More migrants, some late leps, a cactus conundrum and a house of yesteryear

 Autumn is unfolding as it should, and that means there are lots of things to photograph. A few days ago I was out in the Erieau area. I took time to check the main pier, as the uncommon Purple Sandpiper could appear any day. I walked all the way to the end, flushing a multitude of the usual gulls along the way, but only came up with a single Sanderling right at the end.

Maybe next time there will be a Purple Sandpiper to greet me.

A walk along the Erieau Marsh Trail and McGeachy Pond Trail is often worthwhile, so I included it in my itinerary. There was a nice mix of passerines, including:

Eastern Phoebe

Northern Parula

There were several others, but due to the very contrasty light, were hard to photograph.

Butterflies, on the other hand, were typically out in the open where they could benefit from the sunlight energy while nectaring on the flowers. The deep purple of New England Aster seemed to be the main flower attraction.

Orange Sulphur

Clouded Sulphur

The first two are pretty common, but these next ones are much less common. In fact the Fiery Skippers, of which there were several, were the first ones I had photographed this year.

Bronze Coppers, shown next, are to be expected at some point and usually much more common than the Fiery Skippers.

Female

Male

I also spent a bit of time up along some accessible areas along Lake St. Clair. There were some migrants, not surprisingly, including a good number of Blue Jays on the wing....

 

 ...and some even landed for another shot.

There were a lot of Yellow-rumped Warblers, by far the most abundant warbler almost everywhere you go these days.

And since it is still relatively early in the season, a few Great Egrets are to be found, and occasionally are in an excellent spot to be photographed.

On another outing, I photographed this Prickly Pear Cactus. Cacti of this type are popular, and always fun to be found. But they present a problem, mainly in the taxonomy. What species is it? For many years, the cacti known in southern Ontario were called Eastern Prickly Pear (Opuntia humifusa). A bit later, taxonomists changed the name to Opuntia cespitosa, and most of the ones are still known as that. However this first one apparently is a different species, known as Grassland Prickly Pear (Opuntia cymochila). It is more of a western species, but due to the arrangement and angle of the spines, is believed by Opuntia experts to be this species. This makes for an interesting element to Ontario's Opuntia, as this particular population in the former Howard Township was quite abundant back in the 1940s. A former co-worker of mine, when I was at Rondeau back in the late 1970s, told me of this population which occurred in a large sandy area almost right across the road from where he and his wife lived. His wife was a teacher at the schoolhouse just down the road, and walked by this population almost every day. That was back in the mid 1940s. However as time went on, the sandy area was converted to agriculture, and it eliminated most of the cactus. Now only a couple of dozen plants persist in the road allowance.

Another population of cactus occurs at Rondeau, in the southeast beach dunes. They do not occur there naturally, as some unknown persons transplanted them there in about 1994. They have done fairly well there since. This population has been determined to be genetically similar to the naturally occurring population on Pelee Island. Therefore the species is legally endangered under the province's Endangered Species Act. The conundrum is: what to do with these plants? They are endangered, sort of, but it is debatable whether transplants are covered under the Act. Or should they be removed, since they may end up being a problem species in an otherwise highly significant natural habitat in one of the most significant provincial parks in Ontario? At the moment, park staff are reluctant to remove them, so they continue where they are.

On quite a different topic than the ones above, here is one of the most photographed abandoned houses in southwestern Ontario, perhaps in all of Canada if you believe some reports. It is known as the Guyitt House, and if you google that name, you can find out lots more information about this house. Regardless, it is along the former Hwy 3, now the Talbot Trail, in eastern Chatham-Kent a short distance east of Palmyra and few kilometers before you get to the Elgin Co border. It was built in the 1840s and was occupied up until about the mid-1980s. I took these photos at various times in about 2010-2011. It has continued to deteriorate, but does so 'gracefully' and it is interesting to see the process.

I took these next two and processed them to reflect an earlier age

This next one was taken during a full moon, with a long exposure of slightly more than 300 seconds using the moon as the sole source of light. You can tell it was a long exposure by seeing the white streak just to the left of the chimney on the right hand side, which is how far a star 'moved' in those 300+seconds.

In recent weeks, an unknown person has complained about its condition, and asked the municipality to enforce a by-law forcing the owner to either repair it or remove it. This has caused a great deal of angst for the landowner, who would like to keep it as is, since it is such a popular photographic subject. The landowner gets nothing for it, just the satisfaction of having a popular photographic subject. There has been a lot of support to leave it as is. At this point nothing has been decided, so stay tuned.

Back on the lep theme, here is what Marie and I call our October Cat. It is a fairly well developed caterpillar of a Black Swallowtail. Interestingly although Black Swallowtail butterflies have been in our garden area periodically all season, it wasn't until the last couple of weeks where we could find any caterpillars.

