Roaming around two of the best natural areas of C-K!

 In addition to several evenings of black lighting, I've been out to two of the most interesting (to me) natural areas, as there are always things to enjoy and photograph.

Closest to home is St. Clair NWA. I usually go in the early evenings, when some birds are on the move, or feeding towards the end of the day. This Great Blue Heron was busily feeding....

...and this one was perched, probably for over night.

There are usually 4-5 Great Egrets somewhere scattered across the NWA....

..and the occasional Green Heron.

A highlight is to see and photograph Northern Harriers. On some occasions I have seen three or four, and with most of them being young-of-the-year, indicate a fairly successful breeding period.

Sandhill Cranes are sometimes quite close to the trail, at least until they detect me getting too close....

...so generally they are more often seen in flight.

On one occasion during the smoky weather conditions, I photographed the sun about an hour before sundown, where it was just glowing through the smoky haze.

White-tailed Deer are regularly seen either in the NWA or in the fields immediately adjacent.

On the plant side, the Swamp Rose Mallow is quite widespread, but not often close to the trail. This first photo shows a dense stand of it but well away from the trail.

On occasion one may find a few close by.

And Buttonbush is evident in a few spots.

At Rondeau, I have been more focused on plants, both the rare and not so rare. Here are just a few examples, but more on plants in a future post.

One of the rarest I keep an eye on, is American Ginseng. This first photo shows it just past flowering, with this one featuring a single fruit.... 

...while this next one shows some buds finished flowering, and three fruits developing. As they mature, the fruits will turn red.

Certainly not a rare species is next: Nightshade.

Back to a rarity is this Broad Beech Fern, which I only know from one location, that being along Spicebush Trail where it grows in several quite dense clusters.

Not far from the Broad Beech Fern is this Richweed, not really rare, but not all that common either. It is indicative of a rich hardwood forest of southern Ontario.

And again not far way is this fruit showing up on Goldenseal, a provincial rarity.

This next one is Cylindrical Blazing-star, growing in the open grassy dunes of the southeast. It is just starting to flower and in a few days there will be a light purplish glow across these grassy areas.

There is a single location for this next species: Oswego Tea. I missed the peak flowering by a few days, but caught at least one or two in relatively good condition.

Just something else in the general vicinity are the following: while doing my area of the annual butterfly count, I didn't see many butterflies, but I noted the Osprey nest atop the tower just outside of Erieau.

And shorebirds are increasing in diversity and numbers as they have completed their breeding cycle and are returning southwards. One of the highlights of recent days has been a Stilt Sandpiper. The shorebirds at the Blenheim Sewage Lagoons are always popular for shorebirds, but it seems this year not so much in the sprinkler cells. In one of the largest lagoons they are quite abundant, but more distant and therefore more challenging to photograph. This one was taken a couple of years ago, showing it still in the remains of its breeding plumage, and at the sprinkler cells.

 Lots more to feature in a future post!

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Dickcissel, Wilson's Phalarope, BC Night-Heron, Least Bittern, Tiger Beetle and lots more!

I thought it was time to change the header, giving the Red Squirrel a rest. It is still around the park, but Prothonotary Warblers are one of the most sought after species to find. I got many photos of this cooperative male earlier in the spring. 

I've been out to various places in Chatham-Kent over the last few days. It is a great time to be out before more of the hot, humid weather is here to stay, with summer being just around the corner in spite of quite a few recent days giving hints of things to come.

Going to Rondeau is a regular destination of choice for me as readers will know. What is a little more appealing in the warmer weather is the effect of breezes off the water keeping things a bit cooler. And now that the spring birding frenzy of May is past, the trails are a little quieter.

A small type of plant that catches people's eye is first: it is American Cancer-root. 

Certainly not a rarity, but special in their own way is the species shown in the next two photos. It is the Brown-headed Cowbird, a species not everyone can appreciate due to their laying eggs in other bird's nests. I wrote about this in a previous post entitled "Bison Birds". 

Male

Female

More to people's liking is the Cedar Waxwing, next.

On the sunnier days of spring, before it gets too hot, the Common Five-lined Skinks are out and about. The first photo is of a first year skink, sometimes called a Blue-tailed Skink for obvious reasons.

A female skink is next.

Eastern Kingbirds are regular nesting species here.

I came across a Green Heron along Tulip Tree Trail. Sometimes its crest is raised.....

...but more often it isn't.

Of course Tulip Tree Trail has many Tulip Trees, and they are in flower now.

Little Wood Satyr butterflies are flitting about along trails...

...and a much smaller little creature is the Six-spotted Tiger Beetle. They are quite plentiful along most trails, but often are flighty so don't give a good view. This one enabled me to get quite close even with my macro lens!

A little farther north of Rondeau, I encountered a colourful bird hanging out at a sizeable grassy field. It is a Dickcissel, generally considered an uncommon species but which has been increasing in the last few years.

Inhabiting the same grassy field is this more common Savannah Sparrow.

Continuing a little farther north again, this time at the Blenheim Sewage Lagoons, there has been somewhat of an invasion of a fairly rare bird: Wilson's Phalarope. On one occasion when I was there, I came across 10 birds, all of which seemed to be mated pairs. This first photo shows a pair, with the female on the left and male on the right. In this species, the females are more colourful, and it is the male that does most of the work on incubating the eggs!

On another occasion, they were very cooperative for my camera, and I got this great close-up of a female.

I had hoped that at least one of the pairs might have stayed to nest, but as of the last couple of days, it is apparent that all have left. I remember back in about 1980, there was a pair that nested at the lagoons, and I got a photo of the male on the nest. Maybe next year.....

With the significant changing of the water levels of the sprinkler cells, it is less attractive for shorebirds, and at my last visit I had a mere 3 Semiplamated Sandpipers, a single Least Sandpiper, and the occasional Spotted Sandpiper, along with a handful of Killdeer.

Semipalmated Sandpiper

For any regular, or even periodic, birders checking the lagoons, you might have seen this truck working away. It is a special vehicle owned by Republic Services, and it was on site to suction off some of the oily sheen that was covering one of the lagoons. It so happens that my son is with Republic Services, and travels widely across southwestern Ontario in particular providing environmental clean-up services at various industrial sites, etc. He was operating this truck, and he told me he was going to be there for several hours, so I stopped by and saw him in action.

Continuing northwards again, I have been to St. Clair NWA on several occasions, as it is a great place to see and hear nature in action.  Black-crowned Night-Herons used to be a bit more commonly seen, but for some reason they are less numerous now. I did manage to get this photo of one flying relatively close by on one evening.

 Sandhill Cranes are fairly regular fly-overs, sometimes giving good photo ops.

June is egg-laying time for many turtles, so I wasn't surprised to see several Common Snapping Turtles roaming about the trail looking for a place to dig a hole and deposit their eggs.

Great Egrets are scattered about...

...and there are at least a few Least Bitterns inhabiting this NWA. They are much more often heard than seen, so I felt fortunate to get this photo of one as it flew by and disappeared into the cattails.

White-tailed Deer are periodically seen right on the trail...

...and on once occasion I saw this doe and her two fawns roaming along the edge of one of the more distant islands.

 

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