Wildflowers of May

All those showers of April, and also into May, have done their job well. The woodland wildflowers look quite lush! At Rondeau Tuliptree Trail, Spicebush Trail and South Point Trail (the drier, west side) are all great places to find an abundance of wildflowers, although many of them can be found in other woodlands elsewhere in southern Ontario. While these trails are also popular for birders in their search for birds, the birds are sometimes hard to come by. Wildflowers, while they are in bloom for a few days, are a pleasant diversion and certainly more predictable when the birds seem scarce.

 What follows are just a few of the wildflowers that have caught my eye.

Many readers will likely recognize most of the ones I include on this post. Probably the most recognizable one is the White Trillium, the provincial flower of Ontario.

 Less recognizable is the Red Trillium, at least in the form shown next. Trilliums are known to have peculiarities, and sometimes some real unusual ones appear. Normal trilliums have three petals. For some reason this plant got double! Actually this photo was taken a couple of years ago. It didn't show up in 2017, and when I went to check on it in 2018 it was already well past its best.

Wild Columbine is always a treat to see. Hummingbirds are on the lookout for it as well, as they hover beneath the flower and stick their long bills and tongues up the flower tube to get to the nectar in the little bulb at the tip. This next photo shows a typical Wild Columbine.

 As in the case of the Red Trillium, there can be some unusual forms of Wild Columbine. They can occasionally be a pale reddish orange, but very rarely do you see a pale yellow, almost white, version. In fact I have only seen this on two occasions at Rondeau. I came across this plant a couple of years ago, and so far it has reappeared in successive years. I'm not sure what the hummingbirds think about this colour form. White wine vs red wine???

Wild orchids are always a treat to find. This next plant is Showy Orchis (Galearis spectabilis). It is a small orchid and is generally very uncommon in rich deciduous hardwoods forests.

 Next is White Baneberry, also known as Doll's-eyes since the fruit is white with a black dot on one side, looking like the eye of a doll.

 Wild Geranium is widespread.

 Sweet Cicely is common in woodlands. Its flowers are small, and once they finish flowering you hardly notice them, until they go to seed. Then you find out the hard way, if you go walking through a stand of them, that those seeds are hard, pointed and can be somewhat painful. They have a tendency to get stuck in pants, socks and whatever they can latch on to, with their pointed ends jabbing your skin underneath.

 Violets are numerous, and one of the most common ones is Downy Yellow Violet.

Much less common, and restricted to sandy open woods is Wood Violet, shown next. The flowers don't look all that different from other bluish-purple violets, but the leaves are distinctive.

Another uncommon plant is this next one: American Gromwell.

It was on the Rondeau plant checklist, but it had not been seen since the early 1960s. It had been ranked as 'historic' for Chatham-Kent. Last year I came across a single clump, and included it in a blog post about a year ago. When I was in its locale this year, I did a more careful but quick check and noted there were about 10 clusters. Another person alerted me to the location of another clump and when I went and found it and did a more thorough check of the overall area, I came up with 17 clusters. Undoubtedly there are others, too.

From even a short distance away, it blends in with the lush vegetation it grows amongst, so it isn't surprising that it can be missed.

 If you looked at the individual flowers and thought they looked like those of a puccoon that you might find on the sandy beach dunes, good for you! The flowers are indeed similar, but yellow instead of orangey-yellow. And they are of the same genus: Lithospermum.

The heavy overcast days were great for finding and photographing wildflowers. It was also ideal for forest photography.

At least a few of these will continue to bloom well into June.

Colourful May Wildflowers

A few weeks ago I posted about April showers bringing April flowers, of which there are many that show up late in that month. However May seems to have the greatest diversity of flowers, especially in woodlands before the trees leaves get too dominant. The profusion is amazing, especially along some trails. In fact I have had birders tell me that when the birding got a bit slow, they thoroughly enjoyed the abundance of wildflowers.

This first one shown started in April, but May is its normal flowering period, and this population did persist flowering well into May.

Goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis)

Forests with developing heavy canopy have the earliest species. Wild Geranium (Geranium maculatum) is abundant.

 Less obvious is the Virginia Waterleaf (Hydrophyllum virginianum)

 White flowers, such as this Sweet Cicely (Osmorhiza claytoni) don't stand out as much as more colourful ones. This is one you need to watch out for, especially if you venture off a trail, since the developed seeds are black and sharp-pointed and will penetrate clothing and prick you.

A similarly looking white flower is White Baneberry (Actea pachypoda), sometimes known as Doll's-eyes since the white berries with black dots were used by pioneers as eye's for home-made dolls.

Wild Blue Phlox (Phlox divaricata), sometimes called the pinwheel flower, is plentiful. It is just as often pinkish-purple or white as it is blue.

Mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum), in peak flower in May, should prossibly be called Juneapple, since the little apple fruit seldom occurs until June. Parts of the plant are poisonous.

On one occasion when I was getting ready to photograph some of the wildflowers, I encountered a species I had never seen in Rondeau before: False or American Gromwell (Lithospermum latifolium). In fact until I came across this small clump, it was considered an historical species for Chatham-Kent, and hadn't been seen in Rondeau since the early 1960s. It is nice to update the historical records.

A fairly rare woodland wildflower blooming in May is Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia virginica). There are historical records for Chatham-Kent, but a fabulous colony of them occurs on a private property along the Thames River in Elgin County.

In more open woods, especially where there are lots of oaks and leaf development is slower, are a slightly different mix of wildflowers. Wild Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis) is widely scattered, and often sought out by hummingbirds which can sometimes be seen hovering beneath the flower with its long bill up into the flower searching for nectar.

 On a very few occasions, you might encounter a pale yellow form of this normally bright orange-red flower.

 Robin's Plantain (Erigeron pulchellus) is quite restricted to sandy/grassy openings of the oak forest.

 False Toadflax (Comandra richardsonii) is another very restricted species, and not nearly as large and colourful as many others.

 Wood Betony (Pedicularis canadensis) on the other hand is usually quite abundant in these oak forest openings. They may be purplish, as shown in the first image, or yellow, as shown in the following one.

 An abundant member of the Lily family, growing in sandy soils along oak forest edges, is this Starry False Solomon's-seal (Maianthemum stellatum).

Just a few of the more obvious and sometimes less obvious, herbaceous wildflowers to be found in May, with some of them persisting into June. Herbaceous plants aren't the only ones with flowers. Woody plants have them too...some are obvious and some are so diminutive they aren't noticeable unless you look really, really hard for them. Some will be featured in a future post.

Have you seen anything?

Quite often when I go along a trail, people I encounter ask that question. While I know that this is posed mostly by birders who want to know what interesting birds I have seen that they should be hopeful in finding themselves, I often pause before answering because in reality, there has been a lot to see. But what I am seeing may not just be birds. Birds of course are fascinating, but they are just one part of the forest ecosystem that we are hiking through, and really are only a small part of it. The trees, the wildflowers, the ferns, the reptiles and amphibians, the multitude of insects......the diversity is enormous! Sometimes you may not see the animal itself, but you may see evidence of its being there earlier.....leaves that have been munched on by the caterpillar of a butterfly that is now flitting along the trail; a pile of poop which attracts butterflies and other insects; a nipped off branch that is evidence of a deer, or rabbit. And if there aren't specific things in those groups of things to see, there is always the shadows and shapes of the many things that are everywhere. The light is always changing, moment by moment as the sun travels across the sky causing the shadows to change at the forest floor level. At one point a wildflower may be in complete shadow and a few minutes later it is in brilliant sunshine.

The peak of the spring bird migration has now passed and resident species are settling down to nest. The forests of Rondeau can be full of bird song at various times of day. At other times it is relatively quiet, but there are other things to take note of. While I was on the boardwalk near where the Prothonotary Warblers are nesting, this Five-lined Skink approached me. It came to within about half a metre of my foot before it scampered off in the other direction.