We have seen about 7 in the last couple of weeks. Today we couldn't find any, so it is possible that the remaining ones have gone off to change over to a pupal form, in which it will overwinter.

And finally, a Magnificent Frigatebird appeared near the mouth of the Thames River yesterday. It was initially seen by some fishermen but word didn't get out until late in the day. It was believed to not be in good health. Several keen birders were there first thing this morning, and one group saw it tumble from its overnight roost and fall into the water, barely able to struggle to a log on the bank of the river. Clearly it was not likely to survive. A few people reported seeing it in the morning, and one or more believed a rehabber was tracking it down and taking it in to see if it could be saved.

Marie and I went for a drive out that way in the early afternoon. I had mixed feelings, as I don't chase as many rarities as I used to, and chasing a bird that was almost dead was not all that appealing. We didn't see it, so perhaps it has been rescued by a rehabber. I haven't heard any more on that. Update: it may have been euthanized due to its poor condition.

I wasn't too concerned about not getting to add it to my Chatham-Kent list, as I had the opportunity to see and photograph a quite healthy one off the south beach of Rondeau, back in early July of 2012.

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Some recent bird and butterfly highlights in Chatham-Kent

I've got some catching up to do.

It was a couple of weeks ago (was it really that long??) when a Red-necked Phalarope showed up at the Blenheim Sewage Lagoons. It was a distant view, so the photo isn't the greatest, but at least the light was good. Interestingly, while this species is not often seen in Chatham-Kent even on its southward migration, there have been several reports of them along the Lake Erie shoreline at Rondeau in the last few days.

While the Blenheim lagoons haven't had the attention it had when the Purple Gallinule was present for a few days, other spots in CK have picked up the slack.

I was contacted by a friend about a Cattle Egret that showed up at their place. I went out almost immediately in hopes that this uncommon visitor was still around. Some years the species is regularly seen in a number of places in southern Ontario, but not 2020. In fact in checking eBird at the time, this was the first Ontario report on that database for the whole year! Unfortunately, it occurred on private property and well away from any publicly accessible location, so I was unable to post about it anywhere. As far as I am aware, it was only seen by one other birder very briefly at a nearby spot.

I was treated to some great views, and photo ops of this bird. Most of the time it was busily searching the wet grassy areas for something to eat. Normally it eats grasshoppers and other insects stirred up by the presence of livestock in a pasture.

On this occasion, it came across a frog, probably a Green Frog, and promptly grabbed on to it.

It wrestled with it for several minutes, trying to get it in the right position in which to swallow it, which it eventually did as the second photo following shows.

It posed nicely at times. 

 On another occasion, I went to the Mitchell's Bay North Shore Trail. It has been officially closed since last fall, due to some repair work required along the ARDA dyke. As far as I can tell, the repair work has not been completed, so that part of the trail remains closed. However the part of the trail that goes to another part of the wetland area is accessible, and is usually worth a look.

It was getting a bit late in the season for Swamp Rose Mallow to be in flower, but there was one plant still hanging on to a flower. It is a Species At Risk.

Pokeweed was in flower, and will soon have juicy looking dark blue berries. Birds love them, and as delicious as they might look to the human eye, they are not edible, and even considered poisonous.

There were numerous wildflowers along the trail, many of them being tallgrass prairie types. Here is a day-flying moth known as Corn Earworm, feeding on this flower. Some of you probably knew I would get a moth photo somewhere in this post :-).

A Common Buckeye was along the gravel trail.

There was a lot of Missouri Ironweed along the trail, much of it still in flower. This Orange Sulphur butterfly was busily sipping on the nectar....

.....while this Bronze Copper was visiting a Canada Thistle.

In the wetland channels nearby there was at least one Great Egret. Since they nest at Walpole Island which is in sight of this vantage point, egrets are a regular occurrence here.

Caspian Terns are gathering in the lower Great Lakes, and there were several dozen in the area.

I also took time to roam around St. Clair NWA. Birds were not plentiful in view at the time of my visit, but there were other things of interest. Again, there was a variety of prairie wildflowers along the trail, although not all are native to Ontario. Nonetheless, they are attractive to the human eye, and likely to some of the native critters. This Whorled Coreopsis, easily identified by its finely dissected leaves, was in fine shape, scattered along the trail.

Pied-billed Grebes were often seen, sometimes quite close-up.

An Osprey, sometimes known as a Fish Hawk as they dine almost entirely on fish, are passing through the area. I am not aware of any nests of this species in Chatham-Kent, although there is one or two possible suspects along a quiet and inaccessible area along the Lake Erie shoreline.

The sky was bland, making photography a challenge.

I had an interesting observation along the trail. I was watching and following a couple of butterflies: Common Buckeye and Viceroy. The Viceroy was fairly cooperative, but kept on the move.

