in fact endangered.

One of the main differences is in the shape and appearance of the seeds, or achenes, inside the pouches. When I checked this one, it has a strong similarity to the Hop Sedge look-a-like, known as False Hop Sedge (Carex lupuliformis). Back in my District Ecologist days, some co-workers and I were checking out several sites for False Hop Sedge, and came across at least a couple of sites for it in Middlesex County. One of the main differences between the two species was to look at mature achenes, and if they had knobby edges or corners it was more likely the False Hop Sedge. This one, shown below, has some knobby edge features on its more or less triangular shape, but I am waiting for confirmation or correction on this which I posted on iNaturalist. One of my former OMNR co-workers who is an expert on sedges (and many other things) has not yet responded. If it is False Hop Sedge, it will be one more officially ranked Species At Risk for Rondeau!

American Ginseng is not common at Rondeau, or anywhere else for that matter, and it is also a Species At Risk. I know of a few small populations, and I check out one or more of them from time to time. The hot, dry early part of the summer was not kind to this species, and many of the ones I checked had already withered away. A very small number were still trying to develop some seeds, shown here in their green stage. After fully ripening, they will be bright red.

With the greater moisture of the last few weeks, some fungi are starting to appear. This first one is a type of Jelly Fungus....

...and this next one is in the group known as the Coral Slimes.

I noted this bug on the leaf of an ash tree. It is a young stage of a Green Stink Bug; an adult is shown immediately after.

Milkweed Tussock Moth caterpillars can be found in clusters on milkweeds.

Walking through the woods these days will give one plenty of encounters with spider webs. This is probably a member of the Micrathena genus.

I noticed this Robber Fly zip out and grab something, then return to its perch to devour it. It is not a common species of Robber Fly, and does not have a common name. Its scientific name is Machimus snowii.

There is always lots to see during any wanderings in a natural area!

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