Rondeau Butterfly Count

Just a brief note regarding Life on a Sandspit: it seems to have garnered a lot of interest and is doing well.

It is currently available at the Friends of Rondeau store (inside the Rondeau Visitor Centre), as well as the Bayview Market, just outside the Rondeau PP gates. It is also available via the Sydenham Field Naturalists, and you can see it, along with other nature publications on their web site here. I am slowly finding other local sites where it may be available, and will provide updates on those as they occur.

On to the butterfly count post.

Just a few days ago, on July 9, was the annual butterfly count, for the Rondeau area. Over the past 22 years, it has ranged from 35 to 47 species, averaging about 41 species. I don't have the final tally for this year, but based on the area that I and my colleagues did for this one, I think we will definitely be below average both for total species and individuals. I usually get about 18 species, but this year I got only 15. Of course weather is always a factor, and the cool, cloudy, misty weather this year did not bode well. And a downpour of heavy precipitation in the afternoon for some, did not help at all. Nonetheless, it can always be worthwhile to get out and see what is around. The following photos are ones I took while meandering through the several spots I normally cover. I didn't get photos of all the species I recorded, and the results vary.

This first one is the only swallowtail species I encountered, and just one individual!

Black Swallowtail

Bronze Coppers, next, are not a guarantee, and I only saw this one. Fortunately it cooperated to get the kind of photos that allowed me to separate it from the American Copper.

If this count was taken a few years ago, I would have no problem identifying this next one as a Summer Azure. However the lepidopterist taxonomists have examined the Celastrina genus a little differently, and it apparently is not quite so easy, so this one could be as Summer Azure, but I left it as Celastrina sp.

Common Wood-nymph

Eastern Comma

Eastern-tailed Blue

Little Wood-satyr

Monarchs, shown next, got off to a slow start in the count, but as the day wore on, I came across several areas where Common Milkweed was present in the hundreds of plants. One area could have even had more than a thousand plants, so getting several dozen Monarchs was not hard. If I had been able to carefully survey this largest milkweed site, I could have easily doubled the number of Monarchs, but by that time I was losing energy so I did most of my surveying via scanning the large field with binoculars.

Crescent butterflies are normally fairly common, but for some reason, that wasn't the case on this day. I had just this one Northern Crescent.

Although the ? on this next butterfly isn't all that visible, it was indeed a Question Mark.

Red Admirals, at 57 individuals, were by far the most common of the butterflies, other than Cabbage Whites at about 70.

Of course anytime one is out in such habitat, there are always other things to see, so I took advantage of the photo ops I was given. This Eastern Gartersnake was quietly sitting along the edge of one of the first trails I took. I presume it was trying to soak up some of the non-existent sunshine, as it never moved even a bit, although I got quite close.

Along the Erieau Marsh Trail there were the usual things like Great Blue Heron.....

...and even a Trumpeter Swan.

Song Sparrows were common in most areas.....

...as were Red-winged Blackbirds.

Along one area, which follows an old Railway Track, I saw three Wild Turkeys, but true to their character, did not allow me to get very close. This next photo is highly cropped.

Along this same part of the area I covered, I noted several clusters of a Species At Risk, known as Prairie Rose.

And I even saw the occasional day-flying moth that enabled me to shoot it: the Eight-spotted Forester.

Once all the results are tabulated, I will update the results for this count, but as far as I can tell in talking with several other counters, it will not be one of the better ones. Every year is different! Update: there was a total of 1777 individuals of 36 species recorded on this day, so definitely on the low end of average.

 

If you would like to subscribe, or unsubscribe, to Nature Nuggets, send an email to: prairietramper@gmail.com

Forest, grassland and river highlights!

 Perhaps the three different habitats in the title are an odd mix, but the reality is those are what I have been exploring lately, and for good reason which hopefully will become apparent as this blog post unfolds.

Forests are fascinating at any time of year, but with the lush green growth, they are extra inspiring to me, especially on an overcast day with no wind. They have an atmosphere like nowhere else, and one feels a little overwhelmed in a good way, when one takes the time to see the multitude shades of green and gray, and tries to make sense of every little detail laid out before you. The forest has so many stories to share. Given that the main birding season is over, the trails are a bit quieter, so bird and insect song is subdued but noticeable. A small photo about 3" X 5" really doesn't do the area justice. If you click on the images, it will make them a bit larger, but still not quite like the real thing.You really have to get out and immerse yourself in the setting to appreciate what it has to offer, in my opinion.

These next two photos show Winterberry, not a common shrub, but a bit widespread in damp areas. It will have bright red berries in the fall, which are readily consumed by migrating warblers and thrushes.

 There are birds around, to be sure, such as this Acadian Flycatcher, which seems to be persistent along one stretch of the Tuliptree Trail but I am not sure it has found a mate....

 ...and Eastern Wood-Pewees are pretty reliably encountered.

House Wrens, too, can often be heard, and sometimes seen. This one was half of a pair of them investigating a cavity in a tree stub. The presumed male, shown here, seems to be half asleep while bubbling away!

A pair of Prothonotary Warblers can occasionally be cooperative along this trail. More on this species in a future post.

I have recently been out to a couple of grassland areas, in northeast Chatham-Kent and southeastern Lambton as part of a Grassland Bird Assessment project. Parts of them were at quite an early stage of growth, and didn't have a lot of grassland bird activity. No doubt the vegetation was much shorter when the grassland birds arrived, making it less desirable.

Other parts had some vegetation structure from 2022, and had more going for it, it seemed.

Bobolink was one of the target species, and there were a few around, but often partially hidden in the grass which made locking the focus on the bird difficult.....

...so I had to wait for them to be in flight, and in spite of their somewhat erratic flight, was able to capture a few photos.

Common Yellowthroats were fairly widespread.....

...and a few females popped into view from time to time.

There were a few butterflies flitting around, such as this Common Wood-Nymph. There were others, but I didn't want to get too distracted by them since birds were my main target.

I also spent some time at places where I could access either the Thames or the Sydenham rivers, sort of in preparation for an upcoming project entitled Natural Treasures of Chatham-Kent. More on that in a future post.

A shrub that was in fine flower on one occasion was Ninebark, shown in the next two photos.

These two rivers have an exceptional diversity of mussels, many of which are at risk, such as these next two species.

Deer Toe Mussel

Deer Toe Mussel

Pimpleback

Pimpleback

 It was interesting to note that of the first three species of mussel I photographed at one spot along the Thames, all three were considered Species At Risk! It just impressed upon me about the diversity of mussels that occur in these rivers, and how special they are.

Damselflies and dragonflies are also well represented.

Ebony Jewelwing

Calico Pennant

And a few butterflies were also present, including this Baltimore Checkerspot, not particularly rare, but not all that common either.

 

If you would like to subscribe, or unsubscribe, to Nature Nuggets, send an email to: prairietramper@gmail.com