Rondeau....naturally photos

The 2017 Rondeau....naturally calendar is hot off the press. I just picked up some from the printer late this afternoon, and I will be delivering them to the Friends of Rondeau bookstore tomorrow (Saturday, May 7).

It is a 13 month calendar. Here are the photos (please note that the © P. Allen Woodliffe shown on most photos here does not appear on the actual calendar).

The cover photo was taken from the fishing tug harbour at Erieau, looking at a sunrise over Rondeau Bay and Park

Cover 

The January photo shows a Giant Swallowtail butterfly sipping nectar from a Wild Bergamot along Harrison Trail.

January

The February photo shows an attractive part of the Tuliptree Trail in late May, as it crosses ridges and sloughs to the interior part of the forest.

February

The March photo shows a water-filled slough along Bennett Avenue after a late winter snow storm has passed through, leaving wet snow clinging to the trees.

March

The April photo shows a Leopard Frog with inflated vocal sacs, as it tries to attract a mate. A cluster of eggs previously laid by a female is nearby.

April

The May photo shows an endangered Prothonotary Warbler reflected at the water's edge along the Tuliptree Trail. Rondeau has been the Ontario and Canadian stronghold for breeding Prothonotaries ever since they were first discovered nesting in Canada here in the early 1930s. It was none other than Jim Baillie, ornithologist from the Royal Ontario Museum who was on a field trip to the park who made this noteworthy discovery.

May

The June photo is a closeup of a gorgeous Tuliptree Flower. The Tuliptree is the unofficial flagship tree of the Carolinian Life Zone, and it is abundant at Rondeau. Here they can reach 35 metres in height. The largest diameter one I have measured recently was 125 cm.

June

The July photo is a closeup of Michigan Lily, a beautiful orange flower that can be found in the oak savanna habitat and along the edges of open oak forests.

July

The August photo is of a Great Egret flying against the blue sky. It doesn't nest at Rondeau, but is a frequent summer and early fall resident. Its closest nesting colony is at Walpole Island, about 70 km away at the north end of Lake St. Clair. Another nesting colony is on the islands in the western basin of Lake Erie.

August

The September photo is of a Midland Painted Turtle, the only turtle species in southern Ontario that is not officially 'At Risk'. Turtles are cold-blooded, as are all reptiles and amphibians, and this one is basking in the sun so that the sun's warmth will assist with the turtle's physiological processes.

September

The October photo is a close-up of an Eastern Chipmunk. Chipmunks are favourites of many visitors, (as well as many predators)!

October

The November photo shows a pair of Sandhill Cranes lifting off from the marsh. This species was quite rare in southern Ontario until a few years ago. It is now a regular breeding species here, with one or two pair breeding annually in the Rondeau area.

November

The December photo is of the very rare yellow form of the Red Trillium. Red Trilliums are not nearly as abundant in Rondeau as White Trilliums are. The yellow form is extremely rare. In almost 50 years of exploring rich deciduous forests, I have only seen this on two occasions, and one plant has occurred at Rondeau for at least the last 3 years.

December

A bonus is the January, 2018 image of one of Rondeau's most popular mammals, a White-tailed Deer. Deer are antlerless in the winter, and have a greyish brown fur coat. By spring, the winter fur will be shed, leaving them with their reddish brown fur coat.

January, 2018

So stop by the Rondeau Visitor Centre and check out the informative displays as well as the diverse array of books and other items available at the Friends of Rondeau bookstore. And while you are at it, take a look at this calendar. It might even make a good Mother's Day gift!

Honey Locust to Stinkhorn.....native plant highlights

A couple of posts ago, I gave a summary of some of the interesting species of fauna I came across while conducting a flora and fauna survey of a decommissioned railroad in Chatham-Kent. This post will focus on some of the highlights of the native flora. A future post may describe some of the many non-native species of plants.

Such railroad corridors are largely unexplored, since they frequently have 'No Trespassing' signs at the typical access points. When the railroads are in operation, if you are not paying attention trains can sneak up on you in a hurry! (Don't ask...... :-).

Typical scene along one section of this rail corridor

 Obviously there isn't much, if any, pristine natural area habitat along these corridors, but it is surprising how much native flora and fauna use what habitat there sometimes is. For example when doing a survey on a corridor in 2012, I discovered a provincially rare plant that had never before been seen in Chatham-Kent and a butterfly that had very limited records in C-K.

