Developers win, nature loses.....again

This isn't really prime time to see a tallgrass prairie in all of its glory...late July or early August is undoubtedly the best time. I have written about Ontario tallgrass prairie in its prime in this blog. But it is a relevant time to raise an issue pertaining to one of the most significant tallgrass prairie complexes in Ontario. The issue will be described a bit later in this blog.

The area I am referring to is the Ojibway Prairie Remnants tallgrass prairie complex in southwest Windsor. I was first introduced to the Ojibway Prairie Provincial Nature Reserve (OPPNR) portion of this complex back in 1975, when a colleague and I visited it in August of that year. We had had a hint of the prairie and savanna types of ecosystem as we were both summer seasonal naturalists at Rondeau Provincial Park, which has a fair representation of species common to both habitat types. But the really magnificent stuff was at OPPNR. There were various members of the sunflower family, some reaching heights of 3 metres (10 feet) or more. There were vivid purple spikes of the iconic Dense Blazing-star throughout. There are more provincially and nationally rare species in prairie/savanna than any other habitat in Ontario, some of which will be illustrated below. Since the 1970s, numerous invertebrate species have been found in the Ojibway Prairie Complex that have never been documented in Canada before!

Over the decades of my career, I had a lot to do with OPPNR: writing vegetation management plans, adding to some of the inventory knowledge database, coordinating research projects, photographing (some of the photos in this blog are scanned slides taken years ago), promoting prescribed burns and being heavily involved with the planning and production of the 1992 North American Prairie Conference held in Windsor. This was the first time this conference had been held outside the USA. It was great fun to collaborate with the city staff, especially those of the nearby Ojibway Nature Centre, to bring this national conference to Windsor and show hundreds of people the spectacular prairie and savanna in southwestern Ontario.

Many people are surprised when one mentions that Ontario really is a prairie province, and some of the best examples occur in southwestern Ontario. In fact the most biologically diverse prairies in Canada occur in Ontario. This first image I took at the OPPNR while standing in a prairie portion, looking across to a savanna, which is the open treed area. The white candelabra style plants are Culver's-root (Veronicastrum virginicum). The tall green stems are of Tall Coreopsis (Coreopsis tripteris), not quite out in flower.

In the spring time, prairies are often burned, but with the sunlight and moisture they quickly green up. The two images that follow the fire were taken about 10 days after the burn.

There is a profusion of rare and not-so-rare plants that are largely dependent on prairie or savanna habitat of this prairie complex.

Gray-headed Coneflower (Ratibida pinnata)

Flowering Spurge (Euphorbia corollata)

 Numerous milkweed species occur, including:

Butterfly Milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa) with Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta)

Prairie Milkweed (Asclepias sullivantii)

Purple Milkweed (Asclepias purpurascens)

 The only Ontario location for Tall Green Milkweed (Asclepias hirtella) is in the greater Ojibway Prairie Complex. Even though it is limited to a few plants, it doesn't have any officially legislated Species At Risk status yet.

Milkweed are of course important for the Monarch butterfly, as are thistles.

Prairie Thistle (Cirsium discolor)

 The only known location for the Endangered Slender Bush Clover (Lespedeza virginica) occurs in the Ojibway Prairie Complex.

 Smooth Foxglove (Aureolaria flava) is soon to be evaluated for its Species At Risk status.

Smooth Foxglove

Colic-root (Aletris farinosa) (Threatened)

There are, or were, several populations of Colic-root in the Ojibway Prairie Complex, including by far the largest one in Canada. More on this a bit later.

The very tall Prairie Dock (Silphium terebinthinaceum) occurs here. It has huge sandpapery basal leaves and a flower stem that can be at least 3 metres tall with the obvious yellow sunflower types of flower heads near the top.

Prairie Dock

 Prairie Rose (Rosa setigera) is limited mostly to better quality prairie-like settings in extreme southwestern Ontario.

Prairie Rose

Impressive numbers of the iconic Dense Blazing-star can be found, in addition to the smaller Rough Blazing-star.

