Spring birds and other fauna

Such a busy time of year shaping up as spring is unfolding. I won't deal with spring wildflowers on this one, but will do so in a future post. For this one, there is lots of fauna, etc., to feature!

A recent trip to St. Clair NWA was fairly productive in seeing things, although the heavy overcast made photography a bit of a challenge.

American Tree Sparrows are still around, but dwindling in numbers. 

Beavers are well established, although not always easy to find and photograph.

Out towards Lake St. Clair, this tree regularly has a few Double-crested Cormorants using it over the course of the day.

A Great Egret or two can be found.

Sandhill Cranes are often in good numbers, sometimes up to about 14, with some even hanging out on the main trail.

It was heavy overcast, as mentioned, so it influenced some of my photo efforts. This was taken from the observation tower, looking eastward.

I try and get to the Mitchell's Bay North trail regularly. Great Egrets are becoming more common, which will likely continue until well into the autumn.

There is lots of shorebird habitat, but most of the time I am only able to find a Greater Yellowlegs, shown next, or a Lesser Yellowlegs.

Midland Painted Turtles are out to enjoy the sunshine, and help out with their egg production phase.

 Heading south, a recent trip to the Erieau Marsh Trail was a worthwhile stop. Right at the beginning of the trail was a Blue-headed Vireo, the first one I had seen this year. Unfortunately it was so busy moving around the branches, or up against the white sky, this is the best photo I managed.

There were several Blue-winged Teal in the sheltered part of the wetland, along with some geese.

I saw a few Chipping Sparrows, just becoming a little more common these days....

...as are Yellow-rumped Warblers.

Of course Rondeau is a favourite destination, and I managed to track down a few species of fauna. Butterflies are becoming more common. This first one is what I would call a Spring Azure, and it fits the description in the fairly recent Butterflies of Ontario book. However there is someone in the Ottawa area who tries to convince people that the only way to tell whether it is this species or one of several others, is to look at it under a microscope, so he lumps them all as Holistic Azures. It's too bad, as that means one has to collect and kill it to identify it! I think I will stick with what the book says.

Ruby-crowned Kinglets are becoming quite common...

..as are Mourning Cloaks.

Killdeer have been back for awhile, and I came across this nest a few days ago.

I managed a nice close-up of this House Wren, singing its heart out to attract a mate.

These Green Darners were busy along the trail.

And Brown Creepers are fairly common these days.

If you go to Rondeau these days, you may notice that the spring, prescribed burns have occurred in a couple of places. It will be interesting to watch how the flush of prairie vegetation responds!

 I haven't been out birding quite as regularly or intensively as I used to, but some of the younger more dedicated local birders have come up with some good sightings. What follows are of species that have been recently seen, but I had to dig into my archives to feature them. I might catch up to one or more of these species yet over the next week or so if they stick around, but in the meantime, I will showcase these this way.

Several Marbled Godwits were noted flying by the lake front. This is one I took from my kayak at Mitchell's Bay a few years ago. 

Piping Plovers have historically nested in the area, but due to their overall decline over the decades, are seldom seen other than on migration. One or two have been seen from Erieau looking at the south beach of Rondeau, but only seen via a 'scope. I photographed this one along the south beach several years ago.

Willets are migratory, nesting farther west, as are the Marbled Godwits, but occasionally show up in the area. Several were seen recently along the lake front. I photographed these three at Shrewsbury several years ago. It is a real treat to see any of these three species, and I hope an indication of things to come!

 

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Shorebirds, Orchids and Leps

This is post #600 of my blog: Nature Nuggets.  Little did I know at the time back in early 2014, how this would unfold. Thanks to many readers, I find doing this highly satisfying.

 It is a great time to be out exploring, with camera in hand, of course.

The local sewage lagoons have been productive, especially for shorebirds, although things have tapered off in the last 3 days or so. But there has been a good variety continuing to show, such as the following:

American Avocet

Baird's Sandpiper

Typically lots of this next one, a Lesser Yellowlegs....

....and always at least a few Pectoral Sandpipers.

Short-billed Dowitcher

A highlight for at least a couple of days, was this young Willet, a species that breeds a fair way to the west of us here.

Not a shorebird, obviously, but a hunter of shorebirds. From one to three Peregrine Falcons have been seen swooping and diving after shorebirds. This young Peregrine one was a fair distance away, but hovered briefly, allowing me to get this shot.

At Rondeau, there are lots of birds moving through, although they are hard to photograph with the dappled/contrasty light, and lots of leaves.

Northern Parula

Philadelphia Vireo

I also saw almost a dozen White-throated Sparrows, the first ones I had seen this late summer. In pretty short order, they will be one of the most common migrants passing through.

In my previous post, I showed some close-ups of the Autumn Coralroot. Here is an overall view, showing how obscure this little orchid really is! It is about 15 cm tall and in full flower.

In the past few days, Great Plain's Ladies'-tresses are showing up in various grassy places at Rondeau.

The flower spikes have a spicy vanilla fragrance, and the centres of each flower shows a creamy colouration.

I always like seeing a young White Pine seedling make an appearance. Will this one survive to maturity, or will it become nutrition for a White-tailed Deer?

I have been to Clear Creek Forest Prov Park a couple of times, partly to look for a very rare butterfly (Marine Blue) that had been seen, but partly just because the open meadows are great for butterflies and the quiet woods of this old growth type forest is just so inspiring.

I didn't find the rare butterfly, but there was a good variety of more typical ones, including, Common Buckeye, which were actually common.....

Common Ringlet

Common Wood-Nymph

This next one, an Eastern Tailed Blue, was as close as I could get to the Marine Blue.

I was pleased to find at least a couple Great Spangled Fritillary busily feeding on various sunflower types.

Viceroys were fairly common. In fact they outnumbered the similar looking Monarchs.

The couple of Monarchs that I did encounter liked the Teasel...

...as did the Orange Sulphurs.

Red Admirals were very few, at least of what I saw.

I only saw this single Silver Spotted Skipper, but there were likely more.

As I was walking through the open meadow, I noticed this dead tree full of roosting Turkey Vultures. They have been gathering and migrating southwesterly, and the local hawk watch sites have reported them in increasing numbers over the last few days. There are tens of thousands on their way!

In other news, last night I had the black light on in the back yard. Most things I got were fairly typical, but I'm glad I paid a little more attention to this one. It is a Coffee-loving Pyrausta, and is the second one I have had come to the lights in my yard. The first one was back in August, 2020, and at the time it was the first record on iNaturalist, and the first record for Canada. Since then, it has been found in a small number of places elsewhere in Ontario, and someone who was digging through their old moth photos, posted one that was photographed near Leamington back in 2017.

This morning, while enjoying my second cup of coffee in the back yard with Marie, I saw this butterfly come in. I got a quick look, then went and grabbed my camera but it disappeared. Fortunately it came back and I managed to get a couple of photos. It is Horace's Duskywing, a late summer migrant from the south. According to iNat, it is the first record for Chatham-Kent, with only a handful of other records in southwestern Ontario. Most are in Essex Co, with a single record in north Lambton and a couple in the Toronto area.

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