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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A birdy blog post

 Time to give some of the birds some profile, since May is well known for peak bird migration.

As usual, most of my outdoor excursions are at Rondeau, with St. Clair NWA and Mitchell's Bay North Shore Trail getting some of my time as well. However May is a more challenging time for me these days, as it was two years ago that my wife and best friend was on a significant decline, resulting in her passing away on May 26. I'm still getting used to the new normal without her :-(

Getting out into some of the places she and I explored have been good, although there are mixed feelings to deal with.

Black-and-white Warblers are a relatively early warbler to appear.... 

...and Blue-grey Gnatcatchers are as well. They are hard to get photos of as they flit about fairly constantly.

Chestnut-sided Warbler

One of the most abundant species of shorebird in the spring is this next one, Dunlin, and it is easy to get many photos of them as they can be fairly tolerable.

Flycatchers are becoming more abundant, such as this Eastern Kingbird.

One of the highlights, bird wise, in the last couple of weeks was the appearance of a Lark Sparrow at the north end of Rondeau. I was out that day, and heard second-hand information on it, but never tracked it down. This is a photo of one I took a few years earlier, at Erieau.
 

House Wrens are abundant, and you hear their chattering throughout the park and elsewhere. I came across this pair, with the male busy chattering away...

....and presumably the female was gathering nesting material.

Greater Yellowlegs continue to show up along wetlands and lake shore edges....

...and Great Egrets are in increasing numbers, especially not far from their nesting islands out in Lake St. Clair.

A short distance from home is a woodlot well-known for harboring a pair of Great Horned Owls. This first photo shows an adult perched high in a tree, watching over one of its recently fledged young, shown a little lower.

Yellow-rumped Warblers, next, continue to be one of the more common warbler species to see.

A friend of mine along Lake St. Clair has feeders out, and Yellow-headed Blackbirds that nest in some of the outer cattail islands are regularly seen.

In the more wooded parts of Rondeau, things like a few Veerys can be seen...

...as can a relative of theirs, the Swainson's Thrush.

  Back to shorebirds for a sec, here is a Least Sandpiper....

...and a Semi-palmated Sandpiper.

Sandhill Cranes continue to be found, or at least heard, fairly regularly in large areas of wetlands.

Right near this Sandhill Crane was a Common Gallinule, a species one hears in wetlands more often than actually seeing them.

A recent hike around Tulip Tree Trail resulted in getting a good photo of this Scarlet Tanager...

....and earlier, a Red-headed Woodpecker...

...as well as a Red-bellied Woodpecker....

...and Rose-breasted Grosbeak.

Magnolia Warblers migrate through in low numbers, as they are headed for much more northern breeding sites.

  

  Always a highlight in spring, is to come across a Prothonotary Warbler or two. This cooperative male was seen along Bennett Ave in Rondeau, and I got lot of photos of it as I watched it with some friends, for more than an hour and a half. I may be devoting a special blog or two on this species in the future especially as it pertains to Rondeau.

On another hike along the west South Point Trail, I had this male Pileated Woodpecker almost fly into me, but it veered off and perched on this tree trunk. It didn't seem to want to move off very quickly, so I waited patiently and after watching it for about 8-10 minutes, it flew off a bit, but just a short distance to a dead tree trunk with its nest hole. I watched as it poked its head in and out 2-3 times and then crawled right inside. The nest hole is not in a very good location for future photography attempts, but I may try.

Baltimore Orioles are heard frequently throughout the park, although this female wasn't saying anything...

...but just moved around a bit to give my camera different views.

Northern Harriers usually are seen flying low over wetlands, but this one was fairly high and flew right over my head, showing the very white under wing of this male.

Elsewhere in wetland edges one can find Lesser Yellowlegs...

....and the much smaller Least Sandpiper.

One of the shorebird highlights for me was to see as many as 4 Wilson's Phalaropes at the Blenheim Sewage Lagoons. The well marked female, show first, was not willing to come very close to me....

...but I had a couple of the less vividly marked males come fairly close by. Seeing one or two is considered good, so to see at least 4 was definitely unusual. Someone a few days earlier had seen as many as 14! Many years ago I found a nest of this species at the lagoons, as far as I know, the only nesting of this species within the Rondeau checklist area.

The nesting season has already gotten underway, as I showed a bit earlier regarding the Great Horned Owl and the House Wren gathering nesting material.

Canada Geese are early nesters as well, and there are lots of families of them in the local wetland areas.

Next is a bit of an unusual sighting. It is of a Yellow Warbler building a nest in a maple sapling, well in the interior of the Rondeau forest! Normally this species nests near wetlands and in shrubby areas, but this one didn't want to follow the crowd.

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