Dense Blazing-star (Liatris spicata)

Rough Blazing-star (Liatris aspera)

 Purple Milkwort (Polygala incarnata) occurs here in small numbers. It was first recorded in the Windsor area in 1894 by botanist John Macoun, and went unnoticed until I re-discovered it exactly a century later! The only other location for it in Canada is on the fine prairies of Walpole Island First Nation.

Pink Milkwort

Rare orchids occur here.

Eastern Prairie Fringed Orchid (Platanthera leucophaea) (Endangered)

Purple Twayblade (Liparis liliifolia) (Threatened)

 There are historical records of Yellow Fringed Orchid (Platanthera ciliaris).

There is no doubt that natural areas in an urban area are at great risk for impact and loss. In the last decade, this has become even more evident in Windsor with the newly created/expanded access to the new international bridge crossing. Unprotected prairie and savanna sites have been sacrificed. This next image is of a prairie that used to occur at the northwest corner of Huron Church Line and Todd Lane. It wasn't pristine by any means, but since it had been left alone for a couple of years, the prairie species hanging on such as the Colic-root (the white spikey plants) came up nicely. I regret to say, however, that they are no longer there. Even though this population represented the largest single population of Colic-root in Canada, a legally Threatened species, that area was needed for highway expansion, so it was removed. The provincial condition on the permit was to allow their removal, as long as the threatened and endangered plants were transplanted to another more protected site.

What a tragic solution....transplanting is nothing more than large scale gardening!

When I was still with the former MNR and involved with the creation of the new Endangered Species Act in 2007, I was adamant that although some aspects of this legislation were valuable, the bigger issue was dealing with the habitats that such endangered species required to survive. The trailer that I had in my emails was "Dealing with Species At Risk instead of Spaces At Risk is like treating a life-threatening disease with an aspirin". What is going on in Windsor today, and numerous other places as well, is a prime example of this issue, and highlights a major flaw in this type of thinking regarding endangered species.

 These nationally significant prairie and savanna remnants making up the Ojibway Prairie Complex are almost completely surrounded by urban development, including residential and commercial uses. One of the properties immediately adjacent to Ojibway Prairie Provincial Nature Reserve and the city owned Ojibway Park is the former Windsor Raceway. It has not been operational as a raceway for quite a few years, and some of the area closest to these two prairie parks had begun to revert to its former likeness of tallgrass prairie. Not only were some of the legislated prairie plants becoming re-established, but some of the faunal elements, including the endangered Eastern Fox Snake, were as well.

Unfortunately the former raceway property has changed hands, and the new owner wants to turn the property into a big box complex. This has been a contentious issue for many, and there have been appeals to the Ontario Municipal Board. The issues are mainly:

• does south Windsor really need another big box complex, when others in that city are apparently not doing all that well, and the long-term economic development plan indicates that Windsor already has more capacity than needed for at least the next 20 years? There are other large undeveloped or 'brown' (i.e. failed development or abandoned) properties available elsewhere for this type of development if more is necessary;
• what about the loss of rare species and habitat not resolved by the permit issued by MNRF (see below)
• what about the major impacts to the species at risk on the adjacent park properties, not to mention the numerous species that are not officially 'at risk' quite yet? The new development calls for a major expansion/widening of the access roads, which currently separate Ojibway Prairie PNR from Ojibway Park, and will result in a major increase in traffic on the road separating these two parks. This will result in more and more animal life to be killed on the road.
• will the new development interfere with the prescribed burns needed for short and long term prairie health?

Admittedly the new owners have been issued a permit by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry to allow them to build, if they comply with the conditions such as transplanting some of the plant species that will be affected. There is also a portion of the property to not be subject to development and will be added to the city-owned Ojibway Park.

But residents and non-residents alike are questioning the need for such a huge development as well as the short-term and long-term impacts on the nationally significant prairie and savanna ecosystems and the species that make them up. The OMB dismissed the appeal to protect the significant prairie habitat, but residents are still actively involved in seeking a better solution. You can read much more about the issue and the public reaction here in the Windsor Star. 

Many residents are requesting that the city council reconsider their approval for this project, and the local MPP is asking the owner/developer to reconsider it as well.  Note the request in the article in the Windsor Star for signing a petition to be sent to the mayor. Please make your voices heard!

