Tuesday 30 June 2015

Linear hiking in Chatham-Kent

A project I have been working on these last few weeks is an inventory of the flora and fauna of an abandoned railroad corridor here in Chatham-Kent. Normally railroads are off limits to most people, but this corridor is currently owned by the municipality and three of us are tasked with conducting the inventory. Future uses for this corridor are being discussed, and there are some interesting possibilities. However before things get too far along, the intent is to see what kinds of flora and fauna are along it.

I was involved in the inventory of the 34 km section of the east half of this corridor in 2012.  At that time, we found some new plants for C-K, as well as several populations of Species At Risk. Several very small patches of endangered Tallgrass Prairie habitat were discovered as well. This year we are covering the west 34 km section and we are hoping for similar interesting discoveries.

Some parts of it are pretty bleak as one might expect in the parts of C-K which have the lowest amount of natural vegetation in the first place. Non-native species of plants are abundant. Trees and shrubs are not, at least in some stretches. But one never knows what is just down the path.


There are some patches of woodland adjacent to the corridor in places, and with all the rain we've had lately, there is lots of 'wetland', at least for now. Some of the wetland patches seem to be fairly permanent, which is a good thing.
Wetland adjacent to woodland
Frogs are widespread, although not abundant. Probably the early to mid April period would have been quite noisy with frog song, but things are fairly quiet right now. The most exciting frog species to date, is Western Chorus Frog, which I just heard but didn't see....it is a very tiny frog, not much more than an inch in length, but with a loud voice.

This Leopard Frog below was especially cooperative. It even let a damselfly (probably some kind of Bluet) use it as a perch. I wonder if the damselfly realized how dangerous this might have been.
On this cattail leaf was a colourful Smartweed Caterpillar getting some sustenance. Once the caterpillar turns into a moth, it is considerably duller.
 In one wetland area was this female Six-spotted Fishing Spider. It is a monster...the body length is almost an inch in length and in combination with the legs, totals almost three inches.
As would be expected, dragonflies are fairly numerous where there is water and lots of open area. Nothing unexpected....yet, but good numbers of the usual species.

Common Whitetail

Halloween Pennant
Twelve-spotted Skimmer
Widow Skimmer
I haven't attempted to identify many damselflies yet, or even photograph them for that matter. This one below appears to be either a Slender or Lyre-tipped Spreadwing.

A very large fly came by, appropriately named  a Black Horse Fly. Its body can be slightly more than an inch long. It can give a painful bite and is hard on livestock. Fortunately it seldom bites humans.

 There was lots of evidence of Groundhogs......numerous holes and mounds, and periodically I would hear their piercing alarm call. On occasion one would let me get close enough for a photo.
Groundhog sentry
 At one point, some almost full grown young demonstrated their curiosity by emerging from their burrow quite close by. There were two young that emerged from one entrance, while two others emerged from the other.

There are a number of streams crossing under the old rail bed. This adds diversity to the wetland habitat, and often there are numerous trees adjacent, along with the fauna that inhabit such areas.
 One particularly good thing these bridges are good for is nesting habitat. Cliff Swallows as well as Barn Swallow, recently declared a Species At Risk, have been seen using them, as have Eastern Phoebes.
Eastern Phoebe
Phoebe nest
 Other birds of interest include a fair number of Wild Turkeys, furtively exploring the corridor area and adjacent croplands.
 Indigo Buntings are pretty regular.
 I've come across Orchard Orioles on more than one occasion, including this female which, along with its male counterpart, was carrying food to young in the nest shown in the next photo.


 Of course butterflies are noticeable by their abundance. Some of the larger and more colourful ones include:
American Lady
Eastern Comma
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
Red-spotted Purple
Viceroy
There are lots of the smaller ones as well, including azures, crescents and skippers, including European Skippers.
European Skipper
And this butterfly look-alike that is actually a daytime flying moth, the Ctenucha Moth.


One butterfly species that seems to be missing so far is Monarch. I haven't seen any along this corridor yet; in fact I've only seen a handful all spring and early summer so far. The milkweeds are just coming into their prime....I hope there are a few Monarchs on their way from the midwest to make use of them!



















Wednesday 24 June 2015

White-winged Dove, Acadian Flycatcher, Bald Eagle, Rondeau

A brief visit to Rondeau today proved more profitable than I had expected. After photographing a plant near the Visitor Centre late this afternoon, I heard the unmistakable call of a White-winged Dove. I knew that one had been seen and heard intermittently a bit north of the Visitor Centre between May 25-30, but I had not been able to catch up with it. As far as I know, it was last seen on May 30. So I was quite pleased to hear it and then find it. Fortunately I had my camera and telephoto lens relatively handy!
It was sitting about half way up in a White Pine tree, in very bright light with a dark background, making the photographic effort a little challenging. It remained in the area for at least half an hour, and is likely not far away given that it presumably has been in the general vicinity for more than three weeks.

