Sewage Lagoons and Aster Action

Just a few short days ago, we were dealing with record high temperatures, which on occasion hit 31C locally. As hot as it was, the butterflies and other pollinators loved it. I had occasion to go to both the Blenheim and Tilbury Sewage Lagoons, where I do regular shorebird surveys for the Ontario Shorebird Survey project. And right at this time of year, some of the asters are in peak flowering. Goldenrods are well past their best for the most part, but the purplish New England Aster and various white aster species are in fine shape.

Of course the most abundant butterfly species were things like the whites and sulphurs.

Painted Ladies were fairly abundant. They were quite noticeable by their absence earlier in the season, but have seemingly come out of nowhere in the last month or so. They outnumber by far, the closely related American Ladies at the moment.

 Monarchs are still drifting through, and some have just recently emerged from their chrysalis.

 Viceroys are fairly regular, although some look quite tattered.....

 ....as do any lingering Silver-spotted Skippers.

 Bronze Coppers are small butterflies and in small numbers.

 A couple of late season highlights were a couple of (not-so) Common Buckeyes, which looked quite fresh. They weren't my first of the year, but my first photographed of the year.

 ...and 2-3 Fiery Skippers at both lagoon sites, my first of the year. For the most part they were alternating between sitting in the sun or sipping the nectar, or sometimes doing both simultaneously.

 There were numerous other flying insects "busy-as-bees" sipping the nectar of these late season flowers, although most were not bees, but bee look-a-likes such as these two Syrphid Fly types. At the Tilbury lagoon aster patch, there had to be anywhere from 100-200 syrphid and other flies as well as actual bees.

 And as before, there was the occasional day-flying moth such as this Corn Earworm, which is somewhat migratory, showing up in southern Ontario mostly in the autumn.

The birds were not overly abundant, but a nice variety was noted. Ducks are appearing in larger numbers, although that might be partly due to the waterfowl hunting season going on in some of the larger marshes nearby. Ruddy Duck is quite plentiful at Blenheim, along with a growing number of Redhead, Wood Duck, Green-winged Teal and others.

 The Tilbury lagoons always has a few Double-crested Cormorants. They haven't started nesting there yet, but that time may not be too far off.

 Shorebirds were part of the reason for my being at both of the lagoons. The overall numbers and diversity have dropped quite a bit in the last couple of weeks, but there are still some around. Greater Yellowlegs are a little more plentiful than they were.

 When the opportunity arises, it is nice to compare shorebird species for size.

Greater Yellowlegs and Pectoral Sandpiper

Lesser Yellowlegs

 At Tilbury, I was able to get these three species all together. Long-billed Dowitcher, Lesser Yellowlegs and Greater Yellowlegs.

 The bill of this Long-billed Dowitcher was really quite long, so in combination with the grayish and unbarred tertial feathers, it made it relatively easy to conclude this as a Long-bill rather than a very similar looking Short-bill.

Raptors, shorebirds and butterflies

Over the last couple of days I have spent time at Erieau and the Blenheim Sewage Lagoons. I've continued to hope that a good gull or two, or a jaeger might show up at Erieau.

It hasn't happened so far.

But yesterday when I was scanning the several thousand gulls resting on the western tip of the Rondeau peninsula or on the adjacent Lake Erie, something put the gulls up in a frenzy. I searched the air hoping for that jaeger, but no, it was a raptor. A Peregrine Falcon in fact. It never came all that close to me, so even with the equivalent of 22X lens and heavy cropping, this is the best I could get. It was my first Peregrine of the year.

 And this next one shows a head-on view. Note the distinctive wing profile.

Minutes later I saw another raptor, but this fish-eating species did not stir up the gulls like the Peregrine did. I guess the gulls can tell the difference fairly readily.

The black-and-white raptor against a white sky made getting the photo a little challenging.

Osprey

The Blenheim Sewage Lagoons are conveniently located on my most direct route between home and Erieau, so a stop there happens pretty regularly. Especially since Steve C had been there earlier and seen 5 Long-billed Dowitchers. When I got there on Saturday afternoon, there was one still hanging around.

There were also a couple of White-rumped Sandpipers. This one doesn't show the white rump, obviously, but it was in flight a couple of times and the white rump really stood out.

I noted a fair number of sparrows, and with hopes of discovering a Nelson's Sparrow, a rarity to be sure, but which has recently been recorded farther east and north in the last few days, I looked at a lot of the sparrows I could get the binos on.

All I saw were about 15 Savannah Sparrows and a couple of Song Sparrows.

Savannah Sparrow

I got my first of the fall season Rusty Blackbird....4 of them were in a group in the shrubby willows along one of the ponds.

Rusty Blackbird

Today I went to the Blenheim lagoons for a different target species. What does the bird in this next photo remind you of?

If you said 'phalarope', good answer. And in this case it was one of the two Red-necked Phalaropes that showed up earlier today. At first they were always on the far side of the pond, but persistence paid off and eventually they decided that I and the 3 other folks nearby were not a threat so they came reasonably close.

