More migrants, some late leps, a cactus conundrum and a house of yesteryear

 Autumn is unfolding as it should, and that means there are lots of things to photograph. A few days ago I was out in the Erieau area. I took time to check the main pier, as the uncommon Purple Sandpiper could appear any day. I walked all the way to the end, flushing a multitude of the usual gulls along the way, but only came up with a single Sanderling right at the end.

Maybe next time there will be a Purple Sandpiper to greet me.

A walk along the Erieau Marsh Trail and McGeachy Pond Trail is often worthwhile, so I included it in my itinerary. There was a nice mix of passerines, including:

Eastern Phoebe

Northern Parula

There were several others, but due to the very contrasty light, were hard to photograph.

Butterflies, on the other hand, were typically out in the open where they could benefit from the sunlight energy while nectaring on the flowers. The deep purple of New England Aster seemed to be the main flower attraction.

Orange Sulphur

Clouded Sulphur

The first two are pretty common, but these next ones are much less common. In fact the Fiery Skippers, of which there were several, were the first ones I had photographed this year.

Bronze Coppers, shown next, are to be expected at some point and usually much more common than the Fiery Skippers.

Female

Male

I also spent a bit of time up along some accessible areas along Lake St. Clair. There were some migrants, not surprisingly, including a good number of Blue Jays on the wing....

 

 ...and some even landed for another shot.

There were a lot of Yellow-rumped Warblers, by far the most abundant warbler almost everywhere you go these days.

And since it is still relatively early in the season, a few Great Egrets are to be found, and occasionally are in an excellent spot to be photographed.

On another outing, I photographed this Prickly Pear Cactus. Cacti of this type are popular, and always fun to be found. But they present a problem, mainly in the taxonomy. What species is it? For many years, the cacti known in southern Ontario were called Eastern Prickly Pear (Opuntia humifusa). A bit later, taxonomists changed the name to Opuntia cespitosa, and most of the ones are still known as that. However this first one apparently is a different species, known as Grassland Prickly Pear (Opuntia cymochila). It is more of a western species, but due to the arrangement and angle of the spines, is believed by Opuntia experts to be this species. This makes for an interesting element to Ontario's Opuntia, as this particular population in the former Howard Township was quite abundant back in the 1940s. A former co-worker of mine, when I was at Rondeau back in the late 1970s, told me of this population which occurred in a large sandy area almost right across the road from where he and his wife lived. His wife was a teacher at the schoolhouse just down the road, and walked by this population almost every day. That was back in the mid 1940s. However as time went on, the sandy area was converted to agriculture, and it eliminated most of the cactus. Now only a couple of dozen plants persist in the road allowance.

Another population of cactus occurs at Rondeau, in the southeast beach dunes. They do not occur there naturally, as some unknown persons transplanted them there in about 1994. They have done fairly well there since. This population has been determined to be genetically similar to the naturally occurring population on Pelee Island. Therefore the species is legally endangered under the province's Endangered Species Act. The conundrum is: what to do with these plants? They are endangered, sort of, but it is debatable whether transplants are covered under the Act. Or should they be removed, since they may end up being a problem species in an otherwise highly significant natural habitat in one of the most significant provincial parks in Ontario? At the moment, park staff are reluctant to remove them, so they continue where they are.

On quite a different topic than the ones above, here is one of the most photographed abandoned houses in southwestern Ontario, perhaps in all of Canada if you believe some reports. It is known as the Guyitt House, and if you google that name, you can find out lots more information about this house. Regardless, it is along the former Hwy 3, now the Talbot Trail, in eastern Chatham-Kent a short distance east of Palmyra and few kilometers before you get to the Elgin Co border. It was built in the 1840s and was occupied up until about the mid-1980s. I took these photos at various times in about 2010-2011. It has continued to deteriorate, but does so 'gracefully' and it is interesting to see the process.

I took these next two and processed them to reflect an earlier age

This next one was taken during a full moon, with a long exposure of slightly more than 300 seconds using the moon as the sole source of light. You can tell it was a long exposure by seeing the white streak just to the left of the chimney on the right hand side, which is how far a star 'moved' in those 300+seconds.

In recent weeks, an unknown person has complained about its condition, and asked the municipality to enforce a by-law forcing the owner to either repair it or remove it. This has caused a great deal of angst for the landowner, who would like to keep it as is, since it is such a popular photographic subject. The landowner gets nothing for it, just the satisfaction of having a popular photographic subject. There has been a lot of support to leave it as is. At this point nothing has been decided, so stay tuned.

