National Prairie Day

 Tomorrow, June 5, is National Prairie Day. At least it is if you reside in the USA. Canada has not included this in any way, which is unfortunate since prairie in Canada is very important in the natural scheme of things. Think of the prairie provinces, for example. But even here in Ontario prairie, and in particular tallgrass prairie, has been an important part of the Ontario landscape. It still is to a much smaller extent, since most of the original tallgrass prairie in the province has been converted to agriculture. There are still a few small pieces left, including parts of Essex Co in the Windsor area (Ojibway Prairie complex), some very small pieces in Chatham-Kent, surviving as remnants along railways, wetlands and the like, and in Lambton where some of the finest tallgrass prairie in the province occurs within the Walpole Island First Nation. Farther east there are remnants in the Dutton area, the Brantford area and the Rice Lake Plains area at the Alderville First Nation. 

Alderville FN prairie

Closely associated with tallgrass prairie is oak savanna, occurring in various places such as Rondeau Provincial Park and Turkey Point Provincial Park. Some may note that I don't include Pinery Provincial Park in the oak savanna mix. Although what is there now is quite like oak savanna, it is largely artificially created and maintained, a result of major changes to the original Pine-Oak forest that were there up until about the mid 1800s when large scale logging took place. If you want to read more about that history check out a blog post I did in 2019.

One of the prairie plants I always looked forward to seeing at Rondeau was this one, Indian Paintbrush (Castilleja coccinea), also called Scarlet Painted Cup. For years I used to see a small patch of it near the intersection of Bennett Avenue and Harrison Trail. However gradually the site became more and more shaded, and I haven't seen it there for more than two decades. But this spring, a fellow birder saw a clump of it at the edge of a wet dune towards the southeast part of the park. I was elated to see it!

Even at a bit of distance, the brilliant orange colour stood out.

Most of the orange is not on the flower part per se. The actual flower is this smaller tubular feature shown in this next photo. While this is only a single clump of about 5 stems, it was heartening to see.

Just to give an idea of what it can look like on a high quality prairie, note this next photo. This is Diamond Grove Prairie, in southwestern Missouri. The site had been burned and there was lots of fresh greenery appearing, which caused the brilliant orange of Scarlet Painted Cup to stand out across the acres and acres of this impressive prairie. I took this in May of 2008 while I was on a two week exploration trip of Missouri's fabulous prairies.

The Missouri Prairie Foundation is certainly a leader when it comes to identifying, protecting and educating about tallgrass prairie, and is responsible for establishing National Prairie Day.

I have spent several weeks over several years in the past, exploring the Missouri prairies. I have been to well over 100 different tallgrass prairie sites in the USA, about half of which were in Missouri. Fortunately having been an active participant in several North American Prairie Conferences has enabled me to see some of the best examples in the US. Here are just a few. The first one is Coyne Prairie, showing the Scarlet Paintbrush mixed in with Wood Betony.

This next one is Golden Prairie, a National Natural Landmark where you can stand in certain spots and not see anything but prairie for 360 degrees.

Sky Prairie, shown next, is smaller but has a wonderful diversity of colour.

Ontario's prairies are just as important in their own way. They are at the edge of the broader tallgrass prairie range, so have a slightly different mix of flora and fauna. This first one is in the Windsor area, and while about 15 years ago it supported undoubtedly the largest population of a species at risk called Colic-root, those white flowered plants, it is now even more at risk as it no longer exists. Unfortunately it was sacrificed to make way for the new highway system as one enters the city via 401.

Fortunately some of the best parts of the Ojibway Prairie Complex remain, although parts of it are in serious need of further management such as prescribed burns. This next photo shows part of the Ojibway Prairie Prov Nature Reserve featuring an impressive stand of Dense Blazing-star, designated as a Threatened species at risk.

Dense-Blazing-star is also well represented at some of the finest parts of tallgrass prairie at Walpole Island.

Earlier in the season the same site had a showing of orange flowers, but not the Scarlet Painted Cup. It is Butterfly Milkweed.

At Rondeau, at a recently burned site, the Butterfly Milkweed can be impressive as well.

At the end of the season, this next photo show what the Black Oak savanna at Rondeau can look like, where tallgrass prairie grasses dominate.

Of course tallgrass prairie is important for more than just vegetation. There are more than a few bird species that do best on the open prairie. Some are fairly common, such as Savannah Sparrow.

Less common is Eastern Meadowlark.

Even less common, and a species at risk is Bobolink, with the distinctively coloured male, shown first...

....and the more subtly coloured female.

An Endangered species is Northern Bobwhite, which is almost certainly gone from Ontario although there are occasional reports of birds away from their former tallgrass prairie range. They are probably the result of wildlife releases. This next photo was taken in Missouri.

