Birds and other critters on some warm days of October

As is often the case, there have been a few warmer than normal days in October. It is almost summer-like, and lots of sun. It isn't really Indian Summer....that is a few weeks away, hopefully.

Yesterday I checked out the Erieau waterfront, hoping to catch up with a Hudsonian Godwit that Steve Charbonneau had seen the day before. The water levels and weed mats in Rondeau bay are such that they provide excellent habitat for ducks, shorebirds and herons. Unfortunately they are a long way from shore, so that even with the 'scope cranked up to 50-60 power, viewing especially during a breezy day can be challenging.

I didn't see the godwit. I didn't see the Eurasian Wigeon that Steve had seen either, but with the 5000+ ducks scattered as far as the eye could see, the wigeon was probably there somewhere. As for the godwit: there were shorebirds, including Pectoral Sandpiper, both yellowlegs and both American and Black-bellied Plover, plus a few peeps that went unidentified due to the distance and haze. Who knows where the godwit is by now.

I headed over to Rondeau next, going to the east branch of the South Point Trail. Birds weren't especially plentiful, but I did see a few warblers skulking in the wind-blown shrubbery. The most notable avian species was an abundance of Rusty Blackbirds (it was being considered as a Species At Risk recently, although it hasn't happened yet).....there must have been upwards of 1000 in several flocks. It was really hard to tell the number, as they kept emerging from the wetland shrubbery only to stream by to the other side of the trail. They were constantly on the move, and difficult to get a photo of.

Even though it was windy, where the sun was hitting the trail in some sheltered areas, it was good for butterflies. I saw at least 8 Eastern Commas.

There are a few Monarchs still passing through.

A small number of Pearl Crescents are still around.

 A single Common Buckeye was fighting the wind looking for shelter.

The sunny pavement also attracts snakes trying to soak up a bit more warmth before going underground for the next few months. I noted several Eastern Gartersnakes, as well as this Northern Brown Snake.

The park roads open to vehicular traffic showed evidence of slow moving snakes, unfortunately, with several Eastern Gartersnakes in various states of wreckage.


When one got to the southeast corner, it was easy to see the results of the early autumn storms of the last couple of weeks. This remnant from the old south campground camp office was exposed during the major east wind storms of 2015, but then got mostly covered up again for most of the next few months....such is the norm for dynamic shorelines. But now, once again, the strong winds from the east and southeast have brought it back into view.

Along the sandy trail to the shoreline, I noted a small, orange ball on the move, struggling to escape a shallow sandy pit. It turned out to be a Marbled Orb Weaver, a colourful spider that is fairly common in late summer.

The Blenheim Sewage Lagoons can be a worthwhile stop. On this day a male Lesser Scaup was the first bird I saw.

There were almost 150 Ruddy Ducks in various sized groups in each of the ponds.

One of the Long-billed Dowitchers was still around. This one has a shorter bill than some of the others of a week or so ago.

LBDO, October 12, 2016

LBDO October 1, 2016

This next photo shows a Greater Yellowlegs on the left, a Lesser Yellowlegs on the right with the dowitcher busily feeding in the middle.

Savannah Sparrows are widely scattered and plentiful.

And there has been a recent influx of American Pipits. I observed more than two dozen flying over the sprinkler cells and dropping into the drier, weedy portions.

Butterflies are still around, with the only unusual ones noted at the lagoons being two Common Checkered Skippers. They were on the move and this photo is from a previous visit.

Late season prairie veg and leps

This early autumn splurge of warmer weather has benefited some lingering tallgrass prairie vegetation as well as the persistence of butterflies. A good spot to see this in Chatham-Kent is the Mitchell's Bay North Shore Nature Trail. Butterfly diversity is diminishing, and with the forecast cooler trend beginning this weekend it will likely continue to diminish. But the ones that are around do provide some good photo ops.

Cabbage Whites continue to be super abundant. Clouded Sulphur and Orange Sulphur are also fairly abundant.

Cabbage White

Clouded Sulphur

Orange Sulphur

An occasional Red Admiral, here sipping nectar on a Spotted Joe-pye-weed, may still be around.

