Grassland bird search, leps and odes

 It is the final day of National Moth Week, and while I have been out searching for them, there are lots of other things to be looking for. More on the moths in a future post, but for this one, I will highlight some of the other things I have been up to.

A check of the Blenheim Sewage Lagoons can often be worthwhile, especially now that shorebird numbers are increasing as they meander their way south. I stopped in earlier this week and spent most of my time trying to photograph the shorebirds that were utilizing a large weed mat along the side of one of the cells.

This first one is a young Spotted Sandpiper, easily told by the evidence of barring across the back.

Semipalmated Sandpiper

Pectoral Sandpiper

This next one is a Greater Yellowlegs. While the bill doesn't look as long is it might, it is probably due to the angle. It is more substantial than the slender bill of the Lesser Yellowlegs, a few of which were nearby for comparison.

An American Avocet was seen and photographed here a day or so later, but it apparently didn't stay long. One has to keep checking to see most things that pass through!

One of the projects I was involved with these past few days was to do a search for grassland birds at two fairly large tracts of land that had been planted up into prairie. The project took some time to get approved, so while it should have been undertaken at the end of May through to the third week or so of June, it was do it now or not at all.

The first site I visited was this. The area in the foreground of the first photo was mostly non-native grasses, but the birds liked it nonetheless. Past the tree alongside the creek a little way back, is a quite large area of planted prairie, probably in the order of 50 acres or so. It was planted almost two decades ago, and has been periodically mowed for hay, but other than that, been left alone. These two areas was where there was a huge number of Bobolinks. Clearly they were in large, multi-family groups that had fledged and were making use of the habitat until they got the urge to migrate.

This next photo shows another part of the property, and while it doesn't have as much grass content, it shows a lot more diversity of wildflowers. The Bobolinks were not nearly as plentiful here, but I suspect it could be attractive to Dickcissel and Eastern Meadowlark.

Grey-headed Coneflower

Grey-headed Coneflower

While I was traveling through this second part, a white-tailed doe and her fawn jumped up and scrambled by me.

The Bobolinks were not all that easy to photograph, in spite of their abundance. Altogether, I estimated seeing 109 Bobolinks, so clearly it was a good production year for them. I suspect there were actually more, as it was hard to get a good count when they were in flight. Bobolink is officially a Threatened species in Ontario, so their abundance at this site is certainly good. 

They were often well down in the tall grasses, and once in awhile one would get out in the open, but for the most part, when one decided to fly off, a large group that were hunkered down in the grasses decided to leave as well, and quickly got out of camera range. But on occasion, one would be out in the open long enough to get a quick shot or two. These are all greatly cropped. This first one nay be a young bird, while the second is more likely an adult female.

There were a few males, but most of them were showing signs of moulting and will eventually look more like an adult female.

A Baltimore Oriole stopped by for a very brief photo session.

This area is in the future plans to be surveyed more thoroughly, starting much earlier in the season, since some grassland types are finished nesting and either harder to document or have already moved on. It is hopeful that next year I will come across Eastern Meadowlark (Threatened), Grasshopper Sparrow (Special Concern) or even Henslow's Sparrow (Endangered). I suspect it may also be attractive to a species such as Dickcissel, which does not have any official Ontario status yet.

I wasn't far away from the community of Florence, where the Sydenham River passes through, and there is access to the river. It is often a good spot to check for dragonflies and damselflies, so off I went.

This first one is, I believe, a Blue-fronted Dancer. There were a few of them around.

Ebony Jewelwings, next, are always a delight to see. Their flight seems rather loopy and distinctive.

The American Rubyspot is always fun to see and photograph. I only saw a couple of them here on this day.

I am not 100% certain of this next one, but most of the features, especially the pattern on the thorax, point to it being a Black-shouldered Spinyleg. I have photographed it here before, and it is a known spot.

There were a few butterflies around, but the only one I photographed here was this one, a Red-spotted Admiral a.k.a. Red-spotted Purple. I haven't seen many of them this year.

I spent a few hours another day at another grassland area, this one in southern Lambton County, known as the Sinclair Management Area. It is quite a large area, with probably at least 80 acres planted into tallgrass prairie, mainly for seed production so that other areas can be planted into prairie. Tallgrass prairie used to be a fairly large and important vegetation type in southwestern Ontario, but most has been converted to farmland. Fortunately efforts are being made to restore some area to this vegetation type, although just planting a seed mix does not change it over quickly. It is a start, but what is lacking is the decades, even centuries, it will take to change the soil structure, mycelium and invertebrate fauna that are all part of a healthy ecosystem. But it is a start.

These first two photos show a portion of this site. The first one looks generally north east, the second one generally south east.

A lot of it is primarily devoted to grasses, such as Big Bluestem, Switchgrass and Indian Grass. At this point, the grasses are tall, with some approaching two metres in height. That makes it difficult to see through at times, and early in the morning it is totally saturated with dew, so that means I am quite drenched as I attempt to make my way through it.

For some reason the target grassland birds were not nearly as diverse here as they were at the previous site. Maybe it was due to things like Bobolink already having left the site, which this late in the season is entirely possible. A lot depends on when they got started in the breeding season. Or maybe it was due to the height of the grasses and me not being as able to see birds dispersing as easily as I saw it at the previous site. At any rate, it was a start, and another visit next year at the main part of the breeding season will hopefully shed more light on the use by some of these grassland species. I did see a few Common Yellowthroats.

