Orchids, Fungi, Spiders, Butterflies and more!

 In spite of the heat and humidity of the last few weeks, I have been out and about a few times. However some of those outings have been to pursue things for a specific post topic, which I hope to get out in the near future. But there are always things to see besides the specific things I have been looking for, so I intend for this post to catch up on a few things.

 It isn't often that sphinx moths are seen in the middle of the day, but on one occasion a park staff person discovered this Achemon Sphinx moth on the lawn of the Visitor Centre. It may have been injured, as even after it was picked up and put on the leaf of a shrub, it stuck around for a day or so. 

Spiders can be quite interesting to find. The one in this next photo is an Arrowhead Orbweaver.

Blackfoot Polypore

Next is a member of the Robber Fly group.

Black-waisted Laphyria

A Slime Mould

Small Enchanter's Nightshade

Richweed

Next is another slime mould...

....and if you look at the right-hand side of the photo, you will see the head of a Carolina Mantleslug, shown much larger in this next photo.

  

An earlier post showed the leaves of a rare species which someone planted a few years ago, but is not native to Rondeau. It is Tall Coreopsis, usually found in quality tallgrass prairie habitat. 

The leaf arrangement is quite indicative of this species.

Cylindrical Blazing-star, another rare species, and is native to Rondeau, is doing quite well in the open sandy habitats.

Butterflies are fairly abundant when the blazing-star is so common and widespread, especially Monarchs which are gradually accumulating in preparation for their southern journey.

And Spicebush Swallowtails are fairly regular as well.

Scattered around the purple blazing star, are a few white ones. 

 

Elsewhere in my roamings, I have come across a Marbled Orbweaver wrapped up in a curled leaf adjacent to its web. I unfurled the leaf and the spider just sat there trying to look inconspicuous in spite of the camera only inches away? 

An Ivory-marked Borer.

Enchanter's Nightshade

Fall Cankerworm Moth

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

Definite Tussock Moth

Sweet Joe-pye-weed

Next is a Spined Micrathena, a rare spider, munching on something that got caught up in its web.

Ruby Bolete

The next two are photos of an orchid, the Club Spur Orchid, which I normally see along a slough west of the West South Point Trail. I was surprised to see two of these growing on a mossy log right along Tulip Tree Trail.

Orange-humped Maple Worm

Orange Polypore

Next is another rare, but not native to Rondeau, tallgrass prairie species that someone planted back in the 1990s. It is Gray-headed Coneflower.

One of the August highlights for me is to check on the endangered Nodding Pogonia, an orchid that is only found in Canada at Rondeau. The weather was a factor this year, making it very difficult to find in flower, as the buds that are ready to open, only open for a single day, and all on the same day. It may be another week before the weather conditions are conducive for the next set of developing buds to open. As a result, on several occasions when I went out to its main population, well off any trail, this is what I found. They had opened a day or two earlier!

 

On one occasion, I came across a plant that had a bud that appeared to be ready to open, and I photographed it.....

....and I returned the following day, checked the same plant, and found it had opened!

This particular year was not all that great for this orchid. I have been tracking this species since the 1970s, and always seemed to find that the third week of August was prime time for maximum flowering. However with the lack of rain at the needed time, and the overall weather conditions, those that grew to the flowering stage flowered a few days earlier, and by the third week of August, were about finished. There may have been one or two still waiting to flower, but not many, so it was a poor season. At least I did get to see a few in flower on one occasion. Maybe next year...

 

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More on a couple of endangered species, plus a new species for Rondeau, etc.

 Earlier this month, I went to Rondeau to try and get some impressive shots of the super moon. I spent a bit of time ahead of the moon rise, exploring other areas, including the Marsh Trail. One of the first things I was able to get photos of was this Merlin keeping an eye on me.

On the trail itself, I encountered a Short-tailed Shrew. It was dead, and that is the most likely way to encounter one. 

A few more living things were noted, and photographed, including Blue Jays, which are migrating through in large numbers....

Eastern Phoebe

Northern Flicker

A flock of ducks flew high, overhead. Most of these are scaup, but hard to tell whether Greater or Lesser from this photo.