"Dealing with Species At Risk instead of Spaces At Risk is like treating a life-threatening disease with an aspirin"

Summer Tanager and little known facts of Washington DC black squirrels, etc.

I'm playing catch-up a bit here. I've been out in the field a few times in the last week, but have also been busy with some project reports with deadlines that are fast approaching. Yes I'm retired, but really only semi-retired since I have my hand in various projects related to landscape ecology, species at risk, etc.

Open grown White Oak

When some people see me out on the trail, or wherever, with my optical equipment around my neck or over my shoulder, they ask me if I am a birder. And the answer is yes, to a certain extent. Mike Bouman and I discussed some of the nuances of this topic just a few days ago. Getting interested in birds many decades ago was fun but, we agreed, the more you get out and explore the world of birds, your eyes get opened to so many more things. I try to be on the lookout for birds every time I am out of the house (and even when I am in the house looking out!), but there are so many aspects to the natural world, not just birds. It is wonderful just to be out looking at whatever there is that comes along, whether it is some specific critter or plant, or the shapes, shades and colours of so many things along the trail, beach, wherever. And I must admit that as one ages and the eyesight and hearing isn't what it used to be, it is even easier to concentrate on things that don't require excellent eyesight or hearing to see or identify!

The image above is one of my favourite old time images. It was taken by former Rondeau Park naturalist R. D. Ussher on Kodak slide film back in the early 1960s. I scanned it a few years ago, hoping to preserve the ambiance of this autumn scene.

This time of year, things in the birding world are slowing down in terms of species diversity. There are still some great things to enjoy.....they don't have to be super rare (okay, I wouldn't mind if a Bullock's Oriole, Pink-footed Goose, Mountain Bluebird, Little Egret, Dovekie or Northern Fulmar showed up around here like they have done in other places farther east......). But we have been fortunate in having a few 'good' birds around (hmmm....poor terminology here....I don't intend for the others to be 'bad' birds....). Locally over the past few weeks we have had things like Townsend's Solitaire (for part of a day), Franklin's Gulls, Sabine's Gull, Say's Phoebe, Ross's Goose, Eared Grebe and Summer Tanager around. What else is out there but not yet noted?

I've already posted images of some of those that I saw on previous blogs. But the local 'star' at the moment is the continuing Summer Tanager. It has been around for more than a couple of weeks, and with some continued mild weather and ample supply of berries, suet, etc., it just might make it to the upcoming Christmas Bird Count. Maybe it will even make it to 2016 when it can be a good start to a new year list.

I have seen this bird on several occasions. The first time was when it appeared on top of a cottage chimney which, fortunately, is covered with Virginia Creeper vines and berries.

It then flew right overhead to a tree that had some other berries.

The sun even came out a bit to provide some good light, affording the opportunity to even catch the sun highlight in the eye.

 It can be quite elusive on occasion. It took me a few tries to catch up with the bird, and there are some folks who have yet to see it.

Snowy Owls are also beginning to build in numbers in various places in Chatham-Kent.

 As many as 5 or more have been seen close to Erieau in recent days, and several have also been seen in the former Dover Twp towards Mitchell's Bay. It is a good start, but I don't expect we will see the record numbers of last year, however.

With all of the mild weather, there is no ice anywhere in the area. Waterbirds are still around in good, but slowly diminishing numbers. Horned Grebes are plentiful but widely scattered along the Lake Erie shoreline. Last weekend just checking in 3 places, I conservatively counted 67 birds, and considering that some spend a fair bit of time underwater in search of food, I likely missed more than a few.

A walk through the forest is pretty quiet these days, so it enables one to look for other things. Raptor nests are more visible. This is likely last year's Cooper's Hawk nest, but since Great Horned Owls occupy nests built by other birds, and start the nesting season earlier than most hawks, it is possible that this nest may be taken over by a Great Horned Owl. I'll let you know.

On the forest floor amidst all the fallen leaves, certain things stand out. It is a great time of year to search for a rare orchid, the Puttyroot (Aplectrum hyemale). It isn't officially a Species At Risk yet, but is in the process of being evaluated by both federal and provincial committees to see if it warrants that status. And late fall through early spring is the best time to find them. Their greenish/gray leaves, with lighter lines, are fairly conspicuous once you get an eye for them.

