Friday, 12 June 2015

Woodlands and wetlands

I recently took another trip to McKerral Woods, a 50 acre woodland in Chatham-Kent that is in quite nice shape and very few people know about it. It is just barely large enough to have a bit of Interior Forest, which is the area of forest more than 100 metres from the edge. In Chatham-Kent, where there is such a limited amount of woodland, any woodland greater than 5 acres is considered significant!

McKerrall Woods was donated to the municipality several decades ago, and is a great spot to get away for even a short excursion. It is a combination of upland and lowland. Although topographic relief is relatively minor, it is enough to make the difference between what is sometimes under water and what is relatively drier upland.

There are some nice sized trees scattered throughout. Some of the largest ones are maple, especially Silver Maple, but the one in the image below is a Sycamore, and is slightly over a metre in diameter. The upper trunk has lost much of its bark, which is typical, and shows a lot of pale greenish mottling.
A nice surprise was this quite large Swamp White Oak. It is approaching a metre in diameter, and that species doesn't often get much larger than that in its restricted range in Ontario.
The wildflowers are mostly finished now, but not that long ago there was a good variety. Some of the lingering ones are:
Blue Phlox
Jack-in-the-pulpit
White Baneberry
 White Baneberry is sometimes called Doll's-eyes since the fruit, as shown in the next image, was sometimes used by pioneers as eyes for home-made dolls for their children.
Note the green insect climbing in this fruiting head. It is an immature Assassin Bug. In spite of their small size, they can give a nasty bite!

I took a swing over to the Bear Creek Unit of St. Clair National Wildlife Area about the same time. The wetland was in good shape, and parts of the interior of it were quite visible from the road side. An Eastern Kingbird was fluttering about.


Several Great Egrets were feeding in the shallow water, but what caught my attention was this family of Pied-billed Grebe chicks, about half grown.
 There were two families of them altogether, totalling 8 young and two adults. Most of the time they did what grebes often do, and that is slowly sink out of sight below the water surface.

In the large creek system near by, several large female Northern Map Turtles were busy basking. This species is a Species At Risk in Ontario.

Elsewhere a Great Blue Heron was playing farmer, being outstanding in his field of soybeans.















Monday, 8 June 2015

Do you know where Swamp Cottonwood is?

I've had occasion to check out Bickford Oak Woods Conservation Reserve three times in the last few weeks. It doesn't take all that long to get there, but there aren't any official trails, so one has to be willing to follow some overgrown logging trails, or bushwack their way through once you arrive. At 308 hectares in size (760 acres) and much of it being wetland, it isn't the easiest place to get around, but usually well worth the effort.

Drainage is poor, leading to all sorts of small and large wetland pockets.
Typical forested wetland of Bickford Oak Woods
One of the things that Bickford Oak Woods Conservation Reserve (BOWCR) is known for is the only location in Canada for the tree species called Swamp Cottonwood. It was discovered by Gerry Waldron, John Ambrose and Lindsay Rodger in 2002, while doing some inventory work. It is hard to believe that even in this 21st century, new tree species are being discovered in southern Ontario!
Swamp Cottonwood
Swamp Cottonwood grows to a fairly good size, and occurs in a buttonbush swampy area. There are several dozen trees of various sizes.....the image here is from a very short young plant.

The wetlands are great spots for amphibians, such as this tiny Western Chorus Frog, only about 2-3.5 cm long.

In general, the BOWCR does not have a lot of large trees. It was acquired by business men during a time when industrial expansion of that part of Lambton County was thought to be a good investment. But industrial expansion did not occur in this area, so it sat for decades. It did undergo fairly intensive timber harvest about 50 years ago, as well as some cattle pasturing, so it wasn't in the most pristine shape. But in the late 1990s, the owners called me to see if any government or private conservation agency would be interested in purchasing it, and so a plan of action was put into place. With the extreme generosity of individuals, local field naturalist groups, the Nature Conservancy of Canada as well as Ministry of Natural Resources, it was acquired and eventually designated as a Conservation Reserve. The forest is rebounding from the harvesting and pasturing activity of the past. But hints of such activity remains, if one only looks at the type of tree form that is common to see throughout the drier sections of the forest.

Multi-stemmed tree trunks abound. Oak was a valuable forest product, and so the merchantable timber was taken out. But oaks have a tendency to sucker after harvest, and some of those suckers are now the well established tree trunks. It is quite common to see double and triple stemmed trunks of various oak species.

Triple-stemmed White Oak
 And on occasion, one may find one with as many as five trunks such as this Red Oak below shows.
With this forest being so large at over 750 acres, it has a significant amount of what is known as Interior Forest, which is the forested portion at least 100 metres from the edge. This is the maximum distance at which edge species, such as Brown-headed Cowbirds, will normally venture in, giving a safer area for birds such as Wood Thrush, Ovenbird and other forest interior species to breed without being parasitized by the cowbird which lays its eggs in other species nests.

Ovenbirds, Wood Thrush, Scarlet Tanager, Yellow-throated Vireo, Rose-breasted Grosbeak and others are fairly common here. Less common species include Cerulean Warbler, Tufted Titmouse and even Acadian Flycatcher. I have seen or heard all of these here from time to time, other than the Acadian......that one is pretty infrequent here.

Some of the largest wetland areas in the BOWCR will support Beaver, and a Great Blue Heronry is in the vicinity of these same interior wetlands.
Beaver cutting
I noted this One-spotted Stinkbug along the trail.
And in October, one can easily find Witch-hazel, a shrub that only flowers in the fall.
Some of the property that was formerly in farmland has been left to regenerate, and even had some tallgrass prairie plants and wildlife shrubs established about a decade ago. Right now, these areas are great for butterflies and dragonflies. This first one is a Common Baskettail, but it had me fooled at first because they normally have an obvious dark spot at the base of the wing. It is more noticeable in the second photo.
Common Baskettail
 Also fairly abundant was Common White tail, as in the next photo showing an immature male of the species.
 Twelve-spotted Skimmers were also well represented.
Twelve-spotted Skimmer
Wildlife shrubs, such as this Nannyberry, are coming into good flower these days, which is great for butterflies.
Nannyberry
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
Giant Swallowtail
American Lady
In the grasses and clover were some smaller lepidoptera:
Common Ringlet
Juvenal's Duskywing
Peck's Skipper
I'm not 100% certain if this is a Peck's Skipper.....those little rascals are sometimes a challenge unless you get just the right angle to show the important characteristics.....if anyone has a better idea, please let me know.

While I was busy photographing butterflies in the open grassy area, this Tree Swallow and its mate were keeping an eye on me.













Sunday, 31 May 2015

Skunks' Misery

Skunk's Misery is, in spite of its name, a fascinating place to explore. The majority of its several hundred hectares sits in southwestern Middlesex County, but some of the natural areas in immediately adjacent Chatham-Kent, Elgin and Lambton have been included by most people who are assessing natural areas.

There are various explanations as to how this natural area got its name, but they are rather vague and I'm not certain which story is the most correct, so suffice to say I will leave it to your imagination.

Skunk's Misery is a provincially significant Area of Natural and Scientific Interest as well as a provincially significant wetland. The huge area and relatively intact forest that includes large areas of interior forest, not to mention harbouring a large number of species at risk, are cause to celebrate the continued existence of this site. A little over half of it is owned by the county of Middlesex, the Lower Thames Valley Conservation Authority or Thames Talbot Land Trust (TTLT). The rest is privately owned. There are a few unofficial trails through some of the publicly owned sections.

I was recently contacted by representatives of the TTLT to see if I could help them locate an endangered orchid on a property that they are in the process of acquiring. It seems I was the last person to see this orchid back in the mid 1990s. The property has had some changes to it since then, mainly some timber harvest. So earlier this week I met two representatives of the TTLT and off we went to see if my recall would get us to the right place to find this endangered orchid.

Anyone with any experience at Skunk's Misery is well aware of the hordes of mosquitoes that inhabit this upland/lowland forest complex. It is usually fine until early May, but after that all bets are off. If you are prepared for the onslaught both mentally and physically, they can be endured, but if not......

Getting organized at the roadside was a hint of the potentially challenging conditions we may be facing in surveying the interior, as those pesky winged creatures sought us out. But prepared and undaunted, we entered. And surprisingly, the mosquitoes were not as bad inside the woodland as they were at the roadside! It was a normal day temperature-wise, but I attribute the lack of mosquitoes inside the woodland to the extremely dry conditions of the spring in recent weeks. Standing water was almost nowhere to be found; areas where normally one would need rubber boots to get through, one could walk through in running shoes with no fear of wet or even damp feet.

As a side note, a recent media article suggested that the Black Fly should be the national insect. I disagree. While Black Flies can be be amazingly annoying, their season is relatively short, typically only a month or two, and even then primarily in areas where there is fast flowing water. The highly oxygenated water is critical for their reproduction. Mosquitoes, on the other hand are much more widespread across the country, and are active for a much longer period of time. So if there ever was an attempt to establish a national insect like there is currently to establish a national bird, I would think that the mosquito should win in a land-slide....but not necessarily because of popularity.

Back to Skunk's Misery. There are some sizable trees here, since portions of it have not been harvested for quite a few decades. The large Tuliptree in the image below measures about 158 cm in diameter.


We did manage to get to the spot where I recall seeing the orchid. But much to our chagrin, there was no evidence of it. Maybe the changes to the forest in the last couple of decades were the reason; or maybe we were a tad too early.....perhaps if we return in a couple of weeks, it may have appeared. But given the amount of rainfall in the last few days, I would expect the mosquito population to have exploded to gargantuan numbers.

This was one of the more pleasant visits to this natural area, due to the lack of mosquitoes. In several hours I only had a few dozen mosquitoes harassing me. Even after we had completed our search for the orchid, I decided to explore other areas without fear of losing too much blood. I didn't even bother with repellent.

There were other things to take note of on this site visit, although with the profusion of leaves out, birds were more likely to be heard than seen. Things like Hooded Warbler, which Skunk's Misery is known for, as well as Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Yellow-throated Vireo, Rose-breasted Grosbeak and Scarlet Tanager were all heard.

Butterflies were present in small numbers, including several Giant Swallowtails.

Giant Swallowtail resting on Mayapple

Spicebush Swallowtails and Eastern Tiger Swallowtails were also observed, but they were on a mission and were definitely not sticking around to satisfy my photographic tendencies. The usual mix of Red Admirals and Question Marks were seen briefly. A few Juvenal's Duskywings, on the other hand, were more cooperative, although they are quite small and challenging to photograph.
Several female Common Whitetails were zipping by, and one hung around for a few moments as shown in the next image.

We missed the majority of the spring wildflower display, but there were things like this Large-flowered Bellwort still to be seen.

Skunk's Misery is always worth a visit!

Friday, 29 May 2015

Have you seen anything?

Quite often when I go along a trail, people I encounter ask that question. While I know that this is posed mostly by birders who want to know what interesting birds I have seen that they should be hopeful in finding themselves, I often pause before answering because in reality, there has been a lot to see. But what I am seeing may not just be birds. Birds of course are fascinating, but they are just one part of the forest ecosystem that we are hiking through, and really are only a small part of it. The trees, the wildflowers, the ferns, the reptiles and amphibians, the multitude of insects......the diversity is enormous! Sometimes you may not see the animal itself, but you may see evidence of its being there earlier.....leaves that have been munched on by the caterpillar of a butterfly that is now flitting along the trail; a pile of poop which attracts butterflies and other insects; a nipped off branch that is evidence of a deer, or rabbit. And if there aren't specific things in those groups of things to see, there is always the shadows and shapes of the many things that are everywhere. The light is always changing, moment by moment as the sun travels across the sky causing the shadows to change at the forest floor level. At one point a wildflower may be in complete shadow and a few minutes later it is in brilliant sunshine.

