Birds, butterflies and orchids, mostly in Chatham-Kent

I haven't gone too far these last few days, but enough to find some interesting things.

Dickcissels are around again, but not in nearly the numbers of 2017, nor in 2018. I had found a few at the Dealtown Crown Land prairie both of those years, and have been there twice this year.  I had a good variety of shrubby/grassland birds as well as aerial insectivores, some of which gave me some good photo ops, but no Dickcissel.

Bank Swallows were quite abundant, not surprising though since this site is only about a kilometre from Lake Erie where the steep clay cliffs often have this species nesting in.

Bank Swallow

 No Bobolinks this year either, but a couple of Eastern Meadowlarks are there.

There are some early southern-bound shorebird migrants. Usually the local sewage lagoons are the places to find them, and there is a very small number there, but with all of the flooded fields to choose from, they will be spread out wherever there is shallow water. Lesser Yellowlegs are the more common shorebird so far, although a few others have also shown up.

 I've checked the flooded fields along Lagoon Road where a lingering Franklin's Gull has been seen on occasion, but I did not catch up to it. There were Lesser Yellowlegs and lots of Killdeer. A few of the typical summering gulls were around, as well as a few Caspian Terns.

 The Blenheim lagoons have good conditions for shorebirds, but except for lots of Killdeer and a few Lesser Yellowlegs, the shorebirds have not made a point of hanging out there yet. But there are a few other waterbirds, including a few Ruddy Ducks, this pair of Blue-winged Teal....

....and a Ring-necked Duck. There had been a pair of Ring-necks not that long ago, but the male was not visible on this visit.

I stopped at Erieau on one occasion. As has been the case throughout the spring, the water continues to be very high. The pier gets washed over periodically, even when there is very little wave action.

 On the vegetated part of the beach dunes, the Common Hop-tree is in full flower. It is Special Concern, one notch lower than Threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

Of course I managed to get to Rondeau a couple of times. Birds have been fairly typical, just the usual breeding species or vagrants. American Redstarts are scattered about the forest.

 A couple of pairs of Prothonotary Warblers continue along the Tuliptree Trail. I can never get enough of these critters!

While watching the Prothonotaries for awhile, this Green Frog was plinking like a banjo string in the slough nearby. It is surrounded by a plant called Frog-bit, which is not native to North America but arrived several decades ago. It was first discovered at Rondeau in 1976 when I was out canoeing in the Rondeau marsh with my university Aquatic Vascular Plants professor. It has expanded at Rondeau considerably since then, being found almost anywhere there is some sunny, quiet water.

The White-winged Dove continues along Lakeshore Road, south of the Visitor Centre. The stainless steel chimney at 17168 continues to be a favourite hang-out.

Earlier in the week I was out to show some friends a small population of Puttyroot, an orchid they had never seen before. The Puttyroot had finished flowering and had developing seed capsules. But before these folks left the park, they checked out a couple of trails and came across another orchid: Ragged-fringed Orchid. It is not a common species anywhere, but can be found in wet woods and sometimes in wet grassy meadows. This particular individual was at the base of a tree in a slough. I had access to a pair of hip waders to get close enough for these photos.

On one occasion I ventured beyond the boundaries of Chatham-Kent. Fellow blogger Blake had reported that the Oak Hairstreaks had appeared at the Reid Conservation Area in southern Lambton, so one partly sunny and very hot morning I headed there. There were lots of European Skippers, several Banded Hairstreaks, and at least two Oak Hairstreaks.

Banded Hairstreak

Oak Hairstreak

The butterflies were not as prevalent as they often have been for the time of year, so it will be interesting to see if the upcoming butterfly counts show this trend or not.

Linear hiking in Chatham-Kent

A project I have been working on these last few weeks is an inventory of the flora and fauna of an abandoned railroad corridor here in Chatham-Kent. Normally railroads are off limits to most people, but this corridor is currently owned by the municipality and three of us are tasked with conducting the inventory. Future uses for this corridor are being discussed, and there are some interesting possibilities. However before things get too far along, the intent is to see what kinds of flora and fauna are along it.

