Nature Nuggets continues, sort of...

 Readers of my most recent blog will understand why I have not been posting anything lately. I decided to have the month of June devoted to that single post, featuring the passing of my dear wife, Marie. It has been a difficult time, certainly like nothing else I have experienced, which isn't surprising given that we had spent nearly 48 years together.

In spite of this, I did manage to get out for short periods since she passed away, partly to re-live memories, and partly to enjoy the ambiance of nature which was so important to both of us. Also to take a break from the never-ending details that come after the death of a loved one! I purposely chose times and places where I was most apt to be by myself rather than get caught up with many other hikers who were out for very different reasons. But get out I did, and had my camera with me of course. I managed to find a few things to capture on digital film, and some of those highlights will be in this blog. Lots of common things, but worthy in their own right. Since one cannot travel through the natural areas of southwestern Ontario without coming across some less common things, I will include some of them as well.

Certainly one of the highlights, from a bird perspective, was to come across a few Dickcissels. It used to be an extremely rare species in Ontario, but in the last few years has been more or less regular.

They often sit out in the open, near a large grassy field, and sing throughout the day.

Quiet trails worked out nicely for my various outings.

...with the occasional bird song punctuating the woodland atmosphere, such as this Rose-breasted Grosbeak.

Wild Turkeys are not often seen, but with a few families of young birds to add to the overall population, there are a few more to be found.

Wood Lilies often catch my eye as they almost glow in the normally dark forest setting.....

..but should not to be confused with the very abundant Day Lily, next, a non-native species that is most likely to be found along Lakeshore Road, as they have escaped from cottage lots.

Purple Flowering Raspberry is scattered along woodland trails. Even though it is a raspberry, it does not produce fruits that we find edible.

There is lots of Mayapple scattered throughout the main forested areas. As the season progresses, they may be heavily spotted with Mayapple Rust.

In the grassy areas, especially those areas which were burned this spring, Butterfly Milkweed is widely found.

There is no question that it is attractive!

A very rare species, the location of which I will not divulge, is American Ginseng. I have been watching this population for many years. This first photo shows what it looks like at about the very end of May. You can see some very small flower buds developing at the central stem.

This next photo shows what it will look like in mid to late June, on the verge of flowering.

I did not get to it this year to see it in flower. By the time I did get to it, flowering was past and fruit pods were developing. They will turn red when ripe.

Canada Anemone has been widespread, although it is mostly past flowering by now.

A non-native orchid can be found scattered in various places. It is Helleborine, a European species.

Fungi are here and there, but will be more noticeable later in the summer and early fall. This one is a White Jelly Fungus.

On one of my forays, I was walking along the road and this young cottontail was nibbling away at some greenery. It did not mind me approaching at all, as I took this photo with my 100 mm macro lens. I am not sure whether it was able to survive for long or not. Just a few minutes earlier, and only a short distance away, I had a Long-tailed Weasel scamper out onto the road. It was only there for a couple of seconds so I was unable to get a photo. But if it scented this little bunny, I am sure it would be after it in a flash, as it would be a perfect meal for this weasel.

Also in the greater Rondeau area, I spent a bit of time along the Erieau Rail Trail. There is always something to see, including Great Blue Herons...

...the inevitable Mute Swans...

..and a few Eastern Kingbirds.

Turtles abound still, although not as much as in late April and early May. Northern Map Turtles, a Species at Risk, are found regularly.

That's all for now. I have been other places, such as Clear Creek Forest Provincial Park and St. Clair NWA, but those outings will have to wait to be featured on a future post.

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Odes, wildflowers and a couple of uncommon birds

I haven't done a lot of birding, per se, lately as other than shorebirds, there isn't a lot happening in the bird realm these days. But that will change very soon. There are numerous other things to enjoy, and on several occasions I've been out looking for orchids and dragonflies for example.

On one occasion a few days ago, I spent several hours checking on a couple of orchids that are at Rondeau: Small Green Wood Orchid and Nodding Pogonia. I thought it was just a bit early for both of them and sure enough, neither were in flower at the time. They are now, and more on that in the next post I expect.

I did see a few other plants of interest while I was out, including:

Monkey Flower

Fringed Loosestrife

 This next one is Red Mulberry, an Endangered species in Ontario and Canada. The best populations are found at Rondeau, Point Pelee, Fish Point on Pelee Island, and in the Hamilton area. There are at least 15 good quality trees of Red Mulberry at Rondeau, and once in awhile a new one or two are discovered. I say "good quality" because it can hybridize with the non-native White Mulberry, which degrades the genetics of this overall declining species.

 I actually did find an orchid in flower, but not one of the ones I was hoping for. It is Helleborine (Epipactis helleborine). It is not a species native to North America, however. Regardless, it is found frequently but scattered in woodland situations as well as many other habitats.

I spent some time checking out a few waterways and other wetland areas. The old gravel pits at Clear Creek Forest Provincial Park are always interesting, especially for dragonflies. I had been hoping to get a look at a Comet Darner which others have seen. Burg Birder (Blake Mann) posted a photo of one on his blog a couple of weeks ago. And I did get a look through the binoculars as one or two were well out over the water patrolling the area. They never seemed to land anywhere, nor did they come very close. My attempts at a photo were far from satisfactory, but given the size and colour combination, even such a poor photo as this is still fairly identifiable.

