More Botanizing, Mothing and Butterfly Watching

Virginian Tiger 

Happy Summer Solstice & Native American Day! (that was yesterday actually)

This past week - I have been trying to get out between this springs torrential downpours here in Essex County.

Nothing too amazing has been observed this last week but as always - there is typically something noteworthy to look at.

For example - I went to go for a walk at Ojibway Park to see some of the orchid species I had seen in the past - and while I had missed one of my main targets (its still early perhaps) I did run into this beautiful white moth perched on a blade of grass at Ojibway. I think its a Virginian Tiger Moth!

Some butterflies seen today include Monarch and Common Sootywing in my yard (amongst other more common species) - as well as a Baltimore Checkerspot at Ojibway.

In the plant department - I had went back to Brunet Park to try to find any orchids - with no luck. I did find several Whorled Loosestrife and Lance-leaved Coreopsis (which may or may not be native to the area).

I went back to the Reume Street Prairie - which is now a forest - and found some Fen Twayblade plants. Several years ago - I had seen 8-10 in this location but this year, I was hard-pressed to find two plants.

Baltimore Checkerspot

Fen Twayblade

Whorled Loosestrife

The Grand Canyon of Essex County - The Cyphersystem Greenway in Amherstburg + Recent butterfly watching efforts

Recently the Essex County Field Naturalists did a walk along this beautiful biking and hiking corridor. It is part of a network of abandoned railways that have been converted into hiking paths. I had seen a recent social media posting about this location so I took my son for a quick bike ride to see it! Just a quick note - a local naturalist who had walked this trail nicknamed this stretch of pathway the "Grand Canyon of Essex County" - but of course, its not a canyon - its a low lying waterway and floodplain with a vantage point perhaps 20m above it (from an old rail corridor).

This photo does not quite do the scene justice. But - does it ever?

Some birds seen and heard during this walk were:

• Red Headed Woodpeckers
• Tufted Titmouse
• Indigo Buntings
• Northern Rough winged Swallows
• Caronlina Wren
• House Wren
• Baltimore Oriole

I also did a walk with a few Butterfly Naturalists on Saturday July 7th. I joined Blake Mann, Paul Desgardins and Jeff Larson who faithfully do this butterfly count every year.

It was a pretty good day at Brunet Park in Lasalle - as we had seen perhaps 60 or so Hairstreak butterflies with the majority of them being Hickory Hairstreaks. Banded Hairstreaks were seen as well .  We had seen Dukes Skippers in pretty good numbers with three seperate sightings.  At one point of our walk - Blake pointed out a birdcall that I was mildly familiar with - the call of a Hooded Warbler! Later on, in a completely seperate part of the park, I heard another one or two more singing! A pretty good bird for Essex County!

Good birding, lepping, and botanizing!

Dwayne

Eastern Fringed Prairie Orchid at Ojibway Park + Butler's Garter Snake and Other Stuff

Things have been busy but even still, I've attempted to go for a short hike after work at various areas of the Ojibway Complex almost daily over the last few weeks. Summer is so short that one needs to make serious efforts to get out in nature to witness it. Highlites over the last week or two include a few species FOY Hairstreaks, and some cool video footage of a Butler's Gartersnake!

My best sighting was a from a hike I took this afternoon. I found two Eastern fringed Prairie Orchids at Ojibway! I must have walked 10 km over the years to see these but finally found some habitat at Ojibway that has a few. Sadly, just like the last time, they are a little past their peak freshness but still I was pretty excited to see these. These photos were just taken with my cell phone so exposure and quality are a little lower than what might be expected with the old' DSLR. (*Update: A blogger from Ohio wrote a wonderful writeup on the Eastern Fringed Prairie Orchid here: http://jimmccormac.blogspot.ca/2017/07/one-of-ohios-rare-prairie-fringed.html a great read!)


Edwards Hairstreak and Coral Hairstreaks are pretty easily found in the Springarden area.

This Butler's Gartersnake was on a path that my mother-in-law and I were walking on near South Cameron Woodlot. It stopped just at the edge of the path and allowed me just enough time to record it with my cell phone! Check out the video below. Josh V informed me recently that the Butler's Gartersnake is not a subspecies of the Eastern Gartersnake but rather, its own distinct species. The redish brown colour along the sides is one of the fieldmarks for the Butler's. This species is at risk or even endangered in Ontario. Its range in Ontario is restricted to the Southwestern Ontario. Read more at these two links:

https://www.ontario.ca/page/butlers-gartersnake
http://www.registrelep-sararegistry.gc.ca/species/speciesDetails_e.cfm?sid=588

I had a brief look at a Baltimore Checkerspot nectaring on Purple Milkweed at Ojibway Park. This was seen in the Provincial Tallgrass Prairie Reserve. 

I think this heart-shaped leaf and vine is from Wild Yam. This is pretty easily seen at Ojibway.

I read recently that just one small section of Ojibway Park - the city owned tallgrass prairie heritage park has 540 plant species. Amazingly, about 20% of those are endangered, and I wanted to make a better effort to document those plants.  My goal is to identify 250 plants at Ojibway this summer! This is going to force me to pay more attention to things that I would have simply ignored or walked by... Such as this Spotted St John's Wort. Common, but never acknowledged until now!

Spreading Dogbane - again - the first time I've acknowledged it on this 7-year old blog. I need to pay more attention!

Good birding, lepping, mothing, herping, and botanizing!
Dwayne

Windsor's Peregrine Falcon Fledglings & Venus Eclipse

Fredie & Voltaire

Not much happening bird-wise this week. I've had a few brief walks at Ojