FIRE!!!

 Fire is a desirable event in some natural habitats. In fact some habitats wouldn't exist very long without regular fire.

Last Wednesday, April 10, there was a series of small fires, called prescribed burns, held at various parts of Rondeau Provincial Park. There have been quite a few open, mostly grassy areas within Rondeau. However as natural as some are, or seem to be, they did not originate as a result of fire. I have discussed this in a bit of detail such as on this blog post as well as others that focus primarily on Point Pelee NP and Pinery Prov Park, where in both cases, fire was perhaps used for perhaps the wrong reasons. You can check those posts by searching the Labels list on the right hand side of this post for those two parks.

At Rondeau, the open grassy spots or savanna habitat was not caused by fire, but by other means. Nonetheless, the use of fire as a tool to manage it for the grassy/savanna habitat is quite acceptable, and even necessary to maintain the habitat for certain grassland species of flora and fauna, some of which are at risk.

Here is a case in point. This first photo shows a beautiful grassland/savanna habitat immediately south of the campground, taken in July, 2009.

The growing conditions have been good over the years, and in October, 2023, this is what it looked like due to the absence of fire for at least a decade. Clearly it was becoming very overgrown, and some of the plants had not been seen, or were present in greatly reduced numbers at that point.

This next photo shows more or less the same area, from roughly the same vantage point, right after the burn of a few days ago. Of course the new season of growth has not yet begun, but one can hope that some of the desirable plant species will reappear.

But I am jumping ahead of myself.

I arrived on site in the late morning, and the conditions had already been satisfactory for the burn crew to get underway. The grassy site just south of the churches, near the tennis courts, had already been burned, and the crew had just completed the mopping up process.

Next was to burn two grassy areas along the north end of Harrison Trail. This first one shows the typical condition, where logs and branches from fallen trees are laying in the grass.

Before the fire is started, the crew goes over the details of the burn site, and the responsibilities of each crew member.

The fire is then lit via a drip torch.

When there is adequate dry grass, the fire goes well, causing an almost complete burn. If the fuel on the ground is mostly leaf litter, it is damper and the fire moves slowly and even misses sections.

Here is another section of the grassy area along the north end of Harrison Trail just prior to the burn.

There can be a lot of smoke....

...with little flare-ups when better grassy fuel is encountered.

After the burn.

Some folks may be concerned about wildlife, and rightly so. There are some wildlife cover boards scattered in a few places, where research/survey work has been undertaken in the past regarding some types of wildlife using the area. In this next photo, the cover boards and immediate area are watered down, to protect the boards and any critter underneath.

There were a very small number of Eastern Garter Snakes seen slithering away from the burned area.

A Five-lined Skink had been taking refuge under a log, and was seen scurrying away when the burn crew was spraying the log with water so it wouldn't burn or smoulder.

With the fire patches at the north end of the park looked after, next on the list of sites was immediately south of the Visitor Centre. After the initial crew assembly, the site was ignited.

With so much grass, the fire took off quite nicely.

A Red Cedar tree that had been the victim of storm conditions a year or so ago, but was still partially alive, was in the path of the flames....

...and ignited. As nice as Red Cedars can be in the proper place, they can be quite invasive and even eventually become dominant in prairie and savanna habitat.

Lots of smoke...

...but the fire had done its job here in fairly short order.

The crew always stays on site for awhile, checking for hot spots and such to make sure everything was under control.

After the burn, the small shrubs and other woody plants showed the desirable effects of being burned, so that they would not out-compete the desirable prairie grasses over the ensuing growing period. 

 Only time will tell how much of those prairie grasses will become evident later this growing season, but the exposed dark ashes allow the soil to warm up more quickly. The dormant grasses with their roots underground should respond favourably and show good growth in the next few months, and overall greatly improving the prairie/savanna habitat for all the creatures that depend on them.

Congratulations for the crew for doing a fine job in their efforts to promote healthy prairie and savanna habitat at Rondeau! And I should mention that one of the highlights for me, aside from seeing this prescribed burn in action, was to re-connect with several OMNR folks that I worked with or at least knew, during my pre-retirement years.

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Wildlife Galore!

 This is National Wildlife Week. While many parts of the province have a great diversity of wildlife, there is no question that southwestern Ontario is by far the most biodiverse of the province, and this includes Chatham-Kent which has the least forest cover of anywhere in Ontario! Nonetheless, the natural areas that still exist, have an amazing diversity of wildlife, whether it be of birds, mammals, insects, amphibians, etc., etc. Some species, of course, are common, whereas other species are very restricted and are even officially Rare, Threatened or even Endangered.

This post features a cross section of the above, as a reminder of what is here in southwestern Ontario, and all occur in Chatham-Kent.

As most readers will know, birds are one of my favourite groups of critters. The first four species shown are some of the rarest, and qualify as Rare, Threatened or Endangered (R, T, E).

Bobolink

King Rail

Prothonotary Warbler

Wood Thrush

This next one is not ranked as R, T or E, but could be, as it has never been officially recorded as breeding successfully anywhere in Ontario. A pair seemed to attempt to do so at Rondeau several years ago, but it was never confirmed, and may not have been successful.

Yellow-throated Warbler

A much more common species that nests in the far north is Long-tailed Duck, shown next. Sometimes large numbers will over winter in the lower Great Lakes and connecting rivers, depending on ice conditions.

Much more common are Great Blue Heron.

Although this next one, the Great Egret, is a regular breeding species in small numbers, and scattered in a few places.

Northern Mockingbird, next, is not a common breeding species, and some years one is fortunate to even see one, but they do occur although they don't have any official R, T or E status.

Black-crowned Night-Herons, next, nest in colonies in a few local areas, but can be more frequently seen throughout the southern parts of the province after breeding.

Immature Black-crowned Night-Heron

Bonaparte's Gulls nest to the far north part of Ontario, but can be seen by the hundreds or even thousands at certain times of the year when they are on migration and on the lower Great Lakes.

 A very rare gull species is this next one, the Little Gull, which was first confirmed nesting in Ontario and Canada at Rondeau. It has nested in a few other places since.

 And of course almost everyone would recognize an American Robin, although probably not everyone has seen a partially albino one like this next one.

Reptiles and amphibians are far less diverse than birds. Here are a few.

American Toad

Leopard Frog

Blanding's Turtle

Midland Painted Turtle (L) and Map Turtle (R)

Eastern Gartersnake

Insects are present in huge numbers, although not always seen or appreciated unless one specifically looks for them with specialize equipment such as black lights.

Rosy Maple Moth

Promethea Moth

Pink-shaded Fern Moth

Black-bordered Lemon Moth

Sooty-winged Chalcoela

And of course not just moths, but things like leafhoppers, beetles, and others will show up to the lights.

Long-necked Seed Bug

Butterflies of one type or another are more obvious to most folks, although some are considered quite rare such as this first one.

Giant Swallowtail on Bull Thistle

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail on Michigan Lily

Monarch on Milkweed

 Before the impressive looking adults appear, they go through a stage of being far less obvious, such as this caterpillar of the Black Swallowtail, next.

Not a creature that many people would encounter even in broad daylight is this next one, the Eastern Sand Tiger Beetle, which occurs primarily in the hot, dry sandy beach areas.

Mammals are not nearly as abundant or diverse as some of the ones shown above, but some can be some of the most visible if one is looking in the right place.

Muskrat

Eastern Coyote

Of course all of the diversity is only present due to the diversity of habitat, such as rich Carolinian Woodland....

...and the extensive wetlands that are still present, especially in the vicinity of Lake St. Clair and Lake Erie.

Let's celebrate National Wildlife Week!

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