Some Species At Risk birds and their related habitats

 It has been an interesting last few days. I've been out doing some grassland assessment for certain types of birds, and just wrapped up the second of two visits at two different sites, a few days ago. Each visit was about 10-12 days apart. Most notable at the one site was the promising number of Bobolink, one of the target species, and officially a Species At Risk.

The males still look quite distinctive in their typical breeding plumage.

There were several dozen Bobolinks, but at this time of year the number of fledglings certainly add to the overall total. They look very similar to the adult females, and in just a few weeks, the males will look more or less to be in the same, duller plumage as well.

As they flew around, they often landed in the grasses which bent under their weight, and then they were hard to see, and even harder to photograph. I got a lot more culls than keepers!

On occasion one would be sitting up nicely.....

...and sometimes had a caterpillar or something in its mouth, indicating they were still at the feeding young stage.

Other birds were utilizing the grassland habitats, including:

Common Yellowthroat

Eastern Kingbird

Song Sparrow

 

Along one of the shrubbier sections of the site was this Willow Flycatcher.

The grassland habitat varied. Some parts still had stems from the previous years growth quite visible, and it was here were most of the breeding bird action was.

Areas that for some reason had been matted down over the winter, showed a delayed growth, and so it was likely less appealing to the grassland birds when they returned this spring. There were very few birds using this shorter grass habitat.

Interspersed amongst the grasses were some prairie wildflowers, such as Ohio Spiderwort, one of my favourite grassland species.

While I was concentrating on birds, I couldn't help but notice some butterflies, including this Great Spangled Fritillary, a little worse for wear.....

...and given there were hundreds of milkweed plants, often in fairly dense clusters, it was a magnet for Monarchs.

Of course I have been at Rondeau on occasion, sometimes leading a tour for folks associated with the University of Windsor, but sometimes just on my own. One of the highlights was to find this Acadian Flycatcher on a nest.

As good as this find was, it was disconcerting to see the leaves right beside the nest, which tells of a questionable future. The leaves show a serious bout of Beech Leaf Disease, which is causing many American Beech trees to be in major decline. There are more than a few Am Beech trees in the park already dead, with virtually all of them in the park showing at least some signs of being affected. This will play havoc with the future of Acadian Flycatcher in Rondeau and other woodlots, as it nests almost entirely in these beech trees. On occasion they will nest in a Sugar Maple, but that is the exception. It does not bode well for this endangered bird species here in Ontario.

While some birders have reported more than one pair of Acadian Flycatchers along this Tuliptree Trail, I discovered that some people were attributing an Eastern Wood Pewee nest, shown next, to be that of an ACFL. The nest of the EWPE is typically on an open branch of various kinds of trees. At one point I actually saw an adult EWPE perched on the side of this nest, even though it is a bit dilapidated.

It is not in the fork of an Am Beech. They are both members of the flycatcher family, but quite different in many respects.

Eastern Wood Pewee

At one point I noted what I believe to be Fan-shaped Jelly Fungus on a log in a slough.

On another trail, I came across a cooperative Eastern Kingbird....

..an Appalachian Brown butterfly.....

....and a young Eastern Cottontail.

On another occasion I made a trip out to Clear Creek Forest Prov Park, for some forest photography on an overcast, relatively calm day. I was fairly happy with some of the photos I got.

While I was there, I wanted to see if there were any dragonflies to photograph in the old quarry on the north side of the forest. Due to the cool day with heavy cloud cover, there was hardly a dragonfly to be seen, so maybe next time!

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Forest, grassland and river highlights!

 Perhaps the three different habitats in the title are an odd mix, but the reality is those are what I have been exploring lately, and for good reason which hopefully will become apparent as this blog post unfolds.

Forests are fascinating at any time of year, but with the lush green growth, they are extra inspiring to me, especially on an overcast day with no wind. They have an atmosphere like nowhere else, and one feels a little overwhelmed in a good way, when one takes the time to see the multitude shades of green and gray, and tries to make sense of every little detail laid out before you. The forest has so many stories to share. Given that the main birding season is over, the trails are a bit quieter, so bird and insect song is subdued but noticeable. A small photo about 3" X 5" really doesn't do the area justice. If you click on the images, it will make them a bit larger, but still not quite like the real thing.You really have to get out and immerse yourself in the setting to appreciate what it has to offer, in my opinion.

These next two photos show Winterberry, not a common shrub, but a bit widespread in damp areas. It will have bright red berries in the fall, which are readily consumed by migrating warblers and thrushes.

 There are birds around, to be sure, such as this Acadian Flycatcher, which seems to be persistent along one stretch of the Tuliptree Trail but I am not sure it has found a mate....

 ...and Eastern Wood-Pewees are pretty reliably encountered.

House Wrens, too, can often be heard, and sometimes seen. This one was half of a pair of them investigating a cavity in a tree stub. The presumed male, shown here, seems to be half asleep while bubbling away!

A pair of Prothonotary Warblers can occasionally be cooperative along this trail. More on this species in a future post.

I have recently been out to a couple of grassland areas, in northeast Chatham-Kent and southeastern Lambton as part of a Grassland Bird Assessment project. Parts of them were at quite an early stage of growth, and didn't have a lot of grassland bird activity. No doubt the vegetation was much shorter when the grassland birds arrived, making it less desirable.

Other parts had some vegetation structure from 2022, and had more going for it, it seemed.

Bobolink was one of the target species, and there were a few around, but often partially hidden in the grass which made locking the focus on the bird difficult.....

...so I had to wait for them to be in flight, and in spite of their somewhat erratic flight, was able to capture a few photos.

Common Yellowthroats were fairly widespread.....

...and a few females popped into view from time to time.

There were a few butterflies flitting around, such as this Common Wood-Nymph. There were others, but I didn't want to get too distracted by them since birds were my main target.

I also spent some time at places where I could access either the Thames or the Sydenham rivers, sort of in preparation for an upcoming project entitled Natural Treasures of Chatham-Kent. More on that in a future post.

A shrub that was in fine flower on one occasion was Ninebark, shown in the next two photos.

These two rivers have an exceptional diversity of mussels, many of which are at risk, such as these next two species.

Deer Toe Mussel

Deer Toe Mussel

Pimpleback

Pimpleback

 It was interesting to note that of the first three species of mussel I photographed at one spot along the Thames, all three were considered Species At Risk! It just impressed upon me about the diversity of mussels that occur in these rivers, and how special they are.

Damselflies and dragonflies are also well represented.

Ebony Jewelwing

Calico Pennant

And a few butterflies were also present, including this Baltimore Checkerspot, not particularly rare, but not all that common either.

 

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