White-crowned Sparrow

White-throated Sparrow

As the evening progressed, I went out to the east side of the park in anticipation of a large, orange super moon at the horizon. There was a bit of haze at the horizon, so I waited and got this one as it rose a bit.

I went back a couple of days later, with a different camera\lens combination, as the horizon appeared to be clearer. Unfortunately it was quite windy, and I couldn't hold the camera still enough in such dark conditions especially with such a slow shutter speed, and when there is often more atmospheric interference right at the horizon. So the quality of photo I was hoping for wasn't what I got. 
 

Later in the evening, I got this:

It is sharper, of course, but it doesn't look a lot different than a normal full moon. Oh well, I guess I will have to work on my moon rise photography technique and keep trying!

In other park explorations, I managed to see these things:

Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers are more plentiful, as they are in migration mode. The occasional one may stay the winter at Rondeau.

As the human crowds thin out a bit, deer are more likely to be out and about.

Wild Turkey

Next is a fruiting capsule of the endangered Nodding Pogonia. It wasn't a great year for this species, as the dryness at a critical time of the summer likely had an impact, as did other factors. For those that did flower and produce a seed capsule, this is what one will find. It is a very small plant to begin with, as one can tell in comparing it to the fallen leaves beside it, and so even extra care had to be made as I searched for evidence of seed production. As the capsule develops, it sits upright, and starts to split along some of the lines, enabling the tiny seeds to disperse with a bit of breeze.

Something I was surprised to encounter was this next little critter. It doesn't have a common name, but is a member of the Tree Hopper family, and its scientific name is Stictocephala basalis. According to iNaturalist, it is the first record for Rondeau and although generally widespread across southern Ontario, is not common at all. When I came across this little rascal, I only had my 100-500mm lens, so had to be creative in getting even a few record shots. Fortunately the lens will focus down to 1 metre at 500mm, so that helped.

Next is a member of the Trametes fungal group, commonly known as the Turkey-tail group.

In spite of the fairly sunny and warm temperatures, butterflies have really dropped off, most likely to that stretch of cold overnight temperatures not long ago.

Fruiting bodies of Fringed Brome grass

Eastern Garter Snake

Downy Woodpecker

Next is a photo of a fungus called Destructive Pholiota. The first photo shows it a week later than the following photo, indicating that these fruiting bodies don't last very long.

Dekay's Snake

Lots of Common Grackles are migrating these days!

Seed pods of Bristly Sedge

Salamanders are fairly common across the damper areas of the park, but are seldom seen, especially considering how dry the sloughs are now. This one is likely a Blue-spotted Salamander, but with the genetic research taking place by researchers amongst the salamander group, it might be a hybrid.

Mid to late October is one of my favourite times to search for another endangered species, Red Mulberry. This species occurs in very few places in extreme southern Ontario, being limited primarily to Pelee Island, Point Pelee and in the extreme eastern Niagara Peninsula. Rondeau has a fairly good population, but that may be changing as the forest conditions have changed a little more dramatically in the last few years. I intend to discuss that topic in more detail in a future post. In the meantime, in the last week or so, I have been looking for this species to determine its continued presence at known locations, as well as keeping an eye open for new locations. As a result, I believe I have found at least two, possibly three, new locations. The leaves are much fresher looking this late in the season compared to most other trees. The leaves are quite large, round and have obvious 'drip tips'. These drip tips are helpful in that due to the slight hairiness of the leaves, which can hold moisture, the drip tips allow for a greater falling off of the moisture droplets. The leaves have a fairly symmetrical base, unlike those leaves of somewhat similar looking Basswood leaves.

As mentioned, they retain the green colour later in the season than most other species. All of these Red Mulberry photos were taken in the last week. There are numerous non-biting midges present lately throughout the park, and they often take refuge on the underside of the leaf which this next photo shows.

This species never grows as tall as most of the other species it associates with, so if you see a relatively short tree with a trunk only a few centimetres in diameter, and with lots of large green leaves as described above, it may be a Red Mulberry. A species it can be confused with includes Basswood, a native species, and Northern Catalpa which is often planted in built up areas but can be distributed into forests, so be aware!

 

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