A great warm, sunny day at Rondeau

This week has been pleasantly warm, sunny and inviting to be out.....just about perfect autumn weather. And another visit to Rondeau was in store.

On the way, I stopped to check the area just north of the Morpeth Cliffs to see what the WNW winds were blowing in. In less than half an hour, I had a few raptors: Turkey Vulture (9), Bald Eagle (1), Sharp-shinned Hawk (2) and American Kestrel (3). But I felt the tug of Rondeau, so headed to the park and went straight to the South Point Trail. It was not quite a year ago when I was hiking along the south east beach that I came across the fairly fresh carcass of a bird which I determined to be a Cassin's Kingbird! It was only the third record for Ontario, and the first in about 40 years.

Cassin's Kingbird

With the recent reports of Gray Flycatcher showing up in southern Ontario and knowing that flycatchers in general have a habit of showing up way out of their normal range in the fall, I had hopes of discovering another rare flycatcher to add to the Rondeau list. But in spite of not finding anything nearly that exotic, it was a great day to be out anyway.

As expected, there were a few raptors flying through including a Merlin, Bald Eagle, Sharp-shinned Hawks, a Red-tailed Hawk, a Cooper's Hawk and a young Peregrine Falcon.

Peregrine Falcon

There were a few warblers, but due to the presence of raptors, they were keeping well under cover to the point of being next to impossible to see, let alone photograph. There were Blackpoll, Black-throated Green, Nashville and Yellow-rumped Warblers, at least.

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Butterflies were enjoying the bright sunny conditions. At least 150-200 Monarchs were noted flying by, with sometimes 7-8 in a group. They are hard to photograph in flight, especially given the strong wind that was buffeting them around in their struggle to fly to the southern tip to await favourable conditions for the next leg of their journey.

Some were content to hang out on shrubby vegetation, or even just hunker down in the grass.

As mentioned it was a good day for butterfly diversity, and I ended up with 9 species, including Orange Sulphur, Clouded Sulphur, Summer Azure, Red Admiral, Painted Lady, Mourning Cloak, Eastern Comma and Cabbage White.

Clouded Sulphur

Orange Sulphur

Other insects were around, including some dragonflies.

Autumn Meadowhawk

 The Autumn Meadowhawks were fairly abundant. While chatting along the trail with a retired couple from Victoria BC, these dragonflies kept landing on our hats or shirts, soaking up the sunlight.

Green Darner

There were a fair number of Green Darners zipping about, but they never seemed to land except for this one.

Right on the path was this pair of Chinese Mantids. They are not native to North America, but were introduced and are now well established in the Great Lakes region. They are easily identified by their large size, up to 10 cm in length, compared to the much smaller native species.

Chinese Mantid

While they may seem to be in an amorous embrace, it is anything but.....unless the male is quick, she may eat him rather than mate with him. And she typically bites off the head of the male before copulation is complete!!!! But shortly after the female has laid her egg mass on some vegetation, she too will die before winter sets in.

Speaking of winter, I have noticed more Woolly Bear caterpillars out and about. The intensity of the upcoming winter is said to reflect the width of the reddish-brown band, with the greater the number of body segments with brown hairs meaning the greater the severity of the winter. However according to some experts, it is probably nothing more than folklore, and if anything, may be an indication of the lateness of when the larvae got started in the spring, thus reflecting the severity of the previous winter.

Woolly Bear caterpillar

The south beach has experienced an ongoing erosion problem, but it has been going on for well over a century. When the pier at Erieau was constructed in the late 1800s, it diverted the shoreline water currents to the extent that natural of the south beach erosion sped up. In fact a coastal engineer doing work for the Rondeau park management planning work of the mid 1970s, determined from examining fixed reference points that one section of the south beach closest to Erieau had migrated north ~550 feet between the mid 1930s and the mid 1970s! And since the Erieau pier is still present, the erosion continues. I have an aerial showing the harbour entrance in April 1989, which I will scan and provide to a future blog post. Prior to the construction of the pier, the shoreline at Erieau and that of the south beach of Rondeau was more or less aligned, with only the outflow of Rondeau Bay keeping them separate. This 1989 photo illustrates what the coastal engineer reported, that the Erieau beach is expanding southward as the water currents drop their load of sand, and then erode the south beach of the park, causing it to move northward.


