CASO, a newly accessible trail in Chatham-Kent

 The use of railways has changed over the decades, and some have become abandoned or taken over by new interests. Such is the case for the former CASO rail line, which extends throughout Chatham-Kent. It has had various owners over its lifetime, and it was just a few decades ago when it was taken out of use. 

I had the opportunity beginning in 2012 to work with Carolinian Canada staff, doing a cursory life science inventory, starting off with the eastern portion in that year. We tried to document as many of the major groups of flora and fauna that we could, but with only a relatively brief time period. On rare occasions when some vegetation community especially piqued our interests, we would visit a section of the rail trail a second time.

The results were pleasing. Although much of the trail passed through heavily agricultural usage areas, there were places where it went by an interesting woodlot, or even better, a small prairie patch or a wetland.

A buttonbush swamp is considered a rare vegetation community in Ontario.

The few wetlands are popular with turtles.

'Tired' turtles

There were several small prairie patches which were delightful to find. These areas, especially those that were first encountered early in the season, were usually visited a second time to see just what occurred in them during a period when they would be displaying a greater diversity of prairie species.

As a result, we tallied more than 275 species of plants, 50 species of birds (46 with evidence of breeding), 28 species of butterfly, 8 species of reptiles & amphibians and 8 species of mammals. 

There were various highlights. Compass Plant, shown first, is a provincially rare species which was first known for this site back in 2000. It proved to be even more extensive as it occurred in several sections.

The prairie patches sometimes supported an endangered prairie species known as Dense Blazing-star.

 

Other prairie patches had 'just' some of the expected prairie species.

Butterfly Milkweed

Another highlight was coming across a large patch of this prairie species, which was a first record for Chatham-Kent. It is known as Prairie Sundrops (Oenothera pilosella). Due to some shrubby growth, the patch is smaller now than back in 2012.

Due to the presence of many non-native wildflowers, not all that surprising since parts of it have been heavily disturbed, there is an incredible array of plants that attract butterflies and many other pollinating invertebrates. I came across Pipevine Swallowtail in a couple of different areas.

Milbert's Tortoiseshell is much more common than Pipevine, but not seen anywhere all that regularly.

While we were carrying out this inventory, it was always our hope that this would be publicly accessible. It had been posted as off limits at the time, and at one point while conducting some of the field work, I had been reported by a local landowner as being suspicious. This resulted in a local police officer stopping by and checking me out. Fortunately the letter of permission I had with me prevented any further complications.

Fast forward to the last couple of years, and the eastern half has now been made publicly accessible. This is the section beginning at Communication Road (formerly Hwy 40) and going east to the edge of CK at MacPherson Road. The property is jointly owned by Entegrus and the municipality, and is currently underway to be upgraded with signage, etc., for pedestrians and cyclists. Several sections have been upgraded already, with more happening this year, and the entire stretch being completed by 2025.

There are 32 access points. Many sections will already have an entrance marked like this:

A closer look will give much more detail.

Other sections which have not yet been upgraded but where there is access will only have a sign like this:

And this may be of particular interest to birders, especially those who are involved with the current Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas in Region 2. This trail, as mentioned, goes through lots of areas that were previously not accessible, and traverses squares MH19, MH29, MG20 and MG30.

I have been on some of the sections over the last few weeks. As mentioned, some sections have been upgraded and are well signed. The trail is nicely set with lots of room for pedestrians and cyclists, as shown in the following image.

Compass Plant is still present in the usual sections.

They were coming up very close to the rail bed during our 2012 inventory, and even after the trail has had the rails, ties and gravel removed and with a good layer of trail gravel put down, some plants are emerging through the base.

Given the dominant shrubby, open vegetation types, the diversity of birds would fit that habitat type. I haven't been by one of the woodlands or wetlands during the prime breeding period yet. Nonetheless I have encountered almost 40 species of birds so far. With a few dead trees along the route, the open branches provide some decent photo opportunities.

Cedar Waxwing

Indigo Bunting

I haven't seen a lot of butterfly diversity yet, but some of the main pollinator plant species are just coming into their peak period, so I would expect a greater diversity in the next few weeks. I have noted the following things of interest.

Bladdernut is not a common shrub in southern Ontario, and only occurs in a couple of sections along this trail.

Sassafrass, easily identified by its distinctive leaf shapes, is scattered along.

White Mulberry is present along most sections, and is just now coming into fruit. The fruits are quite tasty, so before the birds get them all, you can enjoy a few along the way. A mulberry tree in fruit is always worth keeping an eye on since they are quite popular with several bird species.

Horse-nettle is a Carolinian species but fairly widespread especially along roadsides and other disturbed areas, including this trail.

This insect is probably an Oblique Streaktail (Allograpta obliqua), a type of hoverfly.

Wild Bergamot is widely scattered along the trail, especially in the prairie patches.