Another Endangered species, and also likely gone from Ontario, is Henslow's Sparrow. I digiscoped this at a prairie restoration site about 20 years ago.

Not in any specific 'at-risk' category is Dickcissel, a species which over the last couple of decades has begun to breed in Ontario somewhat regularly in very small numbers and has periodically shown some surges in those numbers from time to time.

Tallgrass prairies are certainly wonderful and fascinating parts of the Ontario, Canadian and North American landscape. Unfortunately they are too easily converted to other uses, so need a strong appeal to people to ensure they survive in a healthy condition.

 

Rare birds and herps

 I've been fortunate to have encountered quite a few rare, threatened or endangered bird and reptile species lately. Of course in the part of the province, the chance of encountering such creatures is higher than many other parts of Ontario. Some are permanent residents, while other are regular breeding species. Still others are just passing through, or way off their usual migration route.

I've also been fortunate to have encountered them with some very good photographic conditions. A prime example is the Acadian Flycatcher, currently featured at the head of my blog and in a previous post. It continues to cooperate, and I have gotten some additional good photos while showing it to a park staff person.

On another occasion, I specifically went out to see if one of the breeding Prothonotary Warblers would be cooperative. I had photographed it on a couple of earlier occasions this month, but always from a distance. On this day, as I approached its breeding territory on the boardwalk, several other folks were trying to photograph something almost right over the boardwalk. As I cautiously approached, it was clear that a female Prothonotary was busily poking through some spider web material. After a few moments of this, it headed directly to the nest box about 25 metres away. Although the light wasn't ideal, I shot it anyway. It is slightly less brilliantly coloured than its male counterpart.

That was the only time she was out in our area, but the male flew in very close on several occasions. At times the light wasn't great, but at other times is was about as good as one could hope for. These next two examples of several photos I took are some of the best ones I think I have ever gotten! They were taken with the full frame 5D3 and the 500mm lens, and not cropped very much.

I was quite pleased with the photographic efforts so far, as I should be. Yet while I was arriving home, I got a text message from Steve that two Glossy Ibis had been reported at the end of Angler Line, a bit south of Mitchell's Bay, along Lake St. Clair. My plans to arrive home were delayed a bit, as I headed towards the spot.

None were visible at first, and even after Steve arrived we saw no sign of them. As we were pondering what to do next in our search, one flew up from behind some cattail vegetation, then another and then a third! They didn't land in a good spot for photography, but they moved around a bit more and eventually landed out on the open side of the cattails. It turned out there were four of them. They were still a bit farther away than we would have liked (a typical birder/photographer lament :-) but eventually we got some fairly good record shots. These are heavily cropped.

I still hadn't been at the right place at the right time to see any Whimbrel, in spite of spending the equivalent of several hours over several days looking out at the lake. The south beach was a likely spot, so Kevin and I headed out to check on whatever we could find out there. The south beach has always been one of my favourite spots in Rondeau, due to the sometimes wild weather conditions as well as the wide open view of the lake, bay and marsh. The narrow sandspit is a draw for birds. So off we went. We saw many of the more common shorebirds, including Ruddy Turnstone, Semipalmated Plover, Semipalmated Sandpiper, Sanderling, etc. And eventually we came across 28 Whimbrel, which at first were not giving us any good photo ops, but eventually they did.

There were hundreds of gulls, most of which were Ring-billed and Herring, but we also saw a Lesser Black-backed Gull, and a single Little Gull which we saw clearly but were not able to photograph until it headed out over the lake. This is a poor record shot.

We also had a very cooperative Eastern Tiger Swallowtail stop by to sip something from a small area of wet sand.

On the herp/reptile side of things, some of them are becoming more visible in the warmer and sunnier weather. Unfortunately this first one, an Eastern Hog-nose Snake, will not be with us any more. It is, quite sadly, quite dead. Some folks had seen it writhing around, and at first thought it may have just been going through some of its defensive antics the species is know for. It will wriggle and writhe, and play dead when it feels threatened and any escape route is not available. However this one was fighting for its life and breathing its last. It was disgorging two American Toads, the largest one is shown below. But after a few minutes it stopped moving. I was told about it (thanks, Mike!), and after I came off the trail I had been hiking, went to the spot and found it quite dead. The second photo shows a close-up of its upturned snout, from which it gets its name. There was some speculation that the snake had bitten off more than it could chew, and was choking on the two toads. It didn't make a lot of sense, since even though toads will inflate themselves when threatened to appear much too big for a snake to consume, this snake species has a couple of teeth towards the back of its mouth specifically designed to puncture a toad, deflate it and make it manageable. So I was interested to hear from Kevin that when he checked it out, he could tell that there were several parts of its rib cage and vertebrae that had been crushed. While there was no outward injury visible, which would have been the case had it been run over by a car, it is most likely that the snake was run over by a bicycle and did enough damage to effectively kill it. So sad, when you consider that it is a species at risk in Ontario, and quite a rare find at Rondeau since it occupies the pine-oak forest community and edges, which are some of the most developed parts of the park. And this one was a very mature individual which had the potential to add to its population for a few years yet.