 One of the projects I was involved with was searching for Species At Risk at a north Lambton location, and my colleagues and I came across a minimum 238 leaves of this rarity! This population was unknown until a little more than a year ago, when I discovered a few Puttyroot leaves poking up amongst the fallen brown, yellow and golden ones.

Searching for Puttyroot

There are other things. As I was walking the forest trails of Rondeau Provincial Park, I came across a gazillion (yep....actual count :-) of seeds of the Tuliptree on the ground, on logs, on the moss, etc.

Tuliptrees are very prolific seed producers, but a less known fact is that less than one per cent of even the fallen seeds are viable. Many other seeds are still clinging to the branches, and will remain until the spring, but those are not viable.

Most fern species are relatively fragile and disappear late in the fall. Christmas Fern, however, is a more robust species, and its deep green coloured leaves are evident throughout the winter.

Christmas Fern

Squirrels are even busier than normal since it was a good year for many oaks to produce acorns, and the snow-free and mild conditions have enabled squirrels to gather acorns much later than some years.

In this part of the world, one can see both the gray colour phase of the Eastern Grey Squirrel and the black colour phase of the Eastern Grey Squirrel. Black squirrels are a little more obvious, and at Rondeau may even be a little more common.

Black Squirrels are much more common in the northern part of their range. This is reputed to be due in part because their black fur absorbs more sunlight energy so as to keep them warmer in the colder temperatures. Also in northern forests where conifers are more abundant, there are more dark shadows, so they are less obvious to predators.

Black squirrels have been of interest to some communities in the USA, and where they have survived, the community takes great pride in their black squirrel population. For example back in 1904, during the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt, an influential person (whose name escapes me at the moment) in Washington DC arranged to obtain several black squirrels from Rondeau. Trading wildlife or obtaining and releasing wildlife from other jurisdictions was a much more common practice in that era. I have read some of the correspondence between Issac Gardiner, the first superintendent of Rondeau, and this individual from Washington DC from the Rondeau archives. So next time you are in Washington DC, take note of the population of black squirrels....they are descendants of Rondeau squirrels.

Is this one attempting a hand-stand? Not really, I just happened to catch it as it was leaping from one log to another!

Snow birds and big trees

Some 'snow' birds are showing up here in southwestern Ontario. A Snowy Owl was seen by Jim Burk a few weeks ago, but it seemed to disappear. Then a few days ago, Irene Woods reported one on a pumphouse near the corner of Bisnett Line and Lagoon Road. It apparently likes this vantage point....far enough away from any road to minimize disturbance, and in a slightly lower portion of the ag field where it is less breezy. I've seen it on this pump house on several occasions. This is a highly cropped image from a photo taken with lens giving the equivalent of a 22X binocular. Fortunately this is a species that even at a distance is easily identified under less than ideal conditions.

Snow Geese are not common in this area. In eastern Ontario, they can number for a few days in the tens of thousands in a single field. Here, we are lucky to see a few individuals each fall. In checking the database of the Blenheim/Rondeau Christmas Bird Count, which has been going for 75 years (and most often between Dec 15-21 so at the very tail end of fall), we've recorded them only about a third of the time, and even then, mostly in numbers less than 10. The blue phase of the Snow Goose is even rarer here. In those same 75 years, we have recorded them on only 7 occasions. So it was a nice treat to see this blue Snow Goose hanging out with several hundred Canada Geese along the east side of Rondeau, which is off limits to hunting and the birds are fairly tolerant.

A juvenile white phase Snow Goose is still in the area, but I didn't get photos of it. It has sometimes been seen along the east beach of Rondeau, but yesterday I saw it with several hundred Canada Geese along the lake shore off of Erieau.

Another mostly snowy white goose is the Ross's Goose which I saw, got decent photos of, and posted about recently. Those two seem to have left the area, as several birders have been diligently looking for them without success.

