Natural Areas of Chatham-Kent, Part 14 (Clear Creek Forest)

Clear Creek Forest is one of the most recent additions to the provincial park system. It has an interesting recent history, being privately owned up until a few years ago. I first encountered this impressive woodland in the early 1980s, when I was the regional coordinator for the first Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas. I had been roaming around looking for places to find breeding birds, and came across this site, which had an unofficial trail into it. I wandered along the trail and was immediately impressed with the condition of the forest. It was relatively untouched and had an assortment of impressively large trees, especially along the trail which followed along the top of the bank overlooking a creek and floodplain.

There was a project called Significant Natural Areas of Kent County underway at the time. We added this site to the project, and gradually its importance became better known. It was part of a much larger natural area of varying vegetation types and conditions, stretching all the way to Lake Erie. This length of an area, complete with one of the better examples of what was considered a cold water stream, was unusual in C-K.

Eventually the owner of the property, who lived in Michigan, passed away, and the executors of the estate were trying to decide what to do with it. There was an interest by local environmental groups and individuals to see it retained in its natural condition and together with the Nature Conservancy of Canada and Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, managed to acquire this site. It became regulated as a provincial park in 2014, classified as a Nature Reserve. Some signs like the following identify its provincial park status. There are no staff on site; however it is under the administration of Rondeau Provincial Park.

The most accessible area is the part north of Hwy 3/Talbot Trail, near the corner of Duart Road and Cochrane Line. There is a small parking area marked on the next photo by an 'X' along the roadside across from the entrance to the trail, which is shown as the blue line.

As mentioned, there are some impressive trees in part of this site. Most of them are species typical of the hardwood forests of southwestern Ontario, and include American Beech, Sugar Maple, Black Cherry, Basswood, Bitternut Hickory, White Ash and several oak species, although the ash trees have been almost obliterated due to the invasive Emerald Ash Borer.

One of the largest American Beech trees in Ontario is here. It is close to a metre in diameter.

The forest floor is rich with spring wildflowers.

Dutchman's Breeches

Large-flowered Bellwort

Wild Blue Phlox

Mayapple

Skunk's Cabbage...not common but present in the early part of the season

Wild Geranium

There are birds, of course, both migrants and breeding species. It has not been birded heavily, but even so there are at least 117 species of birds known for the site to date. Warblers are a highlight in the spring, most of which are migrants.

Black-throated Blue Warbler

A possibly breeding warbler is this next one.

Ovenbird

Baltimore Orioles are well represented.

Eastern Towhee is certainly present in various parts of the park.

Pileated Woodpeckers are present in small numbers. A pair had a nest right beside the trail a year ago.

 Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are seldom seen, but it is prime habitat for them.

The more extensive woodland area is sought after by Wood Thrush, a declining species and officially at risk.

Blue-spotted Salamanders, and their Red-backed Salamander relatives, are found throughout the higher quality forest but seldom seen as they spend the majority of their time underground or under logs.

On the north side of Cochrane Line is a very different part of the park. It is an old gravel pit complex, and there are several ponds, some of which have been there for several decades. I remember swimming in one as a teenager back in the 1960s. This next photo is of one of the largest ponds.

At the upper level of the site is another pond, which has more trees and shrubs around it.

There have been a couple of new ponds constructed in the area, which will gradually develop into something more valuable for wildlife.

With so much water present, it is a great spot for dragonflies. This first one is a Halloween Pennant.

 This next one is a White-faced Meadowhawk, which is chowing down on a midge type of insect.

The open areas have many later season flowering plants, and are popular with butterflies.

Common Ringlet on Black-eyed Susan

Hickory Hairstreak

Clear Creek Forest is a valuable addition to the provincial park system, and a worthwhile site to explore in Chatham-Kent at any time of the year!

This concludes the Natural Areas of Chatham-Kent series as per my presentation earlier this year at the Chatham Public Library. However there are other natural areas which were not covered at that time, and I hope to expand this theme to include some of them in the future.

Do you know where Swamp Cottonwood is?

I've had occasion to check out Bickford Oak Woods Conservation Reserve three times in the last few weeks. It doesn't take all that long to get there, but there aren't any official trails, so one has to be willing to follow some overgrown logging trails, or bushwack their way through once you arrive. At 308 hectares in size (760 acres) and much of it being wetland, it isn't the easiest place to get around, but usually well worth the effort.