A much more positive encounter was one I had with this Eastern Fox Snake, a species at risk, seen on Harrison Trail. I had just come back from birding, and noticed it quite motionless. I suspect it was hoping its pattern might make it less noticeable and that I would pass it by. After getting a few shots with my camera I did, and when I came back a few minutes later with a different lens combination hoping for some better photos, it had moved on.

Ontario's only lizard, the Five-lined Skink, is another species at risk, and occurs in various spots at Rondeau. While I was hiking along Tuliptree Trail, I noticed at least three of them meandering around a large fallen tree.

On another occasion, I came across an Eastern Ribbon Snake basking on the same tree trunk. It is also an official species at risk.

It looks very much like the much more common Eastern Garter Snake, but has a more defined black and yellow striping, as well as a small white spot in front of its eye.

So much to see and photograph!

Birds calling for pizza

 Astute birders will quickly realize the connection between the title of this post, and the bird in the header photo.

The Acadian Flycatcher isn't the bird that Rondeau is best known for...that would go to Prothonotary Warbler. But the Acadian Flycatcher is also legally Endangered under Ontario's Endangered Species Act. It is largely a southern species that likes mature, American Beech/Sugar Maple forests, and those types of forests in Ontario are hard to come by. It almost invariably nests in a lower, spreading branch of a beech tree. They haven't quite started to nest yet. The following photo is from 2016.

 All of the members of the Empidonax genus of flycatchers have a general similarity to their appearance. The Acadian Flycatcher is a little darker and more olive-green than some of the others, and has an eye-ring. Other members have an eye-ring as well. However one of the easiest way to tell this species, when in it preferred habitat, is its song. It is an explosive 'pee-zuh', with a slight rise to the last syllable. 

There have been some of these birds around for a few days, but they are becoming more vocal as they are establishing territories. I have photographed them on many occasions, including one time back in the film days when I was set up for a nest which had a young cowbird in it. A small raptor came by and almost snatched the cowbird out of the nest. Probably some slight movement by myself, situated in a photo blind nearby, spooked the raptor and it left before taking the youngster.

Just yesterday while I was checking out an Acadian territory, this bird was very vocal, and usually at quite close range. On occasion it would land on an open branch less than 3 metres away and sing its heart out. As expected, the mature beech/maple forest is fairly dark now that the leaves are out almost fully. So photographing it was a challenge, but I took enough photos that some turned out quite well, I think.

The increase in leaf cover has certainly made it more difficult to see birds in woodland areas that are either still passing through on migration, or trying to establish territories here. But for birds in open spots along the shorelines, it is a different story. There have been lots of individuals of a few species. Ruddy Turnstones were quite numerous, with probably at least 140 individuals in sight at one point.

Sanderlings were well represented. These next two images show them in quite different plumages, with the first one being more or less typical of their winter plumage....

...and this next one showing the reddish brown upper body and chest area of one approaching its breeding plumage.

Semipalmated Plovers are typically around, but seldom do you see more than half a dozen or so at a time. With the large number of shorebirds around these days, I saw at least 30 at one point, and other birders were reporting similarly large numbers elsewhere around the Rondeau shorelines that day.

Birds are not as dependent on feeders as they are at tougher times of the year, but that doesn't mean they won't take advantage of an easy food source. American Goldfinches are in their brightest finery these days.

Rose-breasted Grosbeaks will be looking for seeds at a feeder as this individual was doing.....

...and White-crowned Sparrows, although they are diminishing in numbers as they continue north, can be found around feeders obtaining energy for the next leg of their northern journey.

A walk along Tuliptree Trail is always worthwhile, especially when Prothonotary Warblers are in their nesting mode. They don't always cooperate for great photos, but with a bit of effort, one can at least get a record shot as this next one shows. The bird came in high against a bright sky. It initially appeared as a silhouette, but with a great deal of processing, I managed to get it to look like this.

While waiting for a Prothonotary to show, this pair of Wood Ducks was swimming around and feeding in a more distant part of the slough.

Patience pays off, usually. I hope to follow the nesting of the Acadian Flycatcher, if I can track down a nest or two and keep an eye on it over the next few weeks.