Pelee Marsh Shorebirding & Ojibway Butterflies

Scene from an Ojibway Tallgrass Prairie... Eastern Tiger Swallowtail on Dense Blazingstar

I've spent the last month working on home improvement type tasks such as: building a fence, and "finishing" my basement which has consisted of framing walls, drywalling, mudding, painting, flooring, plumbing, electical yada yada. At one point last week, I cut a hole in my basement's concrete floor to move a future shower drain about one foot to the left. If you can move a drain in a concrete floor --- you can do anything!! I've also installed two underground sprinkler systems.

If you can do this .... you can do anything

But life can't all be about work right? I have done some occasional walks at Ojibway Park --- mainly botanizing (well --- trying to :-) ) and butterfly watching.  During one recent walk at Ojibway I found two rare butterflies...  a Common Ringlet (rare in Essex) and a Variegated Fritillary!

Other great butteflies include the regulars such as Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Eastern tailed Blue, American Copper, Common Checkered Skipper as well as Hummingbird Moths! Photographing the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail on fresh Dense Blazingstar was awesome. This is what makes Ojibway Park such a special place... but so few people realize this.

I also did a little botanizing. I have been trying to find the real rare botanical jems at Ojibway. One recent one that I found is Round headed Bush Clover. I wanted to find this plant and photograph it while it was flowering. Pretty cool! Mountain Mint is a new plant that I've acknowledged this week. Its alot like Wild Bergamot --- its part of the mint family.

I've met a new nature enthusiast at Ojibway a few times and we realized that we would like to go out to the Point Pelee Marsh. We met up last week and carpooled to Pelee with the intention of canoeing the pelee marsh in search of shorebirds. The day we went was like over 100 degrees F. Shorebirds seen include the expected: Short billed Dowitcher, SP Plovers/Sandpipers, Least and Spotted Sandpipers. A Wilson's Snipe was nice to see. We also had a Black bellied Plover with an injured leg. It seems it might have a fish hook stuck in its leg joint. --- I wish there was something I could do to help it but I'm afraid nature will take its course on this beautiful bird.

Least and Semipalmated Sandpipers. The Least has yellow legs. 

The fellow I was with probably had 7 lifers that afternoon, including this Yellow bellied Flycatcher that was flycatching (low) along the wet areas at Delaurier Trail. I love this flycatcher!

Yellow Bellied Flycatcher? I think so!

Good Birding, botanizing, Lepping and anything else related to nature!

Dwayne