Adjacent to one section is a planted prairie, now owned by the Lower Thames Valley Conservation Authority. Recently the Ohio Spiderwort, an excellent prairie species, was in spectacular form.

So kudos to all who have made this publicly accessible trail available. It is worth checking out for lots of reasons. I hope to see a few more people out there, but not all at once :-).

Additional note: Please be advised that if you are a subscriber to this blog, the blog site has indicated that sometime after July it will no longer be providing automatic email notices of when this blog is published. I will try and get a subscriber's list assembled and let you know, but in the meantime, if you would like to be advised of the publication of future posts of Nature Nuggets, let me know via this email: prairietramper@gmail.com

Giants, Lizards and River Cruisers

Yesterday I wandered through parts of Lambton County that I hadn't been to yet this year. Butterflies have been fewer than normal...maybe that is the new normal. Anyway, I hadn't come across any Giant Swallowtails yet this year, which is unusual given how far the summer is along. They were totally absent or in very low numbers on some of the local butterfly counts.

I often found a few in the past at the Bickford Oak Woods Conservation Reserve in west central Lambton, so that was one of my targets. There are two large grassy tallgrass prairie patches at BOWCR, each of several hectares in size They were planted into predominantly prairie vegetation about 15 years ago. I had no sooner started out into the prairie patch when I noticed a large butterfly fluttering in the distance. Bingo, not one, not two, but three Giant Swallowtails.

Some were on Swamp Milkweed, but there was an abundance of Teasel, and although it is not a native species, the butterflies didn't seem to mind at all. In fact Teasel seemed to be the preferred species. I saw at least seven of these giants at BOWCR and about 14 species of butterfly altogether in the BOWCR area.

 There is an abundance of tallgrass prairie plants at BOWCR, some of which are quite rare. This first one is Compass Plant (Silphium laciniatum). It grows fairly tall, standing well above many other prairie plants. It is arguably native in Ontario, although that isn't without some debate. Regardless, there are populations of it in Essex, Chatham-Kent and Elgin.

 This next one, Grey-headed Coneflower (Ratibida pinnata) is not nearly as rare, but still quite uncommon in prairie and prairie type settings. It is restricted mainly to Essex, Lambton and Chatham-Kent.

 Dense Blazing-star (Liatris spicata) shown next, is protected under Ontario's Endangered Species Act. It is restricted largely to Essex, Lambton and Chatham-Kent as well.

Painted Lady

Viceroy

A bit further east from BOWCR is the Moore Wildlife Area. A section of the Sydenham River goes through it, and although with the high water earlier in the year making the trail impassible, the water level had dropped considerably, and as long as one could make it through the extensive dense stands of Giant Ragweed that reached well over two metres in height, one could make it to the river in a couple of places.

As is typical of various sections of the Sydenham River, Lizard's-tail is quite abundant even though it is rare in Ontario. I saw several patches.

 Not surprisingly there was a bit of Swamp Milkweed along the lower and wetter areas near the river, and Monarchs were using them from time to time.

 This Monarch was resting on a milkweed leaf. Clearly it has seen better times, but in spite of its damaged wings, it was doing its best to carry on butterfly activities while it could.

 There were lots and lots of damselflies, and especially abundant were Ebony Jewelwings.

male

female

 The photo above is that of White Vervain (Verbena urticifolia). Its tiny, delicate white flowers go almost unnoticed to the casual eye.

I had a Hackberry Emperor stop by, allowing me a couple of quick photos before a gust of wind caused the Giant Ragweed to blow too hard, dislodging its fluttery occupant.

Another one I came across is this Common Wood-Nymph.

There were lots of dragonflies along the river, and I saw good numbers of Common Whitetail and Widow Skimmer.

But the real highlight for me was to see at least two individuals of this large dragonfly patrolling the river, sometimes disappearing around a bend but eventually coming back my way. It is a Royal River Cruiser. I had never photographed one before, and I did not have a lot of success this time, but at least a few shots were identifiable. It never landed within view, and its fast and often erratic flight made it challenging to say the least.

Another target area I had for the day was to stop by Long Creek, a tributary of the Sydenham River a bit northeast of Dresden. There is a bridge that crosses the creek along Kent Road, which is the boundary between Lambton and Chatham-Kent. Right at the bridge I found....are you ready for it.....Lizard's-tail! Both upstream in Lambton and downstream in Chatham-Kent.

 I came across a couple of stems of Sneezeweed (Helenium autumnale) ust coming into flower.

 A close-up of the stem, below, shows the "wings".

 This next one is Wild Senna (Senna hebecarpa) and is although it doesn't have any official status under the ES Act either, it is ranked as S1, which means there are five or fewer known populations in Ontario. It grows along Kent Line on both sides of the county line.

Before getting all the way home, I stopped along a roadside a bit northeast of Chatham to see if this shrub species, ranked S3, was still around. Although it has been cut numerous times during roadside maintenance, it persists but is not in great shape. It is Pawpaw (Asimina triloba).