A mix of rarities and more common things to enjoy!

 One of the birding highlights in recent days was to hear about a Western Cattle Egret hanging out with a few black angus cattle a bit north of Erieau. I had been out at Keith McLean Conservation Area on the lookout for migrating raptors with the favourable winds, when I got the word, so I headed over to look. Sure enough, there it was, but it was flighty, moving from one group of cattle to another before it finally got up in the air a little higher and headed towards Rondeau Bay.

A few days later, this past Tuesday to be exact, an even rarer bird got the attention of many, many birders, at the KMCL, a Mountain Bluebird. More on that a little later.

In between these bird highlights, I was out and about looking for whatever I could find. The sometimes breezy winds from a northerly direction was promising for raptors, and I spent a bit of time at the Morpeth Cliffs area. There were a few raptors on the move, but most were very high up and difficult to see against the almost entirely blue sky. My hope was to see a Golden Eagle or two, as this is prime time for their migration, and several of the hawkwatch sites had reported then regularly. Even though I had been on the lookout for them at other times over the past few weeks, today was to be the day. I had two fly over, way up high. This photo of one of them was the lowest. Fortunately my camera/lens combination latched onto it with good focus, and this is what I ended up with.

Both birds were almost impossible to see with the naked eye, up against the brilliant blue sky. Binoculars were a necessity. After I got the photos processed, and greatly cropped, these were the best of the bunch, and after all was said and done, they are shown here at the equivalent of about 100X magnification!

There were some sunny warmish days to go out wandering around Rondeau on occasion, so out I went. Birds were not always that plentiful, but there are always other things to see and photograph.

During the sunniest period and sheltered from the wind, there were often a lot of dragonflies flitting about. They were all of the Autumn Meadowhawk species as near as I could determine, and their pale/yellow legs were telltale. It used to be called the Yellow-legged Meadowhawk, and perhaps is still referred to as such.

Common Buckeyes were still around, and sometimes paused long enough for a close approach with the camera.

As there were still the occasional dandelion flowers quite visible, they attracted several of this next critter, the Common Drone Fly. It is not a native species, but has become quite abundant at times.

Eastern Black Squirrels are quite common, as usual, especially where there were a few oak trees around, as they were searching for acorns.

Another butterfly is this next one, a Fiery Skipper. It is typically more of a southern species, and arrives in Ontario in the later summer. Some will stick around for quite awhile!

Another butterfly I caught up with is this Question Mark.

There were a few birds to be found, and some allowed me to get some worthwhile photos. Blue Jays are migrating through in good numbers, with some searching for sustenance to carry them on their journey.

No doubt some will stick around all winter, as usual.

Dark-eyed Juncos are fairly common. Here are a few having a bath in a shallow puddle.

Red-bellied Woodpeckers are permanent residents now. They were extremely rare up until the 1980s or so, and have since became well established here in southwestern Ontario.

Rusty Blackbirds are not as plentiful as they used to be, but still migrate through in decent numbers. This one was feeding on a seed of some sort on the ground.

Mushrooms have not been plentiful compared to some years. The quite dry spell we have experienced over the last few months made all the difference. But a few have appeared. This first one is a type of puffball, and may be the Pear-shaped Puffball.

Next is the Orange Jelly Fungus...

...followed by Shaggy Mane.

Some days have had some quite brisk east winds. This first image is of the waves along the east beach of Rondeau.

I went over to Erieau hoping for some impressive wave action hitting the pier and splashing over. This next one is one of the better ones, but overall it wasn't as impressive as I was hoping. Maybe a different day...

This next photo shows one of the better ones I took in late October of 2021. Some of the waves and spray almost obscured the lighthouse!

Getting back to the Mountain Bluebird. It was first seen this past Tuesday, and I got word from Steve Charbonneau who was the one who found it, in the very early afternoon. I am not on Discord, the birding app that keen birders who like to chase the latest notable birds are on, and since Steve is aware of that, informed me directly (thanks, Steve!). However it just didn't work out for me to scoot out to the Keith McLean area to catch up to it that afternoon. It was apparently feeding quite readily in a good spot, and since this species is fairly hardy even in poor weather conditions, I thought it might still be around on Wednesday. A lot of others were hoping for that outcome as well. There were lots of people who saw it on Tuesday, and even when I went out on Wednesday, I could barely find a spot in the parking lot. Unfortunately no one reported seeing it at any time on Wednesday. Perhaps the strong wind forced it to take shelter, and it might have been around and was even amused by the number of people roaming around with 'scopes, binoculars and camera gear. However it was not reported. Hopefully it might still be around at an accessible location not far away. This species has been considered long overdue for the Rondeau checklist area. But so far I cannot add it to my Rondeau list. I have seen it on two occasions in southern Ontario in the past, as well as on a few trips to the western part of the country. The first time in Ontario was one I saw on a Christmas Bird Count on Pelee Island, back in the '90s. The second one was one I heard about in southeastern Lambton, so Marie and I went searching. We successfully tracked it down and photographed it, just a short distance from Chatham-Kent. We caught up to it on January 20, 2012.

