Beach Creatures

 On several occasions during my outdoor forays, I have spent time along the southeast beaches and grassy sand dunes of Rondeau. This was in part due to the beach being one of Marie's favourite places to hike along when we were out at the park, and it was partly because, although it was fairly warm, there was often a breeze and the mosquitoes were not a problem! My most recent outing was on Aug 1, which is Marie's birthday, and I thought of her regularly while I was out and about.

Beaches and  shorelines can be great places to see birds, especially shorebirds as their name implies, with a greater variety during the times when they were migrating through the area. Some of the larger, and sought after species would include things like Whimbrel, shown first....

...or Willet, shown next.

More common are Ruddy Turnstones, this one in vivid plumage.

 Of course the Spotted Sandpiper is a breeding species, and one or more can be found regularly.

In most cases, the shorebirds will be gathering right along the shoreline, but on occasion when some miniature inlets have been established due to the intensive wave action of recent months, such as the one shown next, they may be a little more attractive to shorebirds. They will warrant periodic inspection as the shorebird migration season builds, that is for certain.

Of the shorebirds shown above, I only saw the latter species during my recent times there. But the shorelines can also be a popular place for gulls, sometimes in abundance.

Bonaparte's Gulls are building in numbers, as their breeding season has come to an end. They nest in the relatively far north, such as where there are scattered coniferous trees at the edge of the Hudson Bay Lowlands. This next photo is one I took while doing some wildlife surveys in Polar Bear Provincial Park, back in 1989, as it was nesting in a Spruce Tree several metres above ground.

 Here in southern Ontario, they are non-breeders, but can be present in large numbers both spring and fall. This first one is in its non-breeding plumage......

...whereas this next one shows an adult in almost full breeding plumage. There were several dozen of this species along the shoreline on one or more of my recent visits, along with both Ring-billed and Herring Gulls.

 But my primary focus was the small insect critters that inhabit the sandy areas scattered amongst the grassy dunes. I was really hoping to catch up to a Bronzed Tiger Beetle, which I had captured in my photos of a couple of years ago, and one photo of which ended up being included in my Natural Treasures of Chatham-Kent book.

I didn't see any on my recent visits, but I will keep trying. Maybe it was a bit early in the season, or maybe they were smarter than I was and stayed under the sand to avoid the heat!

But there was a good variety of other little creatures which I was able to capture via my camera. They are all very small, with most of the following being about a centimetre in length, and some are quite cryptic, That combination makes it difficult to even see them let alone photograph them. This first one is an American Sand Wasp. It seldom rests on the sand, but is often hovering in flight, as the second image shows, or is busily burrowing its way into the sand, shown in the third photo.

Next is a Band-winged Bee Fly. They were fairly common.

Next is a type of Tarantula Hawk Wasp, known as Caliadurgus fasciatellus.

This next one is probably a not quite adult Carolina Grasshopper.

Probably an Eastern Dobsonfly, next.

This next one is a type of Flea Beetle. They were also fairly common, but not often seen unless they were in flight, and when they landed, they often tumbled over on their back before righting themselves.

This next one is a Seaside Grasshopper. One seldom saw them unless they were in flight, and as the second photo shows, they can blend in quite well to their sandy surroundings when the wings are folded. These photos, along with most of the other insect ones, were taken with my 500 mm lens which on the particular camera I was using, was the equivalent of about 16X and I could focus down to about a metre. Each one was then greatly cropped.

Thread-waisted Wasp

Next are a couple of images of a Three-banded Robber Fly.

A little larger and generally more obvious were a few damselflies, such as this one which seems to be a Tule Bluet.

In my searching for photographic objects above, I came across a couple of frogs hidden under a piece of wood. Due to them being mostly covered with sand, it was hard to see the details to be absolutely certain of their identity, but it seems they were Green Frogs. It was a little surprising to see them here, since normally that species is associated with quiet wetlands along with at least some forest cover. Out on these wide open sandy dunes, there was virtually no water other than the lake itself, and the arid conditions here seemed highly unlikely for them, but there they were.

Aside from concentrating on the small creatures of these habitats, one can easily get distracted by some of the larger and colourful elements, especially plants. A bit earlier in the season, one will find the yellow or Hairy Puccoon clusters scattered around the dunes.

At this time of year, there is a bit of a pinkish/purple haze through the beach grasses.

This is prime season for the colourful Cylindrical Blazing-star, which is officially a Species At Risk, but here it is quite abundant.

There can sometimes be a white colour form of this rarity, which brings a pleasant change to the pink/purple dominance.

 Then as with most natural areas, there is the occasional non-native species which gets established. Here is a Common Yucca, past flowering but distinctive nonetheless. They are scattered throughout the grassy beach dunes, and are undoubtedly present due to having been introduced on cottage lots at some point in the past.

I will be out again, maybe in not such hot weather, and see other little creatures. In the meantime, I will enjoy such outings, and think fondly of Marie being out there with me, at any time of the year.

Raptors, a rare egret and swallow and an unfortunate incident at Rondeau Prov Park

 Cattle Egrets are hard to find most years, and earlier this year that held true in Ontario. Even a reliable location in the Mitchell's Bay area where one or more has been present almost annually, did not turn up any this year. But in the last month or two, they have been relatively abundant, having been seen in numerous places across southern and eastern Ontario. While in places like Florida they seem to be attracted to golf courses as well as livestock pastures, one was seen as far north as Smooth Rock Falls, northwest of Cochrane, on a golf course!

