Birds, of course!

 The month of May is exciting for many outdoor folks. Wildflowers are becoming abundant, trees are coming into leaf and flower, and of course it is prime time for large numbers of birds to arrive here in southern Ontario. And while the migration depends quite a bit on the weather, resulting in some days early in May being rather birdless, at least to the liking of most birders, some days can be fairly good for abundance and diversity. I always say that the middle two weeks of May are on average, the best two weeks for abundance and diversity, but that isn't always the case.

If one is able to get out regularly regardless of the weather, one will usually catch up to a lot of species. My last post focused on wildflowers, and I will get back to more of them soon, but this post will show a wide variety of birds I have been able to catch up to and photograph over the last few days.

This first bunch will be ones I encountered up along Mitchell's Bay or St. Clair NWA. Sandhill Cranes are always fun to see, and not always easy to photograph, but I keep trying! 

With the slightly lower water levels of Lake St. Clair, there are more mudflats than most years. This first photo shows both a Lesser Yellowlegs on the left, and a Greater on the right, illustrating a reasonable comparison of overall size and bill.

Next is a Greater Yellowlegs up a bit closer.

Great Egrets are frequently seen in these open wetland areas, and often cooperate reasonably well for the camera, as long as one has a good telephoto lens.

An anchored log just off the shoreline edge is a great spot for gulls and terns to rest. It is hard to tell from this photo, but I determined after I took this photo that these are Forster's Terns. 

And a Bald Eagle or two can often be seen passing by.

American Coots are often seen either singly or sometimes in a group.

The road on the south side of St. Clair NWA can sometimes be a great spot to see a variety of birds, depending on the wind direction and speed. On the hydro wire were a few swallows, such as this Barn Swallow.

In the shrubbery, I encountered an Eastern Kingbird....

...a Gray Catbird.....

...several Palm Warblers....

....and lots of Yellow-rumped Warblers.

Nearby were, of course, Red-winged Blackbirds.....

...and this Tree Swallow was checking out a potential nest cavity.

On another trail, there was a good number of White-crowned Sparrows....

...and a few White-throated Sparrows.

Of course Rondeau has always been one of my favourite places for a whole lot of reasons most of the year-round. However I don't like it as well in May, as it is quite crowded with birders! It seems more and more people who used to go to Pt. Pelee NP got fed up with the crowds there, and have decided Rondeau is the place to be for their spring birding. I can't say that I blame them, but.....I try and choose times when the park is a little less crowded, so I can enjoy the relative peace and quiet and still see a good variety of birds.

 

This Black-and-white Warbler was constantly on the move in its search for something tucked away in the crevices of the bark. 

 

A Blackburnian Warbler paused long enough for this photo.

This Chestnut-sided Warbler was bouncing around in some shrubbery, so the photos weren't as good as I was hoping. Maybe next time...

A Great Crested Flycatcher was trying to figure out how to consume this insect it had managed to get hold of.

Northern Flickers are fairly abundant, and can be found working on a nest cavity.

A Philadelphia Vireo stopped by for a moment. It looks a lot like a Warbling Vireo, but has a slightly more contrasty appearance, and a dark spot at the lore just in front of the eye. It also has a slight yellowish wash to it belly.

Purple Martins can be found in abundance where martin houses occur.

The number of Rose-breasted Grosbeaks are increasing, and some will remain to nest.

This pair wasn't wasting any time!!

And there were lots more Yellow-rumped Warblers.

Closer to home, at least for me, is this family of Great Horned Owls. There are two young, and they have left the nest. Often they will be found resting on a branch, in the company of one of the adults, but not always.
 

More birds will be coming in a future post!

 

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Shorebirds, Orchids and Leps

This is post #600 of my blog: Nature Nuggets.  Little did I know at the time back in early 2014, how this would unfold. Thanks to many readers, I find doing this highly satisfying.

 It is a great time to be out exploring, with camera in hand, of course.

The local sewage lagoons have been productive, especially for shorebirds, although things have tapered off in the last 3 days or so. But there has been a good variety continuing to show, such as the following:

American Avocet

Baird's Sandpiper

Typically lots of this next one, a Lesser Yellowlegs....

....and always at least a few Pectoral Sandpipers.

Short-billed Dowitcher

A highlight for at least a couple of days, was this young Willet, a species that breeds a fair way to the west of us here.

Not a shorebird, obviously, but a hunter of shorebirds. From one to three Peregrine Falcons have been seen swooping and diving after shorebirds. This young Peregrine one was a fair distance away, but hovered briefly, allowing me to get this shot.

At Rondeau, there are lots of birds moving through, although they are hard to photograph with the dappled/contrasty light, and lots of leaves.

Northern Parula

Philadelphia Vireo

I also saw almost a dozen White-throated Sparrows, the first ones I had seen this late summer. In pretty short order, they will be one of the most common migrants passing through.

In my previous post, I showed some close-ups of the Autumn Coralroot. Here is an overall view, showing how obscure this little orchid really is! It is about 15 cm tall and in full flower.

In the past few days, Great Plain's Ladies'-tresses are showing up in various grassy places at Rondeau.

The flower spikes have a spicy vanilla fragrance, and the centres of each flower shows a creamy colouration.

I always like seeing a young White Pine seedling make an appearance. Will this one survive to maturity, or will it become nutrition for a White-tailed Deer?

I have been to Clear Creek Forest Prov Park a couple of times, partly to look for a very rare butterfly (Marine Blue) that had been seen, but partly just because the open meadows are great for butterflies and the quiet woods of this old growth type forest is just so inspiring.

I didn't find the rare butterfly, but there was a good variety of more typical ones, including, Common Buckeye, which were actually common.....

Common Ringlet

Common Wood-Nymph

This next one, an Eastern Tailed Blue, was as close as I could get to the Marine Blue.

I was pleased to find at least a couple Great Spangled Fritillary busily feeding on various sunflower types.

Viceroys were fairly common. In fact they outnumbered the similar looking Monarchs.

The couple of Monarchs that I did encounter liked the Teasel...

...as did the Orange Sulphurs.

Red Admirals were very few, at least of what I saw.

I only saw this single Silver Spotted Skipper, but there were likely more.

As I was walking through the open meadow, I noticed this dead tree full of roosting Turkey Vultures. They have been gathering and migrating southwesterly, and the local hawk watch sites have reported them in increasing numbers over the last few days. There are tens of thousands on their way!

In other news, last night I had the black light on in the back yard. Most things I got were fairly typical, but I'm glad I paid a little more attention to this one. It is a Coffee-loving Pyrausta, and is the second one I have had come to the lights in my yard. The first one was back in August, 2020, and at the time it was the first record on iNaturalist, and the first record for Canada. Since then, it has been found in a small number of places elsewhere in Ontario, and someone who was digging through their old moth photos, posted one that was photographed near Leamington back in 2017.

This morning, while enjoying my second cup of coffee in the back yard with Marie, I saw this butterfly come in. I got a quick look, then went and grabbed my camera but it disappeared. Fortunately it came back and I managed to get a couple of photos. It is Horace's Duskywing, a late summer migrant from the south. According to iNat, it is the first record for Chatham-Kent, with only a handful of other records in southwestern Ontario. Most are in Essex Co, with a single record in north Lambton and a couple in the Toronto area.

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