I captured a few photos of the current state of the shoreline adjacent to the southern most section of the South Point Trail. The trail is nigh impossible to get through, unless one is able to bushwhack their way through.

I attempted a short video clip of the wave action, but have not yet figured out how to get it to function here.

After leaving the south Point Trail area, I stopped at a couple of places along Gardiner Ave and Bennett Ave. At both locations, there were good clusters of warblers, predominantly Yellow-rumped, but with a few others in the mix.

Black-throated Blue Warbler (male)

Palm Warbler

 And my first Hermit Thrush of the fall. Not the greatest of shots, as it was reluctant to leave the shrubbery.

Hermit Thrush

Early Autumn at Rondeau

The crowds have left, and the park is quieter, at least from a human activity perspective. But even as the season winds down, there is a diversity of things to enjoy.

Spicebush Trail

The woodland trails are still mostly showing their greenery, but the autumn colours are starting to appear. Perhaps the most obvious signs of the season are some of the plants. I'm sure some hikers notice these, but they are so small and don't show a lot of colour, they can be easily overlooked. They are called Beechdrops (Epifagus virginiana). They don't have the normally green colour of most plants, because they don't need to acquire energy from the sunlight via chlorophyll the way that most plants do. These are parasitic plants, getting their energy by tapping into the roots of other plants. They are closely associated with American Beech; hence the 'fagus' part of their scientific name, which is the genus for American Beech.

Beechdrops

Beechdrops flowers

Another common plant along woodland trails is a goldenrod called Blue-stemmed Goldenrod (Solidago caesia). Instead of a series of flowers near the top of the plant as some of the more well-known goldenrods have, they are arranged in small clusters very tightly against the main stem which is more angled than upright.

Blue-stemmed Goldenrod

Also, there is an abundance of White Snakeroot.

White Snakeroot

Less obvious than these flowering plants are some shy critters, the salamanders. Blue-spotted salamanders are fairly common and widespread, but spend most of their time well hidden under something. Before long these cold-blooded creatures will be underground, below the frost line, for the winter.

Blue-spotted Salamander

 A slightly smaller salamander is the Red-backed Salamander. The stripe on the back isn't really red, but certainly is an orangey colour. There is a different colour form sometimes seen, known as the 'Lead-backed' Salamander which has a duller grey coloured stripe on the back.

Red-backed Salamander

In more open parts of the forest one will find numerous spiders in the shrubbery, and one of the more common ones is the colourful Marbled Orb Weaver.

Marbled Orb Weaver

A few dragonflies are still around, but their numbers are diminishing. Here is a Black Saddlebags, one of the most common ones late in the season.

Black Saddlebags

A beautiful, common and widespread wildflower found along roadsides and all sorts of open areas is the New England Aster (Aster novae-angliae). It is a favourite of many insects which are still present at this time of year.

New England Aster

The woodlands have changed over the past few years, with the arrival of the Emerald Ash Borer. Consequently many ash trees have died, opening up the forest canopy. Other plant species are quick to take advantage of this openness and resulting availability of sunlight. Vines in particular are well known for their ability to spend much of their energy climbing quickly over other plants. By using these dead trees to support them as they climb to reach the sunlight, they avoid having to invest large amounts of their own energy to grow a massive trunk.

This image shows a dead White Ash tree covered with Virginia Creeper. This vine is abundant, as are Wild Grape and Poison Ivy. Most vines produce berries that will benefit the numerous warblers and thrushes that are migrating through at this time of year. And the maturing Virginia Creeper is turning an attractive deep red right now, which is attractive in combination with their deep bluish purple berries.

Even though many ash trees have succumbed to the ravages of the Emerald Ash Borer, there are lots of young ash trees sprouting up. Whether they have a chance to mature and produce seed to help keep the species around remains to be seen.

This final image is of a young Black Ash leaf, photographed in a slough along Spicebush Trail. Black Ash isn't abundant this far south; it is normally more abundant a little farther north. It is easily identified by the individual leaflets growing tightly to the stem, with virtually no petiole (leaf stem). All other ash species have petioles which are at least 5 mm in length, or are slightly winged. Black Ash grows in very wet areas, unlike some of the other ash species.