In such wide open sections as shown in the image above, there is always the hope that some prairie vegetation may be found, maybe even a patch of prairie. Such was the case in 2012.

Most obvious prairie vegetation becomes more visible from mid-summer to late summer. I'm hoping that my future visits to this corridor in the next few weeks will enable me to find more prairie species along here. Historically areas not far from this corridor had some of the largest extent and best quality tallgrass prairie in Ontario!

Some of the prairie associates that I have found so far, include:

Canada Anemone

 Canada Anemone (Anemone canadensis) is certainly not limited to prairies, as it is frequently found along the sunny edges of woodlands. Prairie is where this plant really does well.

Prairie Milkweed

 Prairie Milkweed (Asclepias sullivantii) is rare in Ontario, limited mainly to the extreme southwest. It is just coming into peak flowering condition now, slightly later than the similar looking Common Milkweed. Butterflies and other pollinators love it!

Yarrow

 Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) is often found in disturbed old field, but is definitely a prairie associate, and numerous pollinators can be found using it.

Climbing Prairie Rose

Climbing Prairie Rose (Rosa setigera) is rare in Ontario, being officially designated as "Special Concern', and is largely limited to Essex, Chatham-Kent and Lambton, although small populations do occur beyond those areas.

Some sections of this corridor are adjacent to bits of woodland, and there the diversity of flora changes.

Some species occurring there are likely remnants of the forest habitat that was there prior to the railroad being constructed.

Honey-Locust

Honey-Locust (Gleditsia triacanthos) is unofficially rare in Ontario, being most common in the extreme southwest.

Wild Yam

Wild Yam (Dioscorea villosa) is a climbing vine which is uncommon in Ontario. It doesn't have showy flowers......they don't get much showier than those tiny little balls on the slender branches shown here, but their leaves are distinctively heart-shaped.

Michigan Lily

Michigan Lily (Lilium michiganense) is a tall, brightly coloured flowering plant. It is widespread in southern Ontario but never seems to be abundant. It often occurs in woodland openings, and its bright orange flowers are pleasing to the eye.

Along the sides of the corridor are wet areas, prime habitat for plants such as this Southern Blue Flag (Iris virginica).

Southern Blue Flag

Another 'plant' that I came across, although not everyone would initially identify it as being a plant, is this unusual fungus:

Dog Stinkhorn

Dog Stinkhorn (Mutinus ravenelii) is, as its name suggests, a stinky fungus. I usually encounter them in the late summer or early fall, but for some reason, this one was evident in late June. One can usually smell them before seeing them, depending on which way the wind is blowing. It is this feature than enables them to spread their spores. Flies are attracted to the odour thinking it is a rotting bit of flesh and are looking for a place to lay their eggs, which fly larvae (maggots) will hatch out from and consume the rotting material. The flies crawl over the gelatinous tip of the fungus from where the odour emanates, searching for a place to lay their eggs, and this is where the spores are located. The spores then stick to the flies feet and are transferred to the next place the fly is inspecting. Just another one of the many wonders of nature!

Rondeau, Blenheim lagoons, etc

I've been out and about regularly these last few days, usually to Rondeau and area. Birds are becoming quieter, since the nesting season is winding down. There are more young out begging their parents for food, and some nesting species are still busily gathering food for their young still in the nest, such as what this Red-headed Woodpecker is doing.

The Red-headed young has now left the nest.

A Prothonotary Warbler is also feeding its just hatched young. Both male (shown here) and female are busily going back and forth regularly.

The spring wildflowers are long gone, well they are not showy, but are putting forth fruit. The interior of the forests are deep green and enjoyable to explore and photograph on a cloudy day.

South Point Trail

Along woodland edges and other open areas, there is a steady stream of newly opened flowers to be viewed. While travelling along Bennett Ave last autumn, I noted the bright red berries of Winterberry (Ilex verticillata), so I checked it out a few days ago, and....bingo....it was just nicely out in flower. This is the first time I have seen it in flower at Rondeau. The camera came out to record the occasion, naturally.

Ilex verticillata

At the north end of the park, along the maintenance loop, were the bright red flowers of about 20 stems of Bee-balm, a.k.a. Oswego Tea (Monarda didyma). It is a very uncommon plant of rich woods in the Carolinian Life Zone. I sometimes see hummingbirds hovering about, feeding on the flowers, but not today.

