Black-necked Stilts, Pelicans, Phalaropes, June flowers and...Orchids!

 I really had planned on getting more posts out in June, but it has been busy! Lots of the normal things to deal with, and I have been getting back into black lighting in a much bigger way than the past 2-3 years. It involves a lot of preparation time, actual black lighting for hours at a time, and then 'recovery time' as well as processing hundreds of photos. I will be including a black lighting post or two over the next month, which happens to be Moth Month. I am also preparing on a post regarding the saga of Prickly Pear Cactus at Rondeau, which is more complicated than it might seem. And of course taking time to get my head around, and produce the occasional post in my Life Is A Journey blog.

With that being said, this post might be a little longer than average, as there is so much to catch up on. Most of my efforts have been concentrated in the southern part of Chatham-Kent, but also includes a couple of forays to search for orchids elsewhere in C-K and beyond. 

Bird migration has slowed down, but there have been some interesting things to see. I mentioned Dickcissels having arrived in CK in my previous post, and they continue to be present there, as well as at other places. For example some friends who have a combination woodlot and planted prairie a bit north of Blenheim have had at least two pairs of Dickcissels present, and I spent at least a couple of hours quite recently watching and photographing them. They weren't often very close, but I managed to get some fair photos, with the first one showing a nicely coloured male in full song. What is handy about this species is that it will sing fairly frequently throughout most of the day.

The female, shown next, isn't up and nicely visible nearly as often as the male, as she is likely tending the nest. Her markings are more subdued.

Much more common than Dickcissels are Savannah Sparrows, and they occupy very similar habitat. I saw at least a dozen of them in the vicinity.

At the Blenheim Sewage Lagoons, there has been a pair of Black-necked Stilts busily feeding in one of the cells. The male is on the left, and has the black back....

...while the female has more of a brownish/black back.

Also at these lagoons, there was quite an 'invasion' of Wilson's Phalaropes earlier in June, at least 5 mated pairs, which I featured in my previous blog. After most of them left, there was a single male still present for several days. For this species, after the female has laid her eggs, she will typically leave the area in search of another mate, and the male will carry on with the incubation of the eggs in a grassy nest, and raising the young. I had hoped that this might happen since a male was present for several days after the female disappeared, but as far as I am aware, nothing like that happened. 

Male Wilson's Phalarope

Perhaps the mowing around the cells, or perhaps the greatly fluctuating water in the sprinkler cells was not conducive.  At any rate, my last two visits to these lagoons did not have any phalaropes present. I am aware of only one occasion when nesting of this species actually occurred here, as they are mainly a much more western species. But back in about 1980, there was a nest and I managed to get a photo of the male sitting on it.

Another unusual wetland bird species showed up at the Keith McLean Conservation Lands for 2-3 days. It was an American White Pelican.

It must have felt a little out of place, as even before I got very close, I could sense that it was getting restless. In just a few moments it got up and flew out to Rondeau Bay but I managed to get a few heavily cropped photos.

Much more common bird species are this one: Field Sparrow, a pair of which perched reasonably close by, enabling me to get this photo of the pair. They were busy flitting about a fairly large area, which must have been their breeding territory, but at least one periodically came back to this perch.

While the spring wildflower varieties have tapered off somewhat, there are still a few of the usual, mostly colourful ones present, and some are in fair abundance. This first one is False Indigo Bush, a bit of a provincial rarity, but unofficially introduced to Rondeau by someone.

A naturally occurring rarity is next: Green Milkweed. It doesn't seem to be as abundant these last few years, so I was pleased to see this one.

Much more common are:

Bladder Campion

Canada Anemone

Fringed Loosestrife

Ground Ivy

Pale-spike Lobelia

Hairy Beard's-tongue

Poke Milkweed

These next three often get the attention of even the casual walker:

Purple Flowering Raspberry

Wood Lily

Butterfly Milkweed

 One may encounter other elements of wildlife as one travels around. First off is a type of dragonfly, likely a White-faced Meadowhawk due to the season and the relative commonness of this species although the actual face cannot be seen to know for sure.

Lots of these little guys around, and on occasion they will even sit long enough for the camera.

Much less common is this next one: a Blanding's Turtle, which is a provincial rarity. It was crossing the main road in the Rondeau forest, seemingly out of its normal wetland habitat.

Finally, a bit on some successful orchid hunting. Earlier in June I ventured into northern Lambton Co, hunting for some specific orchids. I had hoped to find a Ram's-head Orchid, with the known location being the most southerly location in Ontario for it. But it was not found. However a Pink Lady's-slipper is always a treat to see, and usually are farther north in Ontario than where I venture most of the time.

Next is Hooker's Orchid, a much less colourful orchid, and I have seen it at Rondeau but not for many years. It may still occur, but I don't spend as much time off the trails as I used to, due to the risk of Lyme Disease.

At Clear Creek Forest Prov Park in eastern CK, I caught up to these two orchids. First is Large Twayblade, a provincial rarity.

More widespread but less showy is this Fen Orchid.

 That does it for this post. Hopefully the next one will show up sooner!

 

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Orchids...spring wildflowers, and birds!