Back on the lep theme, here is what Marie and I call our October Cat. It is a fairly well developed caterpillar of a Black Swallowtail. Interestingly although Black Swallowtail butterflies have been in our garden area periodically all season, it wasn't until the last couple of weeks where we could find any caterpillars.

We have seen about 7 in the last couple of weeks. Today we couldn't find any, so it is possible that the remaining ones have gone off to change over to a pupal form, in which it will overwinter.

And finally, a Magnificent Frigatebird appeared near the mouth of the Thames River yesterday. It was initially seen by some fishermen but word didn't get out until late in the day. It was believed to not be in good health. Several keen birders were there first thing this morning, and one group saw it tumble from its overnight roost and fall into the water, barely able to struggle to a log on the bank of the river. Clearly it was not likely to survive. A few people reported seeing it in the morning, and one or more believed a rehabber was tracking it down and taking it in to see if it could be saved.

Marie and I went for a drive out that way in the early afternoon. I had mixed feelings, as I don't chase as many rarities as I used to, and chasing a bird that was almost dead was not all that appealing. We didn't see it, so perhaps it has been rescued by a rehabber. I haven't heard any more on that. Update: it may have been euthanized due to its poor condition.

I wasn't too concerned about not getting to add it to my Chatham-Kent list, as I had the opportunity to see and photograph a quite healthy one off the south beach of Rondeau, back in early July of 2012.

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A Little Bit of Natural and Human History

Some readers may have noticed a recent article in the local weekly paper, Chatham This Week, which talked about all the black squirrels in Washington D. C. And no, it had nothing to do with anyone there being 'nuts'. 

Black squirrels are relatively common across southern Ontario, and even more so in the central parts of Ontario. Up until about the last century, they were non-existent in D. C. or anywhere close. According to the historical narrative, the current population of black squirrels there are the descendants of ones  that came from Rondeau Provincial Park.

 

Around the very late 1800s or very early 1900s, someone from that part of the USA was intrigued by the black squirrels at Rondeau during a visit, and arranged a delivery of a few of these squirrels to a zoo in the D. C. area. Wildlife exchanges were much more common in that era than they are today. They eventually they became numerous enough that they were released in the wild, and have been in the D. C. area ever since.

 

When I was the park naturalist of Rondeau back in the '70s and '80s, I recall coming across the written documents in the park's historical files, from the superintendent of the day relating to this event. This delivery of black squirrels occurred in 1902.

 

Black squirrels are really a colour form of the Eastern Grey Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis). Both black and grey colour forms are common in southern Ontario. The grey colour form is the more common colour form of this species south of the border, especially so the farther south you go. The ecological advantage of being black here in Ontario is that it absorbs a bit more sunlight energy, keeping the squirrel a bit warmer than its grey counterpart during the winter period.

If you want to read a bit more, check out the article in Chatham This Week at this link. 

 

 On a completely different note, but also of local historical relevance, is The Guyitt House. This has been acclaimed as the most photographed abandoned house at least in southern Ontario, and some say all of Ontario.

It is along the Talbot Trail, formerly known as provincial highway #3, just a few kilometres east of Rondeau and within sight of Clear Creek Forest Provincial Park. There have been various media articles from time to time, and even YouTube videos, one of which surfaced quite recently.

I have photographed this abandoned house on several occasions. One of my first efforts was in early April, 2010. I photographed it during the daylight hours, but since it was an historical building, decided to process the image in black and white with a bit of sepia tone added.

At around the same time, I had been intrigued by photographing things by moonlight, so during the full moon later that same month, decided to give it a try.

While in a way, this next image may appear to have been photographed during broad daylight, it was actually a 303 second exposure at just after 11 p.m. using only the light of the full moon. If you look closely (click on the image to get a larger view) there is a white line just above and to the left of the chimney at the right hand side of the house. That streak is the light of a bright star, showing how far it moved during that 5+ minute exposure.

In June of 2011, I decided to photograph the house again, this time in broad daylight and in colour. The pinkish purple flowers in the foreground are a type of wild phlox, not a native plant, but one that was commonly planted by settlers of the region.

The house has deteriorated quite a bit in the decade following the time of taking this photograph. One wonders just how much longer it will remain standing, and at what stage it will be completely removed.

If you want to read a bit more about The Guyitt House, check out this link from an article by the CBC.