Bird numbers are building up, plus more species at risk

 Warblers, other passerines, and shorebirds continue their seasonal movements, with numbers increasing. Exploring places along the Lake Erie shoreline are great places to encounter them. This includes places like Erieau, Keith McLean Conservation Lands and of course Rondeau. And since due to the higher water levels minimizing these places for shorebirds, the local sewage lagoons are definitely worth checking out from time to time.

The warblers are fairly plentiful, that is until a cold front with its associated northerly wind comes through, and then a lot of them move farther south. But there often seems to be a fair number around. On some days, the number of warblers reported even rivals those days in mid-May! Getting photos of them is another story, however. 

The east South Point Trail of Rondeau can have pockets of warblers and vireos to capture ones attention. Here are some warblers that strayed within camera range long enough to get a photo, with some of them sporting a different plumage than they have in spring.

American Redstart

Bay-breasted Warbler

Black-throated Blue Warbler

There are lots of dogwood bushes along the trail, many of which are, or have been, quite laden down with berries. These birds are zipping in and out of the shrubs in their quest for the huge benefits these berries are as they build up their energy levels so they can go on the next leg of their migration. Many clusters of berries are half gone, as this next photo shows.

On my search for birds, I will come across other notable things, such as a few American Ginseng, a species at risk. It was not a great year for berry production, however, as some plants did not produce any berries, and even the ones that had some success, only produced one or two.

I also came across a new-to-me location small Black Ash. Normally Black Ash are found in wet areas, but this one was on a much drier than normal site. Ash trees in general have been hit hard by the Emerald Ash Borer, and Black Ash is now a Critically Endangered species in Canada. It is easily identified by its stemless paired leaves.....

...a brown pointed end bud.....

....and the underside of the leaves being hairy where they join the stem.

At the opposite end of the abundance scale is Great Blue Lobelia, especially common in open and damp forest edges.

At the Keith McLean Conservation Lands, the mud-flats are almost non-existent, and so it is not good for shorebirds. But Great Egrets and Great Blue Herons make good use of it.

The higher water levels have produced good habitat for Swamp Rose Mallow, and here I found another white variant of this species at risk.

Along the trail, several Cedar Waxwings were flying out from a willow tree going after insects, and occasionally came back and sat on a branch convenient for my photographic interests.

On another occasion I went to Erieau, looking for shorebirds along the beach, and whatever else I could find. With the regular beach hikers and dog walkers, on this occasion there weren't any shorebirds on the beach, but I found a few at the end of the lighthouse pier. There were a few Sanderling.....

...and at least a couple of White-rumped Sandpipers. They can often be separated from similar looking sandpipers by the longer wings, extending beyond the tail. The angle I got this photo of doesn't show it as clearly as I saw it from other angles, but didn't capture it with my camera.

Cormorants are present at Erieau by the dozens, even hundreds at times. This one was swimming and diving quite close by the end of the pier.

I scanned the horde of cormorants and gulls on the break wall across the channel. This large, predominantly gray gull caught my eye, and I managed a couple of shots, and after greatly cropping them, could only come up with this one. I am not quite sure what it is. It seems to be the size of a Herring Gull, but normally young birds of that species have a brownish colour to their plumage.  However Herring Gulls vary quite a bit over their huge breeding range, which extends from coast to coast, and it is possible it is just a young Herring Gull but not from a local Ontario population.

As I was pondering the gull, I heard a distinctive call approaching from behind. A large shorebird, with a long, down-curved bill flew quickly by, and by the time I was able to get a photo or two, all I got was its back end. It is a Whimbrel, one of the largest shorebirds to go through the area at any time of year, and much more common in the spring. I don't always see them in the fall.

Shorebirds at the Blenheim sewage lagoons continue to be fairly diverse and in good numbers. I certainly don't try and photograph the diversity each time I go, but try and get a few shots. The light wasn't great, but I did manage to get the following:

Baird's Sandpiper

Greater Yellowlegs

Short-billed Dowitcher

Stilt Sandpiper

While the St. Clair NWA isn't all that close to the southerly part of Chatham-Kent and the Lake Erie shoreline, it still can be quite worthwhile to explore and photograph the birds that make themselves visible. Wood Ducks are frequently seen flying over the NWA, and on occasion one will be resting either on some fallen branches.....

....or tucked under the woody vegetation along the shoreline.

A Belted Kingfisher was busily hunting for food....

...and a Sandhill Crane was feeding along the edge of a wet area.....

.....while this trio of cranes flew over and headed for the far corner of the marsh, presumably to find a spot to spend the night.

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Rare and uncommon birds, a very rare orchid, and others

 There are a few rare to uncommon bird species around, mixed in with the expected species. One of the highlights of recent days is the arrival of Dickcissel. It used to be a rather extreme rarity up until a few years ago, and any reports of them immediately created a rush of birders anxious to get them on their life or year lists. While there is still a quick response by birders when one is reported, the occurrence of Dickcissels in southwestern Ontario is not quite the novelty it once was. The beginning of their fairly regular occurrence began in 2017, and I wrote about it for the April, 2018 edition of Ontario Birds, which you can read about here.