With the still relatively warm weather, butterflies are making the best of it. I noted about 10 species in the last couple of visits, including the following:

One of at least 5 Common Buckeye

One of 6 Common Checkered-Skippers

Fiery Skipper

One of the local groundhogs was out keeping an eye on things as well.

So no jaegers or rare gulls....maybe on the next time out!

Sewage lagoons are good for more than birds.....

Today I went to the Blenheim Sewage Lagoons. I noted via Blake's blog that earlier in the week had been good for Common Checkered Skipper. Other commentors had indicated that it was present recently in higher numbers than usual in Essex County. I wanted to see if I could find a cooperative one or two for my camera.

This is a small, but gorgeous little butterfly. I had seen some several years ago near the Blenheim Landfill, and had a single but worn specimen at the sewage lagoons last year. It is a challenge to photograph, but worth trying for. So today butterflies, rather than birds, were my target at these lagoons.

And I was not disappointed. I actually had about 14 species of butterfly in my limited area of coverage.....a lot more than I had a few weeks ago during the official butterfly count.

The first winged invertebrates to greet me were the abundant Cabbage Whites, and Orange Sulphurs. The edges of the path were littered with damselflies......many hundreds of them. I didn't bother to photograph many, but I got this pair of Bluet types.

Grasshoppers were almost as abundant as the damselflies....all sizes of them.

But butterflies were the target, and before too long I found a couple of Common Checkered Skippers. The bluish-gray hairs combined with the dark gray and white checkered pattern is very striking.

The underside isn't quite as striking, but distinctive just the same. I came across at least 8 of these beauties.

A little farther down the path, I came across Bronze Coppers. There were at least 4-5 of them here and there.

Bronze Copper male

Bronze Copper female

Bronze Copper underside

A little later, I encountered some Common Sootywings. They didn't stay in one spot very long, and this photo is one from my yard a couple of days ago (first for my yard list). I saw at least 4 of them today.

I also got European Skipper, which I didn't get a photo of, and this next one, which I think is a Peck's. Not the most conclusive angle, unfortunately.

The obligatory Monarch, Viceroy, Black Swallowtail, 'Summer' Crescents and Red Admiral were all present.

Black Swallowtail

Viceroy

Oh and there were a few typical birds too, but I didn't come across anything out of the ordinary. The only thing 'noteworthy' was a huge influx of gulls, easily more than 1000 and mostly Ring-billed, that came swooping in from the south and were hovering at various altitudes.

Avocet and other shorebirds

Fall bird migration has been underway for several weeks now, and one of the best places to observe it right now is at sewage lagoons.

The Blenheim Sewage Lagoons were not very productive for shorebirds in the spring, as two of the sprinkler cells were totally dry due to some maintenance, and the other two cells were mostly void of water due to the dryness of the season.

Fortunately for birders, this has improved.....and just in time. Two of the sprinkler cells that had maintenance done since the spring now have lots of water....almost too much. But the other two cells have a bit of water, so there is something for everyone...short-legged and long-legged shorebirds are welcome!

There are lots of Killdeer, of course. It is not uncommon to see 30-50 birds scattered about. Least and Semiplamated Sandpipers are building in numbers, both species of yellowlegs are present and an occasional Stilt Sandpiper, more common in fall than spring, is around.

Stilt Sandpiper with smaller peeps

A small number of Pectoral Sandpipers are appearing.

Pectoral Sandpiper

Short-billed Dowitchers are around in small numbers.

Short-billed Dowitchers

Yesterday morning, an American Avocet was reported. It is one of the larger, and more striking shorebirds, in my opinion. Some shorebirds can be quite challenging to identify....not so with the American Avocet! It is much more common in the mid-west, where it breeds in the vicinity of sloughs on the mixed grass prairies. But after breeding, when birds tend to wander, sewage ponds may look for all intents and purposes like a prairie slough, so on occasion when an avocet might be passing through the area, sewage lagoons will attract them.

I got a text from Garry Sadler that the bird was still there in the late afternoon, so I decided to head out and try for it, as I don't see them every year. And there it was. This one still has some of its brownish-orange colouring of a breeding bird, but that will disappear in a few weeks as it turns to pale gray and the rest of the bird will be black and white. The amount of curvature in the beak leads me to believe it is likely a female, as the male has less of a curve. It is a bit hard to tell for sure, as the amount of curvature appears to change depending on the angle one views it.

American Avocet

The bird was a bit skittish, and didn't allow me all that close. In spite of the appearance of these photos suggesting I was quite close, my camera and telephoto lens combination was the equivalent of a 22X binocular, and the image was cropped about 50%. Also I was on the lower side of the berm with just my head showing, but even at that the bird was reluctant to stay right where it was.

After a short time, it decided to move elsewhere in the sewage lagoon complex. I watched it as it flew over the larger ponds, and it was on the southern shore of one of the other ponds last time I saw it.

Will it stick around? Who knows......but one year one remained in the general area long enough for me to find it at Long Pond in Rondeau during our Christmas Bird Count!