Right at the beach edge of Rondeau I noted this:

I don't think it will be in high demand for picnicking any time soon, but it might be useful for small kids to put their beach toys on next year. That is if it survives the winter ice, etc.

Sticking with the snowy white bird theme, these large majestic birds are frequently seen, unfortunately in increasing numbers, around Rondeau Bay.

Mute Swans are popular with the general public, but most of the public are not aware (or perhaps don't care) that these birds are some of the most vicious, nasty and damaging species of waterfowl we have to contend with. They really play havoc with almost all of our native species of waterfowl, taking over large areas of wetland and refusing the presence of other species.

Owls are also popular with almost anyone, whether it be a Snowy Owl as shown above, one of the largest of our owls, or the smallest of our owls, the Northern Saw-whet Owl. The Northern Saw-whet is the smallest owl species in Ontario, being only 20 cm (8") although when you see them they usually look even smaller. Just a few days ago one is thought to have flown into a window or something and was sitting in a rather vulnerable place, being threatened by a cat. The landowner brought it to the park. Nothing seemed to be broken, so it was put on a safe branch of a pine tree and left to recover.

A few days ago I purposed to explore part of the Keith McLean Conservation Lands (KMCL), just north of Rondeau, that I had never been to. I was encouraged to do so after having had a conversation with Ken Bell, who had earlier seen one or more very large trees near the far northeastern corner of the property. So I ventured out. En route I crossed a portion of the wetland/creek system that was still free of ice. Some Mallards, Gadwall and this Ruddy Duck were enjoying the respite from the waterfowl hunting going on around Rondeau Bay.

One of the plants that stand out at this time of year is Pokeweed (Phytolacca americana). The dark purplish blue berries against the reddish purple stems are quite obvious. They aren't edible for humans, but birds love them!

 I eventually got back to where some big trees were. I came across a Shagbark Hickory that measured 87 cm dbh (dbh is the official height for measuring tree diameter. It is 1.3 metres above the ground which is about 4.5 '). That makes it one of the largest Shagbark Hickories I have ever seen. But larger trees were in store. Near a cluster of woods where some older farm buildings and a residence formerly occurred, I came across this tree that Ken had told me about. It is a Sugar Maple, and measured 125 cm (almost 50") dbh.

And as I gazed across the field towards the wide creek system at the eastern edge of the KMCL, I noted some oak trees that were impressive even from a distance. I had to see them. One of the first Red Oaks I encountered was almost exactly one metre (~40") dbh, but that one was small. One not far away was 155 cm (slightly more than 5') dbh.

Red Oak, 155 cm dbh

 The Red Oak that is almost a metre dbh is in the background of the photo above.

This one isn't in great shape, but that is typical of trees that have been around for a couple of centuries or more and qualify as old growth specimens. It is hard to tell how old this one is, but is likely at least 200 years old.

Old trees often have hollow sections, which are quite popular with wildlife. When I first saw this raccoon, I thought it was just basking in the sun, but in very short order, I realized it was dead. There has been an outbreak of distemper amongst raccoons this year, which often happens when populations are high, so this individual might have been a victim of that.

As I continued along the top of the creek system, I encountered a real behemoth: this Red Oak, although it was difficult to measure using the exact protocol of the Ontario Forestry Association for the Ontario Honour Roll (OHR) of Trees.

Those standards require measurement at 1.3 m in height from the highest point of land the tree is growing on, which in this case is at the left hand side of the photo. This specimen is on a slope, and measuring at the 1.3 m height means that the large branch on the creek side will interfere with the measurement. So I measured a bit below at about the narrowest diameter, and it came up at about 190 cm (which is almost 6.24 feet across!). It is likely even older than the previously shown one, and it is not impossible for this tree to be ~250-300 years old. It does seem to be in better shape than the 155 cm one, based on outward appearances. I noted afterwards that there were other very large specimens elsewhere along this creek system, perhaps even larger than the ones I've seen already.

This is not the largest Red Oak in Ontario, however. That bit of notoriety is claimed by a specimen growing on private property closer to Blenheim which I measured and proposed to the OHR in 1984 at 194 cm. I intend to get back to measure it again. No doubt it has grown even larger in the 30 years since!