 Okay it isn't really orchid flowering season, nor is there much of anything else flowering for that matter. However the leafless season is one of the best times to find this one:

It is called Puttyroot (Aplectrum hyemale) and is an Endangered Species in Ontario and Canada. Rondeau is fortunate to have had several populations known from various parts of the park over the years, and I have been able to track down 7 different ones. Unfortunately at least two of those populations have disappeared, whether it is due to forest floor changes as a result of canopy cover alteration from the arrival of Emerald Ash Borer, which decimated the ash trees that were dominant in the canopy. Or maybe due to fluctuating water levels. Or something else entirely. 

At this time of year, they are not in flower, but their overwintering leaves are distinctive and if one is concentrating sufficiently on the leaf litter, they can stand out nicely. Each leaf represents an individual plant, but very few will actually flower in a given year. In the main population, which I have been following for more than 3 decades, I have sometimes seen up to about 75 leaves, but never seen any more than about 20 with a flowering stem and in flower and that was in a good year. More typically I only see a dozen or so in flower at the most.

While out looking around a few weeks ago, I cane across a new-to-me population with 7 leaves, a single leaf of this new population is shown next. Given the habitat that this species occurs in, I expect there are more populations as yet unseen. There are hundreds and hundreds of what appears to be suitable habitat. The leaves are starting to dry and they will almost totally disappear before long.

It will be interesting to see how many flowering stems are found this year.

There are other things that are actually in flower. This first one is called Snowdrops. It flowers early, and is not native. It often occurs in fairly abundant little patches. This patch occurred next to a cottage in the park.

One that is native, but not often seen, is called Skunk Cabbage. The green and purple stems emerge from a fairly wet area, sometimes where standing water is present at least in early spring. It doesn't occur at Rondeau. I have been keeping an eye on this small population at Clear Creek Forest Prov Park.

A closer look inside one of the purple leaves, known as a spathe, may show the little cluster of flowers, as seen here.

Over the next few weeks, I am looking forward to finding a lot of other spring wildflowers! In the meantime, there is hopefully an increasing number and variety of birds to look for and try and photograph. American Robins are becoming quite numerous, with sometimes several dozen seen on even a short outing. On one occasion on a cold day and driving through a small town, I drove by what looked to be a type of crabapple tree. Underneath were at least 30 robins groping around in the lawn, looking for crabapple residue.

American Pelicans have appeared in southwestern Ontario in recent days. Of course a birder and photographer always hopes to get views such as this next one, which I photographed flying over Rondeau Bay near Erieau last year. Opportunities such as this do not occur very often.....

....as this next photo illustrates. This photo was taken from the Mitchell's Bay South Nature Trail, where as many as a dozen pelicans were resting on the sheltered edge of a large stand of cattails. In viewing them through binoculars, it was difficult to know for sure that they were in fact pelicans, or some of the many large swans that were also in the area. I know of at least a few birders who ventured out to try and see these birds, but were not successful. However a high powered 'scope confirmed them as pelicans, as every few minutes one would get up, stretch its neck and it large orange bill would be obvious. At other times one would stretch its wings, and the black wing tips and outer primaries would be distinctive. The photo below is the best I could do. Even with my top quality lens, this photo was taken, and subsequently cropped to be at slightly more than 100X.

More predictable are Bald Eagles. At least some of the known nests are being occupied, such as this one at Rondeau, visible from the west South Point Trail.

But lots of eagles are on their migration to nesting areas farther to the north. On one occasion in the last few days, while on the east South Point Trail, I saw about 11 and most were adults.

Brown Creepers are arriving.

Downy Woodpeckers are permanent residents, and are a little more noticeable as they start to establish territories.

Eastern Phoebes are arriving, and there are a few flying insects for this flycatcher to feed on.

Killdeer are fairly widespread in muddy fields and marsh edges.

Northern Flickers are present in increasing numbers, searching for ants on lawns.

Pileated Woodpeckers are also residents, and are more often noted due to their loud drumming to demarcate their territory. When I was out today, I heard three different birds calling from my one vantage point, one was fairly close and the other two were a fair way either north or south of the closest one.

Turkey Vultures are fairly plentiful these days, depending on the wind. On one occasion I saw about 40 circling a wooded area late in the day, presumably looking for an overnight roost.

Wild Turkeys are also permanent residents, and a little more visible now than sometimes. I stopped one day to look for the Wilson's Snipe that sometimes occurs at this wide creek, but only saw this turkey hopping across.

And these two were roaming about a farm field near St. Clair NWA.

I saw my first of the year Yellow-bellied Sapsucker a few days ago, but only got some record shots.

Local Canada Geese are paired up.

I saw my first of the year Great Egret fly over a few days ago, just north of Mitchell's Bay, where during the summer and fall season it is common to see a dozen or more, as they nest in some of the offshore cattail islands.

 Sandhill Cranes continue to be around, although they are starting to pair up and instead of large groups, are often in groups of four or fewer.

Of course Red-winged Blackbirds have arrived in large numbers especially in wetland areas, where they are seen and heard giving their choke-er-ee calls attempting to lure in a female as they arrive.

Not to be left out of the wildlife scene of late, are turtles especially on some of the warmer days. Blanding's Turtles are an Endangered Species. I usually see a few, such as this next one, along the Marsh Trail near Erieau.

On the other hand, Midland Painted Turtles are fairly abundant. On this day I counted at least 40 all sunning on a log or some similar spot.

There is always lots to see!

 

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