It wasn't a total disappointment, however. There were a lot of Monarchs, a Special Concern species. 

Monarch feeding on Mountain-mint

Here is a Monarch sipping nectar from Dense Blazing-star, a Threatened species.

I probably saw as many Monarchs as I did grassland birds.

A little later I swung by Clear Creek Forest Prov Park. I hadn't been there for awhile, and thought I might find some interesting odes. Unfortunately they weren't plentiful. I attempted to shoot a few in flight, but as usual, it was quite a challenge. Here are a couple of the best I could do. These are a couple of Calico Pennants, a fairly common species darting all over the place and challenging to track.

Fortunately a few butterflies were easier.

Eastern Comma

Question Mark

This Giant Swallowtail was almost constantly on the move, but I waited it out to get some full frame photos.

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Natural Areas of Chatham-Kent, Part 9 (Dealtown Crown Land Prairie)

This post describes a site that one cannot even see from the closest roadway. I have yet to see anyone visiting this place. It is known as Dealtown Crown Land Prairie.

Some readers will be quite familiar with the former Southwestern Regional Centre, located at Dealtown, which is part way between Blenheim and Wheatley. It is quite likely that some readers, such as my wife, even worked there. But it was closed a couple of decades ago, and sat empty. In this past year or so, demolition began. Several large mounds of brick and other building materials are all that was left as of 2017.

In recognition of this facility and the many residents who were there, as well as the staff who worked there, there is a small parking lot with a plaque located at the 'X' on the first photo. It is on the north side of Talbot Trail/Hwy 3, a few hundred metres east of the intersection of Talbot Trail and Four Rod Road.

If you are interested in exploring this prairie, park in this small lot and follow the gravel laneway (marked by the blue line) towards the trees. Once you get to the trees, stay on the path, that goes through the east side of the wooded area. On the north side of the woods, which is an old plantation of predominantly Silver Maple, you will get to the beginning of the prairie site, and the entire naturalized area is shown on the photo surrounded by the blue line.

A bit more background: up until the mid 1990s, the greater part of this site encompassed in blue was farmed. It was not tiled, and as a result of the predominantly clayey soil, it wasn't terribly productive. It was at this time that some of my colleagues in a stewardship group which was working through the Ministry of Natural Resources office in Chatham was getting into tallgrass prairie restoration, and needed a site in which to start a prairie nursery. Since this site was already crown land it was relatively easy to make the switch and begin a tallgrass prairie nursery. There were quite a few different types of tallgrass prairie grasses and wildflowers established. It hasn't been used as a nursery in recent years, so it has been left to grow wild. Some of the prairie species you will find here include:

Butterfly Milkweed

Big Bluestem

Dense Blazing-star (Threatened)

Gray-headed Coneflower

Foxglove Beard-tongue

Prairie Thistle

Mountain Mint

Prairie Dock

Tall Coreopsis

With such an array of wildflowers, and in bloom over a long season, it is a wonderful place to attract butterflies.

Black Swallowtail

Orange Sulphur

Painted Lady

 It is a great spot for the endangered Monarch to not only raise the next generation, but since it is a species that migrates southwest along the north shore of Lake Erie before crossing into the USA and continuing its journey towards Mexico, is a great spot for feeding and getting nourishment to continue on its travels.

Monarch

 There are lots of other insects in a prairie, and if you are sharp-eyed, you may come across this brightly coloured Red-banded Leafhopper resting on or under a leaf. But be forewarned: it is very small, seldom getting more than 5 mm in total length.

As the prairie has developed and has had an occasional prescribed burn, it has been attractive for grassland birds. Of particular interest are:

Bobolink

Eastern Meadowlark

 A highlight a few years ago was to discover a Henslow's Sparrow in the area. I don't think it actually nested, but was present for awhile. It is an endangered species, and in fact might not be breeding anywhere in the province now. This is one of my early attempts at digiscoping, so it isn't the greatest shot, but one of only a handful of photos of this endangered bird while it was here.

 A highlight in 2017 was the discovery of a group of Dickcissels. There was quite the irruption of this species in Ontario in 2017, and I have written an article about this significant irruption that will be published in an upcoming issue of Ontario Birds, the journal of the Ontario Field Ornithologists.

At Dealtown, there were at least 10 birds on one of my visits, including 7 males and 3 females, and one of the females was building a nest. I'm not sure how successful the birds were, but they were in the right habitat at the right time.

This site isn't a place where birders have gone. As mentioned, I am not aware of anyone else visiting this site in recent years, although when the Southwestern Regional Centre was operating, I know of a few folks who explored this naturalized area. At any rate, there are currently just a little more than 45 species of birds officially recorded here. With a little more effort at the right times of year, no doubt it would be doubled at least.

 As with any natural area there is much more to see than wildflowers, birds and butterflies. There are some endangered species here, as well as many more common species, so if you visit, enjoy what you can find! Fortunately even though the crown divested itself of the larger Southwestern Regional Centre site, we lobbied hard to retain the naturalized portion for the many attributes it had, and as a result it is here for the wildlife's survival and our enjoyment!