Red Admiral

Monarchs are on the move, heading southwest towards their overwintering site in the Mexican highlands..

Common Checkered-Skippers, those diminutive and attractive little later season visitors, are still around. Some of the later blooming asters are good spots to check for them.

Common Checkered-Skipper

While the dominant colour of flowering plants in early autumn is the yellow of various goldenrod species, there are a few others tucked away. Surprisingly this Gray-headed Coneflower (Ratibida pinnata) was seen in good flower recently.

One that does not occur very commonly anywhere in Ontario is Biennial Gaura (Gaura biennis). It blooms early on a sunny day, and typically closes up by late morning.

A relatively rare autumn orchid is Great Plain's Ladies'-tresses (Spiranthes magnicamporum) occurs. There are several Spiranthes in the area in the late summer and early autumn, but even though this is S3 and therefore ranked as reasonably rare, it is by far the most common Spiranthes located here at this time of year here in the southwest.

Not restricted to prairies by any means, is this Pokeweed (Phytolacca americana). It has attractive white flowers that develop into succulent looking bluish-purple berries. Birds love them! But don't you try eating them....all parts of the plant are quite toxic to humans and other mammals.

This next species, the brilliant Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis), normally is in flower in early to mid-August. For some reason this one decided to extend the season.

If you have been paying attention to non-raptors passing by the various hawk watches in southern Ontario recently, you may have noticed tens of thousands of Blue Jays passing by, heading southwest. Are they all heading to Texas in support of their American League namesake???

Go Blue Jays!!!!

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!

The Quiet Storm

It was exactly a year ago when a storm went through southern Ontario, with sustained high winds from the east. Wave action was impressive, as long as one didn't have to be out on the water! This first image is of the Erieau pier, with some of the waves almost obscuring the lighthouse.

Erieau pier, Oct 2, 2015

Birding was fun and productive for a few days especially between Sept 30 and Oct 2, at least in the sense that some less commonly seen species were around. There were several jaegers and at least a couple of Sabine's Gulls, my first for the Rondeau checklist area.

Sabine's Gull imm

Horned Grebes were abundant. Well over 100 would be seen in short order flying by, and on occasion up to a couple of dozen would be in the comparative shelter of the west side of the pier, close to shore.

A few shorebirds, including this Black-bellied Plover, were on the sheltered beach......

 .....as were a couple of White-rumps.

With the current brisk easterly winds these last couple of days and the reports of jaegers and even a shearwater emanating from postings by birders scouring the west end of Lake Ontario, local birders in southern Chatham-Kent were hoping for at least something out of the ordinary again at Erieau.

Certainly the weather conditions gave reason for optimism. Gulls normally well out on the lake were content to spend a lot of time loafing on the beach or passing by a little ways off shore.

Rondeau east beach, Sept 29, 2016

 The waves over the Erieau pier were impressive by normal standards, but not as much as a year ago.

Erieau pier, Sep 30, 2016

Erieau, Sep 30, 2016

And the birds? Well so far in the last couple of days there were no jaegers that I have heard of, let alone any shearwaters.

There have been large numbers of gulls in the Rondeau to Erieau area. Probably well over 6000 Ring-billed Gulls....by far the most numerous species. The other typical species were all present, including several Lesser Black-backed. But no Sabine's, not even a Little Gull. In fact of the smaller, hooded type gull, Bonaparte's was all there was, and even at that there were probably only 5-600, most of which were adults transitioning to their basic/winter finery.

There were sightings of other species, just to keep one interested. Caspian Terns are still around in small numbers.

Common Terns are as well, with several dozen flying by the Erieau lookout this morning, and heading east into the wind. Most were too far out to be photographed.

There were grebes, but only Horned, and no more than 15 or so, all flying east. At least one Surf Scoter was observed well off shore, and a few other ducks including Greater Scaup and mergansers.

So it hasn't been the banner couple of days for early autumn birding that we were hoping for, but that is the fun of it......if it was too predictable, why go out and look? The weekend is here, so maybe with more eyes scanning the water, beaches and wherever, something a little rarer will be found! And maybe that will be the subject of my next post!