Sewage Lagoons and Aster Action

Just a few short days ago, we were dealing with record high temperatures, which on occasion hit 31C locally. As hot as it was, the butterflies and other pollinators loved it. I had occasion to go to both the Blenheim and Tilbury Sewage Lagoons, where I do regular shorebird surveys for the Ontario Shorebird Survey project. And right at this time of year, some of the asters are in peak flowering. Goldenrods are well past their best for the most part, but the purplish New England Aster and various white aster species are in fine shape.

Of course the most abundant butterfly species were things like the whites and sulphurs.

Painted Ladies were fairly abundant. They were quite noticeable by their absence earlier in the season, but have seemingly come out of nowhere in the last month or so. They outnumber by far, the closely related American Ladies at the moment.

 Monarchs are still drifting through, and some have just recently emerged from their chrysalis.

 Viceroys are fairly regular, although some look quite tattered.....

 ....as do any lingering Silver-spotted Skippers.

 Bronze Coppers are small butterflies and in small numbers.

 A couple of late season highlights were a couple of (not-so) Common Buckeyes, which looked quite fresh. They weren't my first of the year, but my first photographed of the year.

 ...and 2-3 Fiery Skippers at both lagoon sites, my first of the year. For the most part they were alternating between sitting in the sun or sipping the nectar, or sometimes doing both simultaneously.

 There were numerous other flying insects "busy-as-bees" sipping the nectar of these late season flowers, although most were not bees, but bee look-a-likes such as these two Syrphid Fly types. At the Tilbury lagoon aster patch, there had to be anywhere from 100-200 syrphid and other flies as well as actual bees.

 And as before, there was the occasional day-flying moth such as this Corn Earworm, which is somewhat migratory, showing up in southern Ontario mostly in the autumn.

The birds were not overly abundant, but a nice variety was noted. Ducks are appearing in larger numbers, although that might be partly due to the waterfowl hunting season going on in some of the larger marshes nearby. Ruddy Duck is quite plentiful at Blenheim, along with a growing number of Redhead, Wood Duck, Green-winged Teal and others.

 The Tilbury lagoons always has a few Double-crested Cormorants. They haven't started nesting there yet, but that time may not be too far off.

 Shorebirds were part of the reason for my being at both of the lagoons. The overall numbers and diversity have dropped quite a bit in the last couple of weeks, but there are still some around. Greater Yellowlegs are a little more plentiful than they were.

 When the opportunity arises, it is nice to compare shorebird species for size.

Greater Yellowlegs and Pectoral Sandpiper

Lesser Yellowlegs

 At Tilbury, I was able to get these three species all together. Long-billed Dowitcher, Lesser Yellowlegs and Greater Yellowlegs.

 The bill of this Long-billed Dowitcher was really quite long, so in combination with the grayish and unbarred tertial feathers, it made it relatively easy to conclude this as a Long-bill rather than a very similar looking Short-bill.

Giants, Lizards and River Cruisers

Yesterday I wandered through parts of Lambton County that I hadn't been to yet this year. Butterflies have been fewer than normal...maybe that is the new normal. Anyway, I hadn't come across any Giant Swallowtails yet this year, which is unusual given how far the summer is along. They were totally absent or in very low numbers on some of the local butterfly counts.

I often found a few in the past at the Bickford Oak Woods Conservation Reserve in west central Lambton, so that was one of my targets. There are two large grassy tallgrass prairie patches at BOWCR, each of several hectares in size They were planted into predominantly prairie vegetation about 15 years ago. I had no sooner started out into the prairie patch when I noticed a large butterfly fluttering in the distance. Bingo, not one, not two, but three Giant Swallowtails.

Some were on Swamp Milkweed, but there was an abundance of Teasel, and although it is not a native species, the butterflies didn't seem to mind at all. In fact Teasel seemed to be the preferred species. I saw at least seven of these giants at BOWCR and about 14 species of butterfly altogether in the BOWCR area.

 There is an abundance of tallgrass prairie plants at BOWCR, some of which are quite rare. This first one is Compass Plant (Silphium laciniatum). It grows fairly tall, standing well above many other prairie plants. It is arguably native in Ontario, although that isn't without some debate. Regardless, there are populations of it in Essex, Chatham-Kent and Elgin.

 This next one, Grey-headed Coneflower (Ratibida pinnata) is not nearly as rare, but still quite uncommon in prairie and prairie type settings. It is restricted mainly to Essex, Lambton and Chatham-Kent.

 Dense Blazing-star (Liatris spicata) shown next, is protected under Ontario's Endangered Species Act. It is restricted largely to Essex, Lambton and Chatham-Kent as well.

Painted Lady

Viceroy

A bit further east from BOWCR is the Moore Wildlife Area. A section of the Sydenham River goes through it, and although with the high water earlier in the year making the trail impassible, the water level had dropped considerably, and as long as one could make it through the extensive dense stands of Giant Ragweed that reached well over two metres in height, one could make it to the river in a couple of places.

As is typical of various sections of the Sydenham River, Lizard's-tail is quite abundant even though it is rare in Ontario. I saw several patches.

 Not surprisingly there was a bit of Swamp Milkweed along the lower and wetter areas near the river, and Monarchs were using them from time to time.

 This Monarch was resting on a milkweed leaf. Clearly it has seen better times, but in spite of its damaged wings, it was doing its best to carry on butterfly activities while it could.

 There were lots and lots of damselflies, and especially abundant were Ebony Jewelwings.

male

female

 The photo above is that of White Vervain (Verbena urticifolia). Its tiny, delicate white flowers go almost unnoticed to the casual eye.

I had a Hackberry Emperor stop by, allowing me a couple of quick photos before a gust of wind caused the Giant Ragweed to blow too hard, dislodging its fluttery occupant.

Another one I came across is this Common Wood-Nymph.

There were lots of dragonflies along the river, and I saw good numbers of Common Whitetail and Widow Skimmer.

But the real highlight for me was to see at least two individuals of this large dragonfly patrolling the river, sometimes disappearing around a bend but eventually coming back my way. It is a Royal River Cruiser. I had never photographed one before, and I did not have a lot of success this time, but at least a few shots were identifiable. It never landed within view, and its fast and often erratic flight made it challenging to say the least.

Another target area I had for the day was to stop by Long Creek, a tributary of the Sydenham River a bit northeast of Dresden. There is a bridge that crosses the creek along Kent Road, which is the boundary between Lambton and Chatham-Kent. Right at the bridge I found....are you ready for it.....Lizard's-tail! Both upstream in Lambton and downstream in Chatham-Kent.

 I came across a couple of stems of Sneezeweed (Helenium autumnale) ust coming into flower.

 A close-up of the stem, below, shows the "wings".

 This next one is Wild Senna (Senna hebecarpa) and is although it doesn't have any official status under the ES Act either, it is ranked as S1, which means there are five or fewer known populations in Ontario. It grows along Kent Line on both sides of the county line.

Before getting all the way home, I stopped along a roadside a bit northeast of Chatham to see if this shrub species, ranked S3, was still around. Although it has been cut numerous times during roadside maintenance, it persists but is not in great shape. It is Pawpaw (Asimina triloba).