It is quite likely that this influx of Cattle Egrets is the result of the strong southerly winds, including hurricanes, that have been a periodic event over the past couple of months.

Here in Chatham-Kent, there have been observations in the vicinity of the Ridgetown Sewage Lagoons, and more recently in a pasture with cattle, a bit north of Erieau. It is possibly the same bird, but no one knows for sure. At any rate, this most recent bird, still present as of yesterday, Nov 16, can often be easily seen from the road, although sometimes it is mixed in with the cattle farther back and hard to find. On occasion it will even venture out of the pasture onto the grassy road allowance, as in the case of the header photo as well as the third one down.

This next one is hardly cropped at all.

I got these photos on one of my trips to Erieau, searching for what ever I could find, but in particular, looking for one of the Cave Swallows that put in an appearance. But the Cave Swallows must have put a tracker on me to avoid me, as while looking wherever they had been seen, it seemed that I missed them by 2-10 minutes, or showed up just after I moved to another spot. Even birders who had traveled a fair distance arrived and saw one almost immediately. At one point I even spent two hours in one spot, where they had been seen 'reliably' about every half hour or so, but without success. Such is birding....

Fortunately I did not need it as a lifer, or even a species for my CK list. I have seen them irregularly on about 4 occasions over the years at either Erieau or Rondeau, including the time at Erieau where I found them roosting on a piling underneath a walkway in the vicinity of the fishing tugs. Here is a photo of that event, back in October of 2010, showing two Cave Swallows.

I decided to give it another try on the following day, and after some watching and waiting, I did see one of them fly by. Swallows are normally quite active in their flight, dipping and diving, but this one seemed to be rather slow and unenthusiastic. Perhaps it was feeling the effects of nothing to eat in the colder than normal weather, with temperatures just hovering a bit above freezing. Surely there were few, if any, insects to feed on.

While at Erieau on the day that I missed the swallows, I did see other things, and got some photos. For example there were at least 4 adult Bald Eagles flying in the vicinity from time to time, asometimes quite actively interacting with each other. I'm not sure whether they were defending their territory or undergoing some type of courtship actions.

Continuing on the topic of raptors, I spent a few hours at a site along the north shore of Lake Erie just west of Rondeau, hoping to catch sight of migrating raptors since the wind was more or less in the right direction. I did see a few, including lots of Red-tailed Hawks.....

...and a few Sharp-shinned Hawks, among others.

There were also a few American Crows on the move. They don't like anything pointed at them, so they quickly move away.

There were also a couple of small groups of Evening Grosbeak. It is another good year for this species to be moving into, or even continuing on and out of southern Ontario. I did not get any photos. They are usually flying low, barely tree top height, and fairly quickly and directly unlike the soaring flight of most of the raptors.

I spent a bit of time at Rondeau on a couple of occasions since my last post. The Eastern Screech Owl seems to have taken up residency in its regular American Beech tree just off of Bennett Ave. If one stays on the road, the bird does not seem to mind, but if you make any move to go off the road and get a closer photo, it will back into the cavity so that it is barely showing. Therefore a long telephoto lens and a heavily cropped photo seems to be the only way to show it. This photo was taken with the equivalent lens of 11X and cropped to about 40X.

 On one of my visits there was a strong east wind blowing. Wave action is imperative in shaping the sand spit, sometimes does so rather dramatically. At this time of year there are typically many species and individuals of water birds on the move. A careful look at this first photo if you click on it to enlarge it, will show a couple of lines of ducks off on the horizon, but very faintly.

On occasion there will be a flock relatively close, such as these Red-breasted Mergansers. It is not uncommon to see several thousand flying by over the course of several hours.

Some gulls, on the other hand, will occasionally be very close to shore or even overhead.

Bonaparte's Gull

And that brings me to the unfortunate incident at Rondeau. 

For anyone hiking anywhere along the southeast beach dunes of the park, you undoubtedly have noticed some changes.

Park staff counted 81 trees that had been cut down. Most were in the 5-15 year old category, but there were at least 6 oaks in the 40-80 year old category. Given the challenging growing conditions on this beach dune system, it takes a lot of energy for trees to grow here.

How did this happen? 

It seems partly due to poor communication between the federal gov't overseeing the Coast Guard, and staff in Ontario Parks. I don't know all the details, but for some reason the crew from the Coast Guard assumed they had permission to come onto provincial park land to clear trees that in their minds, might be interfering with views of the light beacon. The light beacon has been a feature of the southeast part of the park for many decades, as an aid to boaters needing it as a navigational aid after dark. While it is still important to some extent, with all of the satellite stations high in the sky providing accurate location information even down to about 5 metres of accuracy, the light beacon is not nearly as important as it once was. Nonetheless, this crew entered the park and proceeded to cut over 80 trees of various species and sizes. It is possible one or two of the trees may have temporarily interfered with a sight line from out on the water, but it would have been very temporary, and there certainly was no need to cut down any more than two or three at the very most, and even that would have been overkill, literally and figuratively.

The damage has been done, and it will be many years before any of the trees recover, if they do at all. Some will sucker up, especially one or two of the non-native species, but that only compounds the problem.

In discussing this issue with various park staff, they are understandably livid over this, and rightfully so. It seems there isn't anything that can be done at this point, and those piles of tree trunks and branches will be a reminder of this unfortunate incident for years to come, as things deteriorate very slowly in this very dry environment. Hopefully if the Coast Guard needs to step foot on Rondeau Park property at any time in the future they will discuss what they would like to do, in writing, and get proper approvals by Ontario Parks if it is warranted.

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