I was involved in the inventory of the 34 km section of the east half of this corridor in 2012.  At that time, we found some new plants for C-K, as well as several populations of Species At Risk. Several very small patches of endangered Tallgrass Prairie habitat were discovered as well. This year we are covering the west 34 km section and we are hoping for similar interesting discoveries.

Some parts of it are pretty bleak as one might expect in the parts of C-K which have the lowest amount of natural vegetation in the first place. Non-native species of plants are abundant. Trees and shrubs are not, at least in some stretches. But one never knows what is just down the path.

There are some patches of woodland adjacent to the corridor in places, and with all the rain we've had lately, there is lots of 'wetland', at least for now. Some of the wetland patches seem to be fairly permanent, which is a good thing.

Wetland adjacent to woodland

Frogs are widespread, although not abundant. Probably the early to mid April period would have been quite noisy with frog song, but things are fairly quiet right now. The most exciting frog species to date, is Western Chorus Frog, which I just heard but didn't see....it is a very tiny frog, not much more than an inch in length, but with a loud voice.

This Leopard Frog below was especially cooperative. It even let a damselfly (probably some kind of Bluet) use it as a perch. I wonder if the damselfly realized how dangerous this might have been.

On this cattail leaf was a colourful Smartweed Caterpillar getting some sustenance. Once the caterpillar turns into a moth, it is considerably duller.

 In one wetland area was this female Six-spotted Fishing Spider. It is a monster...the body length is almost an inch in length and in combination with the legs, totals almost three inches.

As would be expected, dragonflies are fairly numerous where there is water and lots of open area. Nothing unexpected....yet, but good numbers of the usual species.

Common Whitetail

Halloween Pennant

Twelve-spotted Skimmer

Widow Skimmer

I haven't attempted to identify many damselflies yet, or even photograph them for that matter. This one below appears to be either a Slender or Lyre-tipped Spreadwing.

A very large fly came by, appropriately named  a Black Horse Fly. Its body can be slightly more than an inch long. It can give a painful bite and is hard on livestock. Fortunately it seldom bites humans.

 There was lots of evidence of Groundhogs......numerous holes and mounds, and periodically I would hear their piercing alarm call. On occasion one would let me get close enough for a photo.

Groundhog sentry

 At one point, some almost full grown young demonstrated their curiosity by emerging from their burrow quite close by. There were two young that emerged from one entrance, while two others emerged from the other.

There are a number of streams crossing under the old rail bed. This adds diversity to the wetland habitat, and often there are numerous trees adjacent, along with the fauna that inhabit such areas.

 One particularly good thing these bridges are good for is nesting habitat. Cliff Swallows as well as Barn Swallow, recently declared a Species At Risk, have been seen using them, as have Eastern Phoebes.

Eastern Phoebe

Phoebe nest

 Other birds of interest include a fair number of Wild Turkeys, furtively exploring the corridor area and adjacent croplands.

 Indigo Buntings are pretty regular.

 I've come across Orchard Orioles on more than one occasion, including this female which, along with its male counterpart, was carrying food to young in the nest shown in the next photo.

 Of course butterflies are noticeable by their abundance. Some of the larger and more colourful ones include:

American Lady

Eastern Comma

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

Red-spotted Purple

Viceroy

There are lots of the smaller ones as well, including azures, crescents and skippers, including European Skippers.

European Skipper

And this butterfly look-alike that is actually a daytime flying moth, the Ctenucha Moth.

One butterfly species that seems to be missing so far is Monarch. I haven't seen any along this corridor yet; in fact I've only seen a handful all spring and early summer so far. The milkweeds are just coming into their prime....I hope there are a few Monarchs on their way from the midwest to make use of them!