Black-necked Stilts, Pelicans, Phalaropes, June flowers and...Orchids!

 I really had planned on getting more posts out in June, but it has been busy! Lots of the normal things to deal with, and I have been getting back into black lighting in a much bigger way than the past 2-3 years. It involves a lot of preparation time, actual black lighting for hours at a time, and then 'recovery time' as well as processing hundreds of photos. I will be including a black lighting post or two over the next month, which happens to be Moth Month. I am also preparing on a post regarding the saga of Prickly Pear Cactus at Rondeau, which is more complicated than it might seem. And of course taking time to get my head around, and produce the occasional post in my Life Is A Journey blog.

With that being said, this post might be a little longer than average, as there is so much to catch up on. Most of my efforts have been concentrated in the southern part of Chatham-Kent, but also includes a couple of forays to search for orchids elsewhere in C-K and beyond. 

Bird migration has slowed down, but there have been some interesting things to see. I mentioned Dickcissels having arrived in CK in my previous post, and they continue to be present there, as well as at other places. For example some friends who have a combination woodlot and planted prairie a bit north of Blenheim have had at least two pairs of Dickcissels present, and I spent at least a couple of hours quite recently watching and photographing them. They weren't often very close, but I managed to get some fair photos, with the first one showing a nicely coloured male in full song. What is handy about this species is that it will sing fairly frequently throughout most of the day.

The female, shown next, isn't up and nicely visible nearly as often as the male, as she is likely tending the nest. Her markings are more subdued.

Much more common than Dickcissels are Savannah Sparrows, and they occupy very similar habitat. I saw at least a dozen of them in the vicinity.

At the Blenheim Sewage Lagoons, there has been a pair of Black-necked Stilts busily feeding in one of the cells. The male is on the left, and has the black back....

...while the female has more of a brownish/black back.

Also at these lagoons, there was quite an 'invasion' of Wilson's Phalaropes earlier in June, at least 5 mated pairs, which I featured in my previous blog. After most of them left, there was a single male still present for several days. For this species, after the female has laid her eggs, she will typically leave the area in search of another mate, and the male will carry on with the incubation of the eggs in a grassy nest, and raising the young. I had hoped that this might happen since a male was present for several days after the female disappeared, but as far as I am aware, nothing like that happened. 

Male Wilson's Phalarope

Perhaps the mowing around the cells, or perhaps the greatly fluctuating water in the sprinkler cells was not conducive.  At any rate, my last two visits to these lagoons did not have any phalaropes present. I am aware of only one occasion when nesting of this species actually occurred here, as they are mainly a much more western species. But back in about 1980, there was a nest and I managed to get a photo of the male sitting on it.

Another unusual wetland bird species showed up at the Keith McLean Conservation Lands for 2-3 days. It was an American White Pelican.

It must have felt a little out of place, as even before I got very close, I could sense that it was getting restless. In just a few moments it got up and flew out to Rondeau Bay but I managed to get a few heavily cropped photos.

Much more common bird species are this one: Field Sparrow, a pair of which perched reasonably close by, enabling me to get this photo of the pair. They were busy flitting about a fairly large area, which must have been their breeding territory, but at least one periodically came back to this perch.

While the spring wildflower varieties have tapered off somewhat, there are still a few of the usual, mostly colourful ones present, and some are in fair abundance. This first one is False Indigo Bush, a bit of a provincial rarity, but unofficially introduced to Rondeau by someone.

A naturally occurring rarity is next: Green Milkweed. It doesn't seem to be as abundant these last few years, so I was pleased to see this one.

Much more common are:

Bladder Campion

Canada Anemone

Fringed Loosestrife

Ground Ivy

Pale-spike Lobelia

Hairy Beard's-tongue

Poke Milkweed

These next three often get the attention of even the casual walker:

Purple Flowering Raspberry

Wood Lily

Butterfly Milkweed

 One may encounter other elements of wildlife as one travels around. First off is a type of dragonfly, likely a White-faced Meadowhawk due to the season and the relative commonness of this species although the actual face cannot be seen to know for sure.

Lots of these little guys around, and on occasion they will even sit long enough for the camera.

Much less common is this next one: a Blanding's Turtle, which is a provincial rarity. It was crossing the main road in the Rondeau forest, seemingly out of its normal wetland habitat.

Finally, a bit on some successful orchid hunting. Earlier in June I ventured into northern Lambton Co, hunting for some specific orchids. I had hoped to find a Ram's-head Orchid, with the known location being the most southerly location in Ontario for it. But it was not found. However a Pink Lady's-slipper is always a treat to see, and usually are farther north in Ontario than where I venture most of the time.

Next is Hooker's Orchid, a much less colourful orchid, and I have seen it at Rondeau but not for many years. It may still occur, but I don't spend as much time off the trails as I used to, due to the risk of Lyme Disease.

At Clear Creek Forest Prov Park in eastern CK, I caught up to these two orchids. First is Large Twayblade, a provincial rarity.

More widespread but less showy is this Fen Orchid.

 That does it for this post. Hopefully the next one will show up sooner!

 

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A couple of endangered orchids

 Orchids are fascinating to find. There have been 19 species known from Rondeau, with all but one being native. Of course probably the best known of these is the Nodding Pogonia, which for the past several decades, has only been known in Canada from Rondeau. And of course due to its small size and extreme rarity, is probably the least often seen, as its whereabouts are kept fairly confidential. It only flowers in August, so I will feature that species a little later in the season.

One of the orchids that I like to keep close tabs on at Rondeau is the Puttyroot (Aplectrum hyemale).

 

  

I have mentioned this species in previous posts, as during the late fall and through until spring, its leaves are quite distinctive and visible. But as it puts up a flowering stem, the leaves have all but disappeared, or at least look very shriveled. I have seen this species in 6 different areas of Rondeau, although two of the spots have either not been checked in recent years, or in the case of one, seems to have disappeared altogether. I managed to find a new population earlier this year. 

In several of the places where it has been found the number of leaves have been quite few, usually less than about 6. The number of leaves in a population is the best idea to get some sense of how many plants there are, as very few will put up flowering stems, which is why I try and check on the various populations in early spring. The largest population that I have been following for several decades, have had as many as about 75 leaves on occasion, but I have seldom seen more than about 15 flowering stems appearing in that one. This year in that population, I only saw two flowering stems.

Another endangered orchid is the Large Twayblade (Liparis liliifolia). It is not, at least at this time, known to occur at Rondeau, but it might be tucked away somewhere and yet to be found! It is known from Clear Creek Forest Provincial Park in a rather out of the way location. When I first went out this late spring to see how it was progressing, this is what it looked like.

 

And this is what it looked like in peak flowering condition shown next. Another individual in leaf form only is visible right next to it. Maybe it will flower next year?? 

 Close-up views of the individual, delicate flowers are always fun to photograph!

And while I was looking for this one, another species was developing close by. It is the Fen Orchid (Liparis loesellii), not an endangered species, but not common either. It occurs in one out-of-the-way location at Rondeau, although I haven't looked for it lately. A careful look at this individual will show a very small flowering stem starting to appear, as well as the remains of last year's flowering/seed stem.

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