At one point it took a brief rest on an overhanging flower head of Phragmites. As I approached it to get a better shot, it fluttered down and landed on the gravel path. Or I should say it almost landed.

Just as it set down, I noted it flutter its wings rapidly and try and escape something. It was then that I noticed a Leopard Frog on the path, and it had grabbed onto the Viceroy's wing. The butterfly did escape after a few seconds, and as I approached the frog, I saw a bit of the Viceroy's wing still clenched in the mouth of the frog.

Fast forward to today. Marie and I went out to Rondeau, but first swung by the Morpeth Cliffs where, depending on the wind direction, it can be a good observation point to watch migrating raptors. The best winds are from the northwest to the northeast. But by the time we got there, they were much more to straight on east, so raptors were likely passing through the area a little farther inland. I did see an adult Bald Eagle well inland, but too far for a photo. There were a few Turkey Vultures floating back and forth. The highlight was this immature Bald Eagle which soared right over head, back and forth for a few minutes before eventually disappearing to the west. The bright blue sky made it a whole lot better result than for the Osprey above.

While at Rondeau a little later, I got a couple of messages about a Cinnamon Teal at Keith McLean Conservation Area. So off we headed, arriving just in time to get a few glimpses of it well out on the far pond area, mixed in with both Blue and Green-winged Teal, and often obscured by quite a few Canada Geese. I tried a few photos, but due to the distance and heat haze, was not able to get anything worthwhile. But at least I have the memories.

Much more cooperative was a Great Egret, a regularly occurring species at this place.

We also noticed this Search and Rescue plane flying repeatedly along the shoreline of Lake Erie, sometimes going out and almost out of view. It seemed to be going in a pattern, and undoubtedly was assisting in the search for a missing boater who went out in a small sailboat from Port Glasgow a couple of days ago. The capsized boat has been found, but so far, no sign of the boater, unfortunately, so it undoubtedly will be a sad ending.

Sewage Lagoons and Aster Action

Just a few short days ago, we were dealing with record high temperatures, which on occasion hit 31C locally. As hot as it was, the butterflies and other pollinators loved it. I had occasion to go to both the Blenheim and Tilbury Sewage Lagoons, where I do regular shorebird surveys for the Ontario Shorebird Survey project. And right at this time of year, some of the asters are in peak flowering. Goldenrods are well past their best for the most part, but the purplish New England Aster and various white aster species are in fine shape.

Of course the most abundant butterfly species were things like the whites and sulphurs.

Painted Ladies were fairly abundant. They were quite noticeable by their absence earlier in the season, but have seemingly come out of nowhere in the last month or so. They outnumber by far, the closely related American Ladies at the moment.

 Monarchs are still drifting through, and some have just recently emerged from their chrysalis.

 Viceroys are fairly regular, although some look quite tattered.....

 ....as do any lingering Silver-spotted Skippers.

 Bronze Coppers are small butterflies and in small numbers.

 A couple of late season highlights were a couple of (not-so) Common Buckeyes, which looked quite fresh. They weren't my first of the year, but my first photographed of the year.

 ...and 2-3 Fiery Skippers at both lagoon sites, my first of the year. For the most part they were alternating between sitting in the sun or sipping the nectar, or sometimes doing both simultaneously.

 There were numerous other flying insects "busy-as-bees" sipping the nectar of these late season flowers, although most were not bees, but bee look-a-likes such as these two Syrphid Fly types. At the Tilbury lagoon aster patch, there had to be anywhere from 100-200 syrphid and other flies as well as actual bees.

 And as before, there was the occasional day-flying moth such as this Corn Earworm, which is somewhat migratory, showing up in southern Ontario mostly in the autumn.

The birds were not overly abundant, but a nice variety was noted. Ducks are appearing in larger numbers, although that might be partly due to the waterfowl hunting season going on in some of the larger marshes nearby. Ruddy Duck is quite plentiful at Blenheim, along with a growing number of Redhead, Wood Duck, Green-winged Teal and others.

 The Tilbury lagoons always has a few Double-crested Cormorants. They haven't started nesting there yet, but that time may not be too far off.

 Shorebirds were part of the reason for my being at both of the lagoons. The overall numbers and diversity have dropped quite a bit in the last couple of weeks, but there are still some around. Greater Yellowlegs are a little more plentiful than they were.

 When the opportunity arises, it is nice to compare shorebird species for size.

Greater Yellowlegs and Pectoral Sandpiper

Lesser Yellowlegs

 At Tilbury, I was able to get these three species all together. Long-billed Dowitcher, Lesser Yellowlegs and Greater Yellowlegs.

 The bill of this Long-billed Dowitcher was really quite long, so in combination with the grayish and unbarred tertial feathers, it made it relatively easy to conclude this as a Long-bill rather than a very similar looking Short-bill.