 Others were quite a bit more cooperative.

Eastern Pondhawk

Widow Skimmer

Other places I wanted to check out were a couple of places where the road crosses over the Sydenham River. This river is well known for its superb diversity of mussels due to water quality, especially compared to the Thames River. So one of the places that I often check along the Sydenham is the Dawn Mills Road crossing. I saw a few American Rubyspots and a few other dragonflies and damselflies, but none were very close and the river bank was rather slippery. I didn't want to get very adventurous while carrying camera equipment, so I decided to go to the village of Florence, which straddles the county line between Lambton and Chatham-Kent. The best access to the river is at the corner, in C-K. And the odes were quite close by.

American Rubyspot (male)

Am Rubyspot (female)

 In another week or two, I intend to check here for the much rarer Smoky Rubyspot.

A species of Dancer (Argia sp)

Blue-fronted Dancer

A species of Bluet, I think

 A damselfly that is fairly common in places, and always catches my eye, is the Ebony Jewelwing, with its large black wings and shimmering green body

 I came across this Black-shouldered Spinyleg; it is the first time I've managed a photo.

 While I was cautiously approaching the various odes this Green Frog swam right up to me.

 The Sydenham River is also known for its large populations of an uncommon plant species, called Lizard's-tail. This next photo shows a very large patch of Lizard's-tail just upstream from the bridge at Florence and there must be hundreds of stems here. A slightly smaller patch was across the river from my access point, and I could see additional patches farther down stream. If one had a kayak and could cover a lot of the river, I expect there would be thousands and thousands of stems of this uncommon plant.

 The appearance of its flower is how it got its name, not surprisingly.

The last few days haven't been entirely devoid of interesting birds, however. I came across two Yellow-headed Blackbirds at the Mitchell's Bay park. The species nests in some of the cattail islands about a kilometre out in the lake at Mitchell's Bay. Earlier in the year adults can be seen foraging at various locations around Mitchell's Bay. Now that the nesting season is over, adults and young-of-the-year can be seen. This is likely a young male. The other one I saw was an adult female, but I didn't get a decent photo of it.

 Finally, I had been out at the Tilbury Sewage Lagoons about 10 days ago, doing a shorebird survey. The shorebirds were few and far between, so I had to be satisfied with this American White Pelican. Since the species is now nesting on some of the islands in the western basin of Lake Erie, they are more often seen at various points along the north shore than they used to be. I think this is the first record for these lagoons.

Mid July action

Plants and insects abound right now, providing lots of opportunity to photograph! I've been out regularly, here and there, in the Rondeau area.

Open areas with Common Milkweed and other wildflowers are always good for attracting insects. Along the South Point Trail were things like this American Lady on a Black-eyed Susan.

American Lady

Something that caught my eye was a whole bunch of caterpillars feeding voraciously on some willows. This large distinctive caterpillar is the larva of a Mourning Cloak.

Mourning Cloak larva

Mourning Cloak

On a raspberry leaf, I noted this brightly coloured critter. It is a Red-banded Leafhopper, one of the more bizarrely coloured insects. It is very small, only about 5-6 mm in length, so the way you see it on your screen is several times life size! I find these more often on a milkweed plant than any other species.

A female Eastern Pondhawk was in the area. It is one of the more gorgeous dragonflies, in my opinion.

Other dragonflies were around, including many White-faced Meadowhawks. They would be perched, then dash out before returning. They were catching smaller insects, such as midges and mosquitoes, and are voracious predators.

Here a female of the species chowing down on a recent capture, followed by an 'in-your-face' view.

Woodlands are attractive on a heavily overcast day. I enjoy the Spicebush Trail in these conditions.

The ferns are quite lush at this time of year, with a good diversity: Ostrich Fern, Sensitive Fern, Silvery Spleenwort, Maidenhair Fern, Broad Beech Fern, Marsh Fern, Cinnamon Fern, Royal Fern, Rattlesnake Fern and others are scattered along the trail, sometimes in abundance. A healthy fern diversity means a healthy forest.

Broad Beech Fern

Silvery Speenwort

There is lots of Spicebush along this trail, not surprisingly. Here is a clump of Spicebush stems. Do you see anything else in this photo?

If you look closely on the largest stem, there is a moth. It blends in quite well, and a casual passer-by would easily miss it. It is a moth with the common name of Tulip-tree Beauty.

A common plant in the damp areas of this trail include the Wood Nettle. The flowers are very tiny...not spectacular at all! And yes, being a nettle, the stiff hairs will sting.

Wood Nettle

One reader of a previous post asked why there was no mention of Helleborine (Epipactis helleborine) in my post of early season native orchids. Well there are two reasons: first of all it is not a native species, but an orchid that came from Europe. And second of all, at Rondeau it is not an early season orchid. However it is just coming nicely into flower these days, and is quite widespread along this trail. An image is below.

Epipactis helleborine