Black Ash leaflet

Lake St Clair wetlands

I've been able to spend a bit of time at various points along the wetlands of eastern Lake St. Clair. Mitchell's Bay, the Angler Line trail and St. Clair NWA are all great spots to visit.

A few weeks ago a Common Gallinule set up a nest within sight of the shoreline....well within sight if you can see through the vegetation. The platform is slightly visible, and some of the taller Juncus sp have been bent over by the adult to break up the appearance of the nest from avian predators.

This nest had at least one egg and one chick on August 14, which likely makes it the latest nesting record for Common Gallinule in Ontario.

A couple of days later the nest was empty, and some photography friends of mine who have a trailer very close by began seeing the adult and chicks poking around the vegetation and openings. I wanted to get in on the action, but for various reasons was unable to get there right away. However the gallinule family have persisted in the wetland, and have still been seen regularly up until the last few days.

Last Tuesday, I got out to see what I could see. I did get some very distant shots of an adult and also one of the mostly grown young, but just barely as a record shot, and hardly worth posting here.

But there was other action in the area. A small number of Great Egrets and Great Blue Herons are almost constantly present, feeding in the wetland.

Monarch butterflies were busily feeding and resting on the abundant yellow flowers that occur in wetlands this time of year. The flowers are one of the species called Beggar's-ticks.

After a couple of hours I decided to move on, so my next stop was the Lake St Clair trail, starting at Angler Line and going north to Mitchell's Bay.

Almost immediately after starting along the trail, I noted a beautiful Osprey begin to circle right overhead.

Osprey

An adult Bald Eagle also put in a brief appearance, but I let him go and concentrated on getting a bunch of photos of the Osprey.

A little farther along, an adult Green Heron was perched motionless on a small branch at the water level, waiting for something of interest to venture within striking distance.

 After a few minutes, it struck out and grasped a small fish, which it gobbled down in seconds.

At the north end of the trail, there was a fair sized flock of Canada Geese resting in the field and also a Great Egret. Looking closer at the flock of geese, I noted a single Snow Goose. This was on September 23, and quite an early date for Chatham-Kent. It wasn't very close and after getting only a couple of shots, it moved into heavier vegetation and eventually into the nearby pond. One or two Snows were seen in the days following by Blake Mann.

As I returned to the car, I noted a pair of adult Bald Eagles circling well to the south. Not a great opportunity for a close-up, but this is what I was able to capture before they got too far to attempt any other shots.

Later in the day, I checked out St. Clair NWA in preparation for a hike I was leading in a few days. The evening is often a good time to see birds on the move, but not normally is it great light for photography. I was also looking for Great Egrets, which when the water levels are low, can be seen roosting in large numbers. In 2012, there were as many as 150 egrets spending the night in quiet solitude, arriving just before dusk and leaving at about sunrise. The following image shows part of a group, taken in late September, 2012. It was taken under challenging and cloudy conditions, just before official sunrise. It was taken with a Canon 5D, a 400 f4 DO lens, at f/4, 1/25 sec, ISO 800.

This year the water levels are too high to attract roosting Great Egrets. There is the occasional one flying through or feeding, but they are roosting elsewhere. One did show up on the day of the hike, but not at the NWA....instead it flushed out of a roadside ditch into the adjacent field.

Waterfowl were on the move during the evening hours, such as this small mixed flock of American Wigeon and Northern Shoveler.

A pair of Sandhill Cranes flew by, one of which is shown here. The sun had set, and against the grey sky, the photo conditions were again quite challenging.

Recent North Lambton travels

I've been out a lot these last few days, so it is time to catch up on some blog posts.

A few days ago I was doing some inventory type of field work with a couple of colleagues at a site in northern Lambton County. The weather was great, and we found some interesting things, including a small tallgrass prairie type of site. There wasn't anything really exceptional in the site.....it hadn't burned for quite some time, and a regular occurrence of fire is absolutely essential for the long-term and short-term health of the prairie and its inhabitants. Nonetheless, we did find a few stems of a rather rare orchid called Great Plain's Ladies'-tresses (Spiranthes magnicamporum), which is provincially ranked as S3. I look forward to re-visiting the site at another time of year to see what other goodies might be present.