Just over the edge of the boardwalk, this Green Frog was resting, appropriately, amongst Frog-bit....it is the circular plant on the frog's back. Frog-bit is not native, but showed up at Rondeau in the marsh back in the mid-1970s and has been expanding to quiet waterways ever since. The tiny floating plants are one of the three species of duckweed that occur at Rondeau, and the tiniest floating plants in this image are Watermeal.

At ground level in the forest are plants such as this Canada Violet, one of two species of white violets occurring at Rondeau. The other species is almost finished flowering now.

Another flowering plant which is quite abundant in the richer part of the forest is Sweet Cicely. The individual flowers are quite small. In a few weeks you will hardly notice the plant at all, but a bit later you will notice them for an uncomfortable reason: if you are walking off the trail, you will end up with sharp pointed black seeds stuck into your socks or pants, poking into your skin. As you pull the seeds out, you are dispersing them to perhaps a new area.

Sweet Cicely

In a different location, I was checking for another pair of Prothonotary Warblers that nested in a box last year. I didn't see any activity this time, but I did encounter a large Leopard Frog.....

.....and a Snapping Turtle. One doesn't often see snappers in the sloughs, but they are there.

There are a lot of Tuliptrees at Rondeau....it is the unofficial flagship tree species for the park, as it is the largest provincial park in the Carolinian Life Zone which Tuliptrees are more or less limited to in Canada. Appropriately there is even a trail with that name. One of the highlights at this time of year is to see the numerous flowers on these trees. Unfortunately the flowers are typically very high up in the tree, since they require a lot of light. There are a few open grown Tuliptrees, and where you find them, there are lower branches which often have flowers. Two of the best spots to see them at about eye level are in the campground (not far from site 71) and at the north end of the parking lot for the Marsh Trail.

 Some of the flowers will have pollinators visiting, such as this honey bee in the image below.

There are still birds to be heard and seen. Acadian Flycatchers have one of their Canadian strongholds at Rondeau, and there are currently at least 4-5 known singing males or pairs right along the trails or roads. Who knows how many are back in the less accessible part of the forest.

In more open areas of the forest, one may come encounter an Orchard Oriole, another southern species. The black and chestnut brown pattern of the adult male are unmistakable.

Butterflies are becoming more abundant. There were several Spicebush Swallowtails, appropriately, at the Spicebush Trail parking lot.

 Question Mark butterflies are also fairly widespread.

At the Visitor Centre, a Blue Jay was taking a bath, apparently unconcerned who was watching and photographing the event.

Near Shrewsbury, there is a small colony of Great Blue Herons nesting in a half-dead willow tree. These shots were taken from the marsh edge, but I hope to get the kayak out one of these days and get different shots.

Adult heron approaching the nest tree

Arriving at the nest, the adults greet each other

On the sandy shores of the lake, including at Erieau, there are some rare plants. This next image is a close-up of the flowers of Sand Cherry, ranked as S3 (rare) in Ontario. There is an abundance of these flowering shrubs at the Laverne Kelly Memorial Park at Erieau, but it is very uncommon at Rondeau.

The Blenheim Sewage Lagoons are always good for a different diversity of wildlife. The sprinkler cells vary in their condition from one visit to the next. On occasion hundreds of shorebirds, especially Dunlin, are present. But mixed in may be some much rarer shorebirds, such as this White-rumped Sandpiper.

For some reason, a lone Tundra Swan is still present at the lagoon. Presumably it cannot fly.

Not that long ago, I had a Cattle Egret in breeding plumage arrive at the lagoon, circle around a bit and then land in the grassy area.

In an unmowed part of the lagoon, I flushed out a small sparrow.

Given the way it allowed me to get very close before flushing, I assumed it had a nest nearby and so upon closer examination I discovered this nest of three hatchlings and two eggs.