Monarda didyma

I don't often go along this short trail once the spring migration is over other than to check on the Bee-balm....the mosquitoes are usually quite plentiful here......so I was surprised to see several small stems of the endangered Red Mulberry (Morus rubra) in a couple of locations. Red Mulberry occurs naturally at Rondeau but not at this exact location; in fact some of the best quality stems of any in Ontario can be found at Rondeau. It is likely these individuals were planted a decade or more ago, when a researcher was doing his graduate work on the species here and at a couple of other places where they occur naturally.

Morus rubra

Red Mulberry has very distinctive leaves. They are quite large and roundish, with some of the ones on these trees attaining a length of almost 10". They are a bit rough/hairy above and below, and they have long tips, called 'drip tips', which help shed water after a rainfall.  The leaves show very little, if any, lobing. The much more common, and non-native, White Mulberry, has much smaller, shiny leaves with very little in the way of a drip tip, and they often show lobing.

Along this trail there were quite a few odonates in the sunny open area. Damselflies were abundant. I got a few photos of the dragonfly White-faced Meadowhawk, both male and female.

White-faced Meadowhawk female

White-faced Meadowhawk male

In some sunny openings or at the edge of the forest, one can find the impressive Michigan Lily (Lilium michiganense).

I did not use a flash for this image. I simply metered on the bright orange flower, and chose an unlit background, so that the lily would really jump out. Flash can produce similar effects, but with the shiny/waxy flowers, there is more likely to be distracting hotspots produced.

Out along the southeast beach of Rondeau, the Eastern Prickly Pear Cactus (Opuntia humifusa) is in flower.

The presence of this species at Rondeau is a conundrum. It doesn't occur in the park naturally, but some well meaning individual who had a particular love of this species planted several clumps along the southeast beach in the mid 1990s. The habitat works well for this species, and it is spreading steadily. There are now at least 20 clumps of varying sizes. The conundrum is that it is a legally endangered species under the provincial Endangered Species Act. And in Ontario it only occurs naturally at Point Pelee National Park and at Fish Point Provincial Nature Reserve (on Pelee Island). The small population at the latter location is not doing well at all. So now there is a planted population in a nature reserve zone of Rondeau.

What to do? Do park managers sacrifice the integrity of a nature reserve zone of one of the most significant provincial parks in the province to allow a legally endangered species from elsewhere persist? Or do they attempt to retain the natural integrity of the park and nature reserve zone by removing it? The questions are easy to come up with; the right answers are not.

Moving along....I hiked part of the Marsh Trail. There is lots of Common Milkweed scattered along it, and I thought I might have seen a few butterflies. They were really few. Some Red Admirals and a couple of Viceroys were about all there was to see on this trip, although the windy conditions might have been a factor.

Viceroy

In a low wet meadow adjacent to the trail was a beautiful display of Swamp Candles (Lysimachia terrestris).

The view from the observation tower is always fun to see, except for the steadily increasing number of wind turbines across the bay. I reported in an earlier post about counting 178 wind turbines from the lower level of the tower. On this most recent visit, from the upper level, I can advise that I counted a total of 203 towers!

If you look towards the south beach, you get this next view, complete with the absence of wind turbines.

I stopped at the Blenheim Sewage Lagoons one evening recently as well. The shorebirds are starting to build in numbers and diversity. There were probably as many as 100 shorebirds in all, including a group of small 'peeps' that never landed where I could see them. But there were a dozen or more Least Sandpipers, 9 Lesser Yellowlegs, 2 Short-billed Dowitchers and the usual Killdeer and Spotted Sandpiper.

Short-billed Dowitchers

Spotted Sandpiper

Duck diversity wasn't high, but this male Canvasback (on the right), shown alongside a male Blue-winged Teal starting its moult, was still around.

Perched in the fence along the east side of the lagoons was this young Baltimore Oriole. It made composing the photo using the 'rule of thirds' a lot easier :-).

Baltimore Oriole

And finally, at the end of the day recently, I raced off to the north end of Bear Line, where one can get a great view of Walpole Island across the Chenal Ecarte, and is a perfect vantage point from which to capture a sunset.