Dickcissels have appeared in several places in the south and mid western parts of Chatham-Kent so far in recent days, and I went to a spot where a sizeable grassy/prairie type field had been established a few years ago. I had a couple of the birds there last year, and sure enough, almost as soon as I pulled up to the edge of the road, there was a male singing away. Fortunately this species sings at a pitch that even my ears can easily detect, and this bird came and went several times, giving me lots of photo ops right from the vehicle.

I had been out to another site, privately owned, where I had them last year, but so far, they had not shown up. I will check in another few days. It was not a lost cause, as I was treated to a male Bobolink intent on feeding young at a nest......

....and lots of Savannah Sparrows.

The real bird rarity of the area was even rarer than a Dickcissel. It was a Cassin's Kingbird that showed up in southern Essex County. Its rarity status was clearly demonstrated by the dozens of birders that descended on the site as quickly as they could get there, giving variable views. I am sure it was an Ontario lifer for many. I did not venture there to see it however. It was in late November of 2013 when I found one of this species at Rondeau! Unfortunately it was dead, but still identifiable. It was resting in the sand dunes of the southeast beach of the park. It quite likely had been hanging out along the edge of the dunes and oak savanna, and had gone unnoticed by birders in the area, not all that surprising since it was in late November when birders do not frequent that area very often. With a cold spell of several days earlier, the amount of insects available to it had likely diminished, causing it to perish. It had deteriorated by the time I found it, but it was salvaged and eventually ended up at the ROM.

Far less rare, but still nice to see and even get a few photos of, were several bird species at the local sewage lagoons. About 5 White-rumped Sandpipers were using the sprinkler cells.

The White-rump is easily told by being larger than similar looking Semipalmated Sandpiper, with that latter species shown on the left side of the next photo, and also by the greater black markings extending farther along the flanks. It also has a reddish base to the underside of the beak and longer wings that extend beyond the tail when at rest. And of course the white rump, which shows in flight.

It is uncertain whether these White-rumps are just late in going north, given the vagaries of weather patterns over the last month or so, or early in returning. I had been told by someone much more expert than I, several years ago, that White-rumps go north fairly quickly and even overshoot southern Ontario for the most part, to get a good start on nesting in their arctic territories. But if the weather conditions there are not favourable and nests fail, then the birds will abandon further nesting attempts and slowly move south, appearing here in southern Ontario by mid-June. With that in mind, I suspect these birds are ones that are on the return.

A common shorebird species is the aptly named Spotted Sandpiper, and there are always a few at the sewage lagoons.

Not a shorebird, but a Song Sparrow, next, which occurs in a wide variety of habitats. This one was scurrying around amongst the vegetation at the edge of the sprinkler cells, often just out of sight.

A quick trip to Rondeau was not terribly birdy in the area I explored, but there is always something to see, and even get photos of. Gray Catbirds are not always so cooperative, but this one was advertising its territory and less concerned than usual about me.

Mourning Doves are often well beyond photo range.

The Common Five-lined Skink is anything but common, and is in fact endangered, but can be seen occasionally on a sunny log.

And in sunny spots along the woodland trails, the Six-spotted Tiger Beetle can be found quite regularly. Just so you know, it doesn't always have six spots, however.

One of my outdoor forays involved heading to Clear Creek Forest Provincial Park, a favourite destination at various times of the year. On the way there, I stopped to see how a very large Black Gum tree was faring, given the sometimes extreme wind, snow and ice conditions over the winter. It was doing fine. The flowers are not very impressive, and this next photo shows some deteriorating flowers as well as some early developing drupes, or berries, which will be much larger and blue at maturity.

It is a large, impressive tree, and the only location in Chatham-Kent that I am aware of. The next photo shows it just a bit past the peak of autumn colour, when the leaves are a deep red. This was taken in the mid-autumn of 2022. Maybe this coming autumn I will get it at its peak!

Any visit to Clear Creek Forest PP entails being on the lookout for anything and everything. A walk around the former gravel pit on the north side, can be good for dragonflies, and on this occasion I got these next two species:

Calico Pennant

Dot-tailed White Face

It was a coolish day, and I anticipate an increase in ode diversity over the next few weeks. 

My main purpose was to check up on a very rare orchid: Purple, or Lily-leaved, Twayblade (Liparis liliifolia). En route to that spot, I came across this Northern Crescent butterfly.....

...as well as a Virginia Ctenucha moth.

 I was successful in finding the orchid, in spite of it being partially hidden under other, more profuse vegetation, and overall it was in fine shape for photographing.

It is an endangered species, with very few locations for it in Ontario, and only one in Quebec.

Given its subtle appearance, and growing amongst other vegetation, it would not surprise me if it occurs in a few other places, but just hard to find!

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