January 2012 provided another good photo op for an uncommon species, this time for White-winged Crossbill. There have been a few migrating through so far this autumn, and on one occasion I thought I heard one or two, giving their high-pitched rattle calls, but could not find it perched anywhere. It was probably passing through quickly and vocalizing. At any rate, here is a photo I took of one at Rondeau on January 25, 2012. It was part of a flock of a couple of dozen feeding in this spruce tree.

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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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Rondeau Ramblings and a bonus Purple Sandpiper!

Earlier this week I went for a long walk along the west side of the South Point Trail. The colours are starting to change, and the much cooler weather of the last few days will likely hasten the colour changes along.

The birds were fairly few and far between, and the only one I managed to photograph was this juvenile Northern Harrier.

A goal for this little trek was to get to the lake and see what the conditions were like at the south end, for future black lighting considerations. There are some possibilities but probably not until next year.

The south end of the park has continued to experience major changes due to the high water. I was greeted by this scene at one point. For those readers with long memories, the concrete structure is the remains of a washroom that at one point in my memory was probably at least 150 metres from the shoreline. This is not the first park structure to end up in the lake. There was a large picnic shelter that was between the south point parking lot and the lake, which even as far back as the mid 1970s had ended up in the lake. The parking lot is gone as well.

 If you look closely at the second photo above and on the left you may see a pile of rocks. That was the old septic holding tank which, after the washroom was closed down, was filled with rocks partly to keep it safe from people falling into it, and partly because some species of snakes may decide to use it as a hibernaculum for the winter.

The South Point Trail used to go all the way around, but the next photo shows what a significant section of the trail has ended up like, with all of the erosion and fallen trees. As a result, the new  signs at the beginning of each side indicate that they are considered to be two distinct trails with no meaningful connection. There is now a South Point Trail East and South Point Trail West

 American Beech trees are normally found in the interior of the forest. Here is a beached, American Beech in the next photo and looks totally out of habitat.

 In spite of all of the erosive action during the highest water levels and strongest wind and wave action, there is some fairly open beach that has re-formed. With November being one of the windiest months of the year, however, who knows how long this will last.

Today, Steve Charbonneau put the word out that a Purple Sandpiper was along the east beach of Rondeau just south of the traffic circle (thanks, Steve!). Purple Sandpipers are quite irregular along the lower lakes. We used to see them every year or so, but in the last few years, they have been really hard to find anywhere. Having said that, I came across one at the base of the Erieau pier last January. It only stayed for a few hours, and only 4 of us got to see it. That was only about the third record in Ontario for the previous 4 months. The bird today was much more available for viewing.

It remained in the same general stretch of beach from about 10 a.m., when Steve first discovered it, until at least 5:30 p.m. Birders and bird photographers were very happy with the conditions and the cooperation of the bird.

A common question from some birders I was talking to was why the bird was so tame. This bird appears to be a first year bird, and the species nests in the high arctic. It is quite possible that, depending on the route it took to get here, the humans it saw today might have been the first ones it had seen, and didn't know whether to be wary or not. Regardless, it was very cooperative and the lighting was excellent.

Sandpiper yoga?

Jumping an arriving wave

The Keith McLean Conservation Lands continues to be attractive to migrating water birds, and a half dozen or so species of shorebirds can usually be found with a little effort.

Greater Yellowlegs

Lesser Yellowlegs

Least Sandpiper

Semipalmated Plover

 Good numbers of Killdeer and Dunlin are also hanging around.

Waterfowl are increasing in abundance and diversity, probably in part due to the hunting going on elsewhere around Rondeau Bay and area, and this conservation area is off limits to hunting.

Hooded Merganser

 A few Great Blue Herons are typically found.

But Lake McLean is in the process of being pumped, so it won't be long until the habitat at least for shorebirds is gone. However the the vast majority of shorebirds have already gone south, so the loss of Lake McLean shouldn't be a problem at least for them.

On this day, I was hoping to see and photograph the Nelson's Sparrows that are there, but they are extremely furtive and seldom are seen other than in flight. So no photos on this day. But while I was checking out the area, I came across this Fiery Skipper, a late season species that may linger for awhile yet.

A Cattle Egret had been seen a couple of days ago, in a pasture along Pinehurst Line, between Blenheim and Chatham. This pasture has attracted Cattle Egrets in the past, and every time I go by I take a look, especially if there are cattle there. However at the time I checked after this bird had been reported, it was nowhere to be seen. I did see half a dozen Eastern Bluebirds at a bit of a distance....

....and this Double-crested Cormorant on a rock in the stream running along the south side of the pasture.

The cormorant looked a bit out of place so far from the lake, but clearly by looking at the white streaks on the rock, it has been using the area for awhile.