Waterbirds and other winged things

I haven't wandered too far lately, but that doesn't mean there hasn't been a lot to see nearby. I had to check out something near Mitchell's Bay not that long ago, and while on my travels, I swung by St. Clair NWA. It was a great day for seeing Eastern Phoebes, along the wires and the trees lining the NWA. They were busily soaring out and catching some flying insects on this sunny day,

 A flock of about 14 Sandhill Cranes were in a field across from the NWA, but seemed nervous when I stopped the vehicle and stuck my camera out the window.

Most of my outdoor wanderings were spent at the southern extreme of Chatham-Kent, however. The Keith McLean Conservation Lands is often an inviting place, especially with the continued wetlands My hope was to get photos of the recently arrived Nelson's Sparrows, but although I saw at least a couple from time to time, they were very furtive and did not linger in the open for more than half a second, it seemed, so no photos.

As usual, there was a good variety of other birds to see, both the shorebird type and others. At the larger end of the size scale were these first three species.

Great Blue Heron

Great Egret

Mute Swan, an invasive species

 Shorebirds are declining, but a half dozen species or so are still lingering. The current cool down of weather may change that.

Dunlin

Long-billed Dowitcher

Solitary Sandpiper

Wilson's Snipe

 Although the Nelson's Sparrows were not cooperative for my camera on this day, I did manage to get these next two.

Swamp Sparrow

Marsh Wren

Marsh Wrens are often more likely to hide back in amongst the cattails, making photographs difficult. This one flushed up and sat relatively out in the open for a few seconds, and enabled me to get one photo in the classic pose shown at the top.

Other things with wings varied a bit, and included:

Corn Earworm, a moth

European Yellowjacket

Painted Lady

Large Milkweed Beetles, with developing wings

 If this next critter successfully develops it, too, will have wings. It is the caterpillar of a Hickory Tussock Moth.

 And a few things that didn't have wings, but were worthy of note and a photograph. This first one shows the berries of Winterberry, and things with wings (i.e. migrating birds) will feast on them.

 Most goldenrods are about finished flowering. There are a few of these Zig-zag Goldenrod plants still in flower, but won't last much longer.

 A bit of a surprise was this nice flower head of Red-osier Dogwood. It normally flowers in June, but on occasion, if they go into a senescent period later in the season, a subsequent cooler and wet period can cause a very late flush of fresh flowers. And if you look closely, there are some winged things, syrphid flies I think, on the flowers

 This next item attracts winged things. It is a Dog Stinkhorn, a type of fungus. It doesn't create light-weight spores to be dispersed by wind, as most fungi do. Instead it has a very smelly tip, which attracts flies, and as the flies walk around the sticky surface, the spores get stuck to the flies' feet, and are transferred to another location where the flies go later.

Sewage Lagoons and Aster Action

Just a few short days ago, we were dealing with record high temperatures, which on occasion hit 31C locally. As hot as it was, the butterflies and other pollinators loved it. I had occasion to go to both the Blenheim and Tilbury Sewage Lagoons, where I do regular shorebird surveys for the Ontario Shorebird Survey project. And right at this time of year, some of the asters are in peak flowering. Goldenrods are well past their best for the most part, but the purplish New England Aster and various white aster species are in fine shape.

Of course the most abundant butterfly species were things like the whites and sulphurs.

Painted Ladies were fairly abundant. They were quite noticeable by their absence earlier in the season, but have seemingly come out of nowhere in the last month or so. They outnumber by far, the closely related American Ladies at the moment.

 Monarchs are still drifting through, and some have just recently emerged from their chrysalis.

 Viceroys are fairly regular, although some look quite tattered.....

 ....as do any lingering Silver-spotted Skippers.

 Bronze Coppers are small butterflies and in small numbers.

 A couple of late season highlights were a couple of (not-so) Common Buckeyes, which looked quite fresh. They weren't my first of the year, but my first photographed of the year.

 ...and 2-3 Fiery Skippers at both lagoon sites, my first of the year. For the most part they were alternating between sitting in the sun or sipping the nectar, or sometimes doing both simultaneously.

 There were numerous other flying insects "busy-as-bees" sipping the nectar of these late season flowers, although most were not bees, but bee look-a-likes such as these two Syrphid Fly types. At the Tilbury lagoon aster patch, there had to be anywhere from 100-200 syrphid and other flies as well as actual bees.

 And as before, there was the occasional day-flying moth such as this Corn Earworm, which is somewhat migratory, showing up in southern Ontario mostly in the autumn.

The birds were not overly abundant, but a nice variety was noted. Ducks are appearing in larger numbers, although that might be partly due to the waterfowl hunting season going on in some of the larger marshes nearby. Ruddy Duck is quite plentiful at Blenheim, along with a growing number of Redhead, Wood Duck, Green-winged Teal and others.

 The Tilbury lagoons always has a few Double-crested Cormorants. They haven't started nesting there yet, but that time may not be too far off.

 Shorebirds were part of the reason for my being at both of the lagoons. The overall numbers and diversity have dropped quite a bit in the last couple of weeks, but there are still some around. Greater Yellowlegs are a little more plentiful than they were.

 When the opportunity arises, it is nice to compare shorebird species for size.

Greater Yellowlegs and Pectoral Sandpiper

Lesser Yellowlegs

 At Tilbury, I was able to get these three species all together. Long-billed Dowitcher, Lesser Yellowlegs and Greater Yellowlegs.

 The bill of this Long-billed Dowitcher was really quite long, so in combination with the grayish and unbarred tertial feathers, it made it relatively easy to conclude this as a Long-bill rather than a very similar looking Short-bill.