A bit later, I checked on the two Acadian Flycatcher nests we had been monitoring. It seems that one right over the edge of the road that I reported on a few posts ago may be abandoned, as I have not seen any activity there in the last 4 visits. However the other nest is still active.....the contents are suspect, however.

I didn't stick around for a long time so as not to overly disturb the adults, and also because the mosquitoes were quite glad I was there! But the bird in this photo looks suspiciously like a Brown-headed Cowbird. Any thoughts???

Acadian Flycatcher

I also took a quick trip out the Marsh Road to check on a couple of things, including the pair of Bald Eagles that habitually nest within view in certain spots of the trail. They are using the same nest as last year, but with the higher water, it is more difficult to get to a suitable vantage point to photograph it even from a distance. But I did manage to get the next two images from the trail. They were taken with the equivalent of a 14X binocular, and even at that, were heavily cropped by at least 50%.

Adult Bald Eagle in White Pine
 The eaglet in the next photo isn't all that easy to pick out, but it is in the lower right of the nest.
Bald Eaglet in nest
All in all, not a bad day for a quick trip!



Saturday 20 June 2015

Rondeau, end of spring

It is that time of year again when in less than 48 hours, the days will start to be shorter. Not that anyone will really notice for a few weeks, fortunately.

I've been out in the field a fair bit (more on that in a future post), but only at Rondeau on fewer occasions than normal. Nonetheless, there is always lots to see there!

A Ruby-throated Hummingbird is nesting in a quite accessible location along the South Point Trail. After checking her a couple of times, I think she is still incubating, but that may soon change, and hopefully I will be able to catch some of the feeding action.
There are a lot of butterflies along this trail, using the combination of woodland edge adjacent to an extended shrubby habitat, which results in lots of sunny areas. It is always a good strategy to keep an eye on animal poop on the trail, and not just so that you don't step in it. Butterflies are attracted to it! In the following photos, Northern Crescents are sipping away at this delicacy...judging by the amount of what appeared to be deer hair in it, it was likely the scat of a coyote. At times these attractions can be quite busy, with at least 4 crescents in the one photo, and a Question Mark is approaching this buffet in the third photo.



There are often swallowtail butterflies along this trail.
Giant Swallowtail
One seldom gets a chance to capture more than one species side by side, but on one occasion recently two species obliged. There was no special choreographic effort to get them so synchronized...it was simply a matter of waiting until the wind either subsided or blew them over simultaneously.
Eastern Tiger (l) and Giant (r)
Along the woodland edges, Canada Anemone is often prolific.

A brief stop at the Visitor Centre resulted in an encounter with three freshly emerged Red-spotted Purple butterflies. For some reason they were more interested in the boardwalk behind the VC than the surrounding vegetation.
The sloughs along the Tuliptree Trail were a good spot to see dragonflies. A large number of Blue Dashers had recently emerged and were fighting for their territories. They are medium sized dragonflies that have the characteristic pose showing their wings angled forward.
Blue Dasher female
Blue Dasher male
Common Whitetail female
On occasion, Blanding's Turtles can be seen basking in the bigger sloughs. 
Also on the boardwalk over the slough one often sees these Six-spotted Tiger Beetles, which interestingly enough often have more than six spots!

At another trail parking area, I noted a lot of bees buzzing and cruising just above the vegetation. It turns out that it was a colony of Digger Bees. They are often found in drier sandy soil with low, patchy vegetation, where the females dig into the sand so they can lay an egg. Fortunately they seldom sting, although like most bees, will do so if they feel threatened or provoked. Note the one bee right at the entrance while another hovers slightly above and to the right of the sandy mound.
Towards the north end of the park, several of us have been hearing and watching a pair of Acadian Flycatchers. This species is endangered in Canada and Ontario. Rondeau has long been known as a stronghold for them. There are usually at least a couple of nests noted along accessible trails each year, so given the amount of unexplored good habitat elsewhere in the park there are likely several more pairs nesting annually. Fortunately efforts in recent decades have shown that they are more widely scattered across southern Ontario than they were once thought to be. They almost always nest in an American Beech tree, often over the edge of a slough. For some reason one of the pairs decided that the edge of the road was appropriate. Note the location of the nest as indicated by the white arrow. It is easily identified by nesting material hanging well below the actual nest.

Here's hoping that they produce some young Acadians, rather than cowbirds!