The peak of the spring bird migration has now passed and resident species are settling down to nest. The forests of Rondeau can be full of bird song at various times of day. At other times it is relatively quiet, but there are other things to take note of. While I was on the boardwalk near where the Prothonotary Warblers are nesting, this Five-lined Skink approached me. It came to within about half a metre of my foot before it scampered off in the other direction.
Just over the edge of the boardwalk, this Green Frog was resting, appropriately, amongst Frog-bit....it is the circular plant on the frog's back. Frog-bit is not native, but showed up at Rondeau in the marsh back in the mid-1970s and has been expanding to quiet waterways ever since. The tiny floating plants are one of the three species of duckweed that occur at Rondeau, and the tiniest floating plants in this image are Watermeal.
At ground level in the forest are plants such as this Canada Violet, one of two species of white violets occurring at Rondeau. The other species is almost finished flowering now.
Another flowering plant which is quite abundant in the richer part of the forest is Sweet Cicely. The individual flowers are quite small. In a few weeks you will hardly notice the plant at all, but a bit later you will notice them for an uncomfortable reason: if you are walking off the trail, you will end up with sharp pointed black seeds stuck into your socks or pants, poking into your skin. As you pull the seeds out, you are dispersing them to perhaps a new area.
Sweet Cicely
In a different location, I was checking for another pair of Prothonotary Warblers that nested in a box last year. I didn't see any activity this time, but I did encounter a large Leopard Frog.....
.....and a Snapping Turtle. One doesn't often see snappers in the sloughs, but they are there.

There are a lot of Tuliptrees at Rondeau....it is the unofficial flagship tree species for the park, as it is the largest provincial park in the Carolinian Life Zone which Tuliptrees are more or less limited to in Canada. Appropriately there is even a trail with that name. One of the highlights at this time of year is to see the numerous flowers on these trees. Unfortunately the flowers are typically very high up in the tree, since they require a lot of light. There are a few open grown Tuliptrees, and where you find them, there are lower branches which often have flowers. Two of the best spots to see them at about eye level are in the campground (not far from site 71) and at the north end of the parking lot for the Marsh Trail.

 Some of the flowers will have pollinators visiting, such as this honey bee in the image below.

There are still birds to be heard and seen. Acadian Flycatchers have one of their Canadian strongholds at Rondeau, and there are currently at least 4-5 known singing males or pairs right along the trails or roads. Who knows how many are back in the less accessible part of the forest.

In more open areas of the forest, one may come encounter an Orchard Oriole, another southern species. The black and chestnut brown pattern of the adult male are unmistakable.

Butterflies are becoming more abundant. There were several Spicebush Swallowtails, appropriately, at the Spicebush Trail parking lot.
 Question Mark butterflies are also fairly widespread.
At the Visitor Centre, a Blue Jay was taking a bath, apparently unconcerned who was watching and photographing the event.

Near Shrewsbury, there is a small colony of Great Blue Herons nesting in a half-dead willow tree. These shots were taken from the marsh edge, but I hope to get the kayak out one of these days and get different shots.
Adult heron approaching the nest tree
Arriving at the nest, the adults greet each other
On the sandy shores of the lake, including at Erieau, there are some rare plants. This next image is a close-up of the flowers of Sand Cherry, ranked as S3 (rare) in Ontario. There is an abundance of these flowering shrubs at the Laverne Kelly Memorial Park at Erieau, but it is very uncommon at Rondeau.

The Blenheim Sewage Lagoons are always good for a different diversity of wildlife. The sprinkler cells vary in their condition from one visit to the next. On occasion hundreds of shorebirds, especially Dunlin, are present. But mixed in may be some much rarer shorebirds, such as this White-rumped Sandpiper.

For some reason, a lone Tundra Swan is still present at the lagoon. Presumably it cannot fly.

Not that long ago, I had a Cattle Egret in breeding plumage arrive at the lagoon, circle around a bit and then land in the grassy area.

In an unmowed part of the lagoon, I flushed out a small sparrow.

Given the way it allowed me to get very close before flushing, I assumed it had a nest nearby and so upon closer examination I discovered this nest of three hatchlings and two eggs.