Late season orchids, shorebirds, etc

I'll take a short break from all the mothing posts, although be warned...there is more to come! But I haven't abandoned some of the other interesting elements of the season.

Actually while I was out getting ready for an evening with moths recently, I had about a dozen Common Nighthawks swooping back and forth not far away, but generally heading south while presumably hoping for a snack along the way.

 Shorebirds have been fairly predictable so far in the area, and that isn't likely to change too much in the next few weeks, but who knows?

Pectoral Sandpiper

 Lake McLean at Keith McLean Conservation Lands continues to be attractive to shorebirds. Probably the best shorebirds in recent days have been as many as 5 Long-billed Dowitchers. I've only stopped a couple of times and did not catch up with any of that species. But their shorter billed relatives have been there, along with a Stilt Sandpiper or two.

Short-billed---Stilt---Short-billed

 This next photo shows a nice comparison between the larger, stockier and longer billed Short-billed Dowitcher and the smaller, more slender and shorter billed Stilt Sandpiper.

Orchids have a fascination all of their own, but most people don't realize how many native orchids there are in Ontario. Even at Rondeau, there are 18 species of native orchid growing there. One of the most abundant orchids at Rondeau and similar habitats this late in the season is the Great Plains Ladies'-tresses (Spiranthes magnicamporum). It is fairly large for a Spiranthes, with fairly large flowers which smell a bit like vanilla to some, or a bit like hot plastic to others. Most Spiranthes don't have any fragrance at all, but this species does. I measured an individual at Rondeau the other day, and even though it was not completely in full flower it measured just over 40 cm tall (16").

The rows of individual flowers may be fairly straight, as in this next photo....

 ...or they may be somewhat spiralling, as in this next one.

 Regardless, the individual flowers have a fairly long lower lip, with slightly yellowish centres.

Recently I went out to a spot with a couple of friends, to look at another, smaller, Spiranthes. It is quite rare in Ontario. It is Yellow Ladies-tresses (Spiranthes ochroleuca). The individual flowers are shorter and more hump backed than the previous species, and their lip isn't quite as long, although it, too, has a slightly yellowish centre.

While we were out looking at this Spiranthes, we came across a peculiar growth form of another, and not just of one individual, but of at least 14 individuals in a scattered group.

We initially thought it might be a different species altogether such as one of the really rare, small flowered ones. However after sending the photos to a Spiranthes specialist at the New York Botanical Garden, who did his Ph. D. on revising the Spiranthes cernua group, the explanation goes something like this: at some point in ancient history, a subspecies of Spiranthes cernua hybridized with Spiranthes magnicamporum somewhere in the Great Lakes region. As a result, the progeny of that hybrid is often apomictic, which means it doesn't need to cross-pollinate but can produce viable seeds through self-pollination. The result is that such small, closed flowers are not all that uncommon, and since it continues to produce viable seed through self-pollination, the entire group of 14 or so that we saw is of this growth form. This species has been named Spiranthes incurva.

Another fairly uncommon orchid is this next one: Autumn Coralroot (Corallorhiza odontorhiza). It is small, barely 15 cm tall, and the flowers often droop or don't even open, so this is about as showy as it gets. It used to be considered quite rare in Ontario, but that is mainly because it is so hard to find, even when you know where it is. It typically occurs in forested areas, so the dappled light on the forest floor makes it even more difficult to see.

I was recently out at a high quality savanna in Lambton County, where one of the only three known populations in Canada of White Prairie Gentian occurs.

 Many readers are likely familiar with the Closed or Bottle Gentian, shown next.

 On occasion, a white colour form of Bottle Gentian occurs, which can really get one's attention, hoping for it to be the endangered White Prairie Gentian. However even though this white colour form of Bottle Gentian is uncommon, an easy way to tell the difference is that Bottle Gentian has little fringes at the tip of its petals whereas White Prairie Gentian is not fringed. What makes things a bit more challenging is that both species occur at one of the 3 sites of White Prairie Gentian, leading to some interesting hybrid colour forms, so checking the flower tips is critical to determine which species it really is.

There is, however, a species of blue gentian with very obvious fringes, as shown below. This is called, appropriately, Fringed Gentian. While I photographed this individual on a cloudy day, the petals weren't as open as they would be on a bright sunny day.

On one of the sunnier days I was out at Rondeau, I decided to look along the east beach for some regular, but seldom seen, occupants. It is the Hairy-necked Tiger Beetle. They were really quite common, but only if you were looking intently. I saw perhaps three dozen of them in less than 30 minutes, but they are difficult to approach, and you don't really see the hairy neck without close focusing binoculars, or a good telephoto camera lens and then look at them on the computer. If you click on this image, it should show up larger if you want to see them.

There are some late season wildflowers that are good for attracting late season butterflies and other things. New England Aster is popular, as are other aster and goldenrod species.

Blue-stemmed Goldenrod

 While photographing some butterflies at this patch of asters, I noticed something else. It was a moth, a day-flying one known as Corn Earworm. That is my token moth photo for this blog :-).

Viceroy

Painted Lady

 There are still quite a few Monarchs around, but diminishing as the days go by. I do have one in a chrysalis in my yard, but it is getting darker and will emerge in the next day or so.

 There is the occasional Peck's Skipper still around. I also saw a Common Buckeye a couple of days ago but since I only had my macro lens on the camera, was not able to get a photo of it.

 Goldenrods, if they are still in good flower, can be quite busy with insects. Wasps especially are searching out nectar. This final photo shows a wasp look-alike but is actually a long-horned beetle type known as a Locust Borer.