There are several other Ladies'-tresses types of orchids, but this is one of the later flowering species, and it is distinctive by its larger size compared to most of the others. It also has a very distinctive fragrance reminding me of a combination of hot plastic and vanilla!

On our lunch break we observed several Sharp-shinned Hawks, a 3rd year Bald Eagle, a Red-shouldered Hawk, a Red-tailed Hawk, one or two common Nighthawks and a couple of Sandhill Cranes.

Back on site, we found a few snakes (Northern Brown and Eastern Garter) as well as frogs (Leopard and Green) and American Toads, but nothing exceptional. Some of the plants we were on the lookout for we encountered, including American Ginseng, Green Dragon and Butternut, all officially Species At Risk. Due to their significance and legislated rarity, I will not divulge their locations. 

This next image features a fruiting individual of American Ginseng. It was not taken at the site we found it, but is one I had in my photo files. I did take a photo with my cell phone, but on the chance that someone could obtain the location from the cell phone pic via some internal GPS reading, I decided not to use it here (aside from the fact that it is a relatively poor quality). I do not have my main camera connected to any GPS coordinate software, partly so no one can track the location where I have taken my photos. American Ginseng is highly sought after by collectors for its apparent medical benefits, and the major illegal collecting problem is the reason it is now a Species At Risk.

Towards the end of the day, we were travelling near Kettle Point, and noted an obvious movement of raptors. In a matter of minutes we recorded several kettles (appropriately near Kettle Point!) of Broad-winged Hawks totalling more than 500 birds, a juvenile Bald Eagle, 2 or more Red-tailed Hawks, more than 20 Sharp-shinned Hawks and 20 Turkey Vultures. Later in the day, I read where a resident of the area had reported a total of 15,600 hawks passing through between 1-4 p.m., just to the north of where we saw our birds a bit later.

Broad-winged Hawk

I had heard from another birding friend that large numbers of hawks can be found migrating along the Lake Huron shoreline during periods of brisk east to northeast winds. The brisk southeast winds of this particular day had pushed migrating hawks up along the Lake Huron shoreline, so we were at the right spot at the right time to view this phenomenon.

Before heading back home to Chatham, I stopped in at one of my favourite places in north Lambton to view one of the area's relatively well-kept secrets. 

One doesn't normally associate waterfalls in the extreme southwestern flatlands of the province. If one wants to see such landscapes, one has to go to the more rugged part of the country along the Niagara Escarpment or central/northern Ontario, right? 

Not!! 

This waterfall is located at Rock Glen Conservation Area, at the NE edge of Arkona. The Ausable River Conservation Authority manages this site which is famous for its fossils in the sedimentary rock that are exposed along this stream. There is a parking area, picnic area, rustic washroom facility, museum and best of all, a hiking trail compete with stairway to reach the bottom of the gorge to see the falls up close. The first photo shown above was taken from 2/3 of the way down the stairway.

Side views are generally my preference, but one can get downstream a bit to see it from different vantage points and angles. One has to be cautious, of course, because the wet rocks are slippery!!!

Venturing a bit farther downstream, one can get intimate views of some of the minor sections of the falls.

A few days earlier, I had noted a plea for help posted on ONtbirds to track down a certain Great Egret which had been spotted in the Petrolia area. This egret had a blue wing tag, but the tag number was not easy to determine. So while travelling down hwy 21, I stopped where Black Creek flows under a bridge immediately north of Oil Springs. My primary goal was to photograph the flooded creek, overflowing with water from recent rainfall events. 

As I looked at the flooded pasture, I noted a Great Egret, and upon a closer view, noted it had a blue wing tag. Out came my 'scope and telephoto lens.

Part of the individual identification alpha/numeric code was visible, but even in looking at the bird for several minutes with my 'scope, it was clear that the letter was hard to discern. I sent the photos to the individual with Environment Canada who did the banding. We agreed that it was likely bird 95K rather than 95R. This bird was banded this year on June 26. The colony was on an island in southern Georgian Bay and the bird was too young to fly when it was banded.