Drainage is poor, leading to all sorts of small and large wetland pockets.

Typical forested wetland of Bickford Oak Woods

One of the things that Bickford Oak Woods Conservation Reserve (BOWCR) is known for is the only location in Canada for the tree species called Swamp Cottonwood. It was discovered by Gerry Waldron, John Ambrose and Lindsay Rodger in 2002, while doing some inventory work. It is hard to believe that even in this 21st century, new tree species are being discovered in southern Ontario!

Swamp Cottonwood

Swamp Cottonwood grows to a fairly good size, and occurs in a buttonbush swampy area. There are several dozen trees of various sizes.....the image here is from a very short young plant.

The wetlands are great spots for amphibians, such as this tiny Western Chorus Frog, only about 2-3.5 cm long.

In general, the BOWCR does not have a lot of large trees. It was acquired by business men during a time when industrial expansion of that part of Lambton County was thought to be a good investment. But industrial expansion did not occur in this area, so it sat for decades. It did undergo fairly intensive timber harvest about 50 years ago, as well as some cattle pasturing, so it wasn't in the most pristine shape. But in the late 1990s, the owners called me to see if any government or private conservation agency would be interested in purchasing it, and so a plan of action was put into place. With the extreme generosity of individuals, local field naturalist groups, the Nature Conservancy of Canada as well as Ministry of Natural Resources, it was acquired and eventually designated as a Conservation Reserve. The forest is rebounding from the harvesting and pasturing activity of the past. But hints of such activity remains, if one only looks at the type of tree form that is common to see throughout the drier sections of the forest.

Multi-stemmed tree trunks abound. Oak was a valuable forest product, and so the merchantable timber was taken out. But oaks have a tendency to sucker after harvest, and some of those suckers are now the well established tree trunks. It is quite common to see double and triple stemmed trunks of various oak species.

Triple-stemmed White Oak

 And on occasion, one may find one with as many as five trunks such as this Red Oak below shows.

With this forest being so large at over 750 acres, it has a significant amount of what is known as Interior Forest, which is the forested portion at least 100 metres from the edge. This is the maximum distance at which edge species, such as Brown-headed Cowbirds, will normally venture in, giving a safer area for birds such as Wood Thrush, Ovenbird and other forest interior species to breed without being parasitized by the cowbird which lays its eggs in other species nests.

Ovenbirds, Wood Thrush, Scarlet Tanager, Yellow-throated Vireo, Rose-breasted Grosbeak and others are fairly common here. Less common species include Cerulean Warbler, Tufted Titmouse and even Acadian Flycatcher. I have seen or heard all of these here from time to time, other than the Acadian......that one is pretty infrequent here.

Some of the largest wetland areas in the BOWCR will support Beaver, and a Great Blue Heronry is in the vicinity of these same interior wetlands.

Beaver cutting

I noted this One-spotted Stinkbug along the trail.

And in October, one can easily find Witch-hazel, a shrub that only flowers in the fall.

Some of the property that was formerly in farmland has been left to regenerate, and even had some tallgrass prairie plants and wildlife shrubs established about a decade ago. Right now, these areas are great for butterflies and dragonflies. This first one is a Common Baskettail, but it had me fooled at first because they normally have an obvious dark spot at the base of the wing. It is more noticeable in the second photo.

Common Baskettail

 Also fairly abundant was Common White tail, as in the next photo showing an immature male of the species.

 Twelve-spotted Skimmers were also well represented.

Twelve-spotted Skimmer

Wildlife shrubs, such as this Nannyberry, are coming into good flower these days, which is great for butterflies.

Nannyberry

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

Giant Swallowtail

American Lady

In the grasses and clover were some smaller lepidoptera:

Common Ringlet

Juvenal's Duskywing

Peck's Skipper

I'm not 100% certain if this is a Peck's Skipper.....those little rascals are sometimes a challenge unless you get just the right angle to show the important characteristics.....if anyone has a better idea, please let me know.

While I was busy photographing butterflies in the open grassy area, this Tree Swallow and its mate were keeping an eye on me.