Local wetland explorations

 I've been to Rondeau a few times, but have spent more time exploring some of the wetland habitats along the Lake St. Clair shoreline. The openness and the photo opportunities are great, not to mention the gentle breezes mean fewer annoying insects!

St. Clair NWA is close to home, which is another advantage.

View from the tower, looking E

 

 On the way to the tower, there are things along the way. A few Great Egrets can be seen, including some opportunistic ones if one is ready.

No, it didn't have a line attached to its foot :-), and fortunately I was out of range. It did swing by heading in the other direction, enabling me to get a closer photo.

There is a constant variety of wildflowers along the trail, which adds to the likelihood of finding butterflies.

Monarch on Joe-pye-weed

Black Swallowtail on Milkweed

Some other plants include:

Blue Vervain

Buttonbush

Water-willow

Water-willow close-up

Giant Foxtail

This next one is probably Grass-leaved Arrowhead, but it is similar to other members of the Sagittaria genus, so may be another one. At any rate, it is abundant.

Next is Missouri Ironweed, a tallgrass prairie species at risk. Of course tallgrass prairie dominated the area adjacent to the Lake St. Clair wetlands, so some species like this have lingered, or have been augmented through planting.

The flowers of this species has around 40 individual florets, which can help separate it from another species which usually has less than 30. Also the bracts at the base of the flower head are pointed, but do not have an extended tip, as other ironweed species do.

 A few birds may cooperate for the camera.

Backlit Eastern Kingbird

Green Heron

 

 

 

 

Sandhill Cranes are usually somewhere around, and sometimes are only heard as they are hidden by the tall wetland vegetation, and don't often stick close by when hikers are within view. Flybys are much more common.

Dragonflies are frequent, but typically in flight. On occasion one may catch one resting for a better view, as this Halloween Pennant is doing.

Double-crested Cormorants are usually somewhere around, and typically in a dead tree closer to the lake.

This photo from the tower, looking towards the lake, shows the above tree at the extreme left edge of the photo. You may have to click on the photo to get it larger before you can see them!

I've also been to the Mitchell's Bay North Shore Trail on occasion. At the end of the trail which goes through the Cadotte wetland, there are always some things to enjoy. An immature Bald Eagle is in a tree at the edge of the wetland...

...and after a short time, decided it was time to move on.

This Belted Kingfisher stopped by for a few moments.

Along another edge of the trail, the section that goes towards the village of Mitchell's Bay, provides a good spot for a family of Common Gallinules to search for a meal. There are two adults and at least 4 young in this photo.

 Along the trail one can find a lot of wildflowers. Again, this area at the time of settlement was partly wetland and partly tallgrass prairie, which would have varied depending on the naturally fluctuation of the Lake St. Clair water levels. While the wetlands have been retained in part, the presence of the tallgrass prairie plants is less certain due to the changes. However some representative species, such as this American Senna, have been planted, as have a multitude of grasses.

In some of the dead trees, Great Egrets will hang out....

...until they decide to come to the wetlands in search for food. Of course no one who reads Nature Nuggets very often would have any idea that I enjoy photographing Great Egrets.....:-).

With the shallow and somewhat muddy shoreline, it has attracted shorebirds, such as this Greater Yellowlegs.

In another dead tree, there are typically a lot of swallows resting in between feeding flights. Sometimes there may be several hundred of them, and at times, mostly Purple Martins.

  

 

 Another shorebird, this Short-billed Dowitcher, is using the shoreline edge.

And as is typical along the marshes of Lake St. Clair, Swamp Rose Mallow is widely scattered, and sometimes quite abundant. It is a species at risk, but one wouldn't know it by their abundance here.

 Sooo many things to see and photograph. The next post will likely feature some recent findings at Rondeau!

 

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Avocets and other mid-July birds

 A recent stop at the Blenheim sewage lagoons turned out to be quite worthwhile! I hadn't been there for a few days, as the ongoing heat and humidity encouraged me to stay close to home much of the time, but this day was different. Definitely a little cooler with a pleasant breeze. And something quite interesting had just blown in.

 A flock of American Avocets was there, in the far southeast cell where there is a nice muddy flat and some shallow muddy water. As it was mid-morning, the light wasn't the best from the initial vantage point, and this is the best I could get, just in case they took off and I didn't have any other chances.

Walking cautiously on the dried mud, which was soft and full of cracks, I wandered more to the east to get a better angle of the light. It was still a little harsher than I liked, but through processing, was able to get some quite satisfactory photos.

At one point the entire flock of 12 got up and flew, appearing to go right out of sight, so we looked at the other shorebird diversity that was there. But in less than10 minutes, the Avocets returned. Not wanting to disturb them to flight mode again, we quietly backtracked and left them feeding.

Earlier I indicated that this flock had recently blown in. As it turns out, Blake had a flock of 12 flying in from Lake St. Clair, over the Mitchell's Bay area, about 3 hours earlier. It is quite likely that the ones he had seen, kept on flying until they found some wetland with shallow, muddy water, to their liking. 

 As is typical of sewage lagoons at this time of year, there are usually a few more things to take note of if there are some shallow, muddy edges. There were several Semipalmated Plovers, but I didn't get any photos of them. Lots of Killdeer, of course, and others of various types. At one point, under a bit breezy conditions, some swallows rested from their aerial flight on the gravel path.

Tree and Barn Swallows

As I approached the sprinkler cells, two large corvids were up and about, giving a typical hoarse croak of Common Raven.

A few Least Sandpipers were scattered about.....

....as were a few Lesser Yellowlegs...

...and a couple of Pectoral Sandpipers.

It is always nice to see a few Short-billed Dowitchers.

This Tree Swallow was sitting on a sheltered perch, taking a rest from chasing insects that were probably taking shelter from the breezes themselves.

 On another occasion, I went to the Mitchell's Bay North Shore Trail. With its openness it is always a good spot to go to keep away from mosquitoes and fewer deer flies, and with a few birds to note. This adult Bald Eagle was a long way off, keeping an eye on fishermen and whatever else that were out on the lake. I tried to get around the trail a little farther to get closer, but it would have none of that and took off.

Great Egrets are almost always around, and some even cooperated for some telephoto photos. I think there were at least 6 within view, although they moved around a bit.

 A Common Gallinule was perched up in the Arrowhead and Pickerelweed squawking and complaining about something.

 

In the recently harvested wheat field, this pair of Sandhill Cranes was investigating some open area.

And this Song Sparrow was singing its heart out, so the nesting season, at least for it, is still under way.

 Red-winged Blackbirds are almost always fairly abundant, and especially now when so many young have hatched. Many were out in the wheat field as well, likely looking for a bit of grain that hadn't been taken in.

And in other news....the Nessus Sphinx Moth that I photographed at home a few days ago, and is now my feature creature at the top, showed a slightly different look in one of the photos that I eventually got processed. This one shows a Great Golden Digger Wasp grasping on to the tail end of the moth! Not sure what its intent was, and it didn't last long, so perhaps the wasp figured it had tackled something too large for itself.

At Rondeau, I had noted a female Prothonotary Warbler taking nesting material to a natural cavity in one of the sloughs. I had hoped that it would make use of it, as there was a male nearby, and I prefer photographing this species at a natural cavity. But even after watching this spot periodically over the course of several weeks, it was apparent that nothing was happening here. Perhaps it found a better nesting cavity farther up or down the slough.

And this immature Red-tailed Hawk was being harassed by a small group of Red-winged Blackbirds. In this incident, it was the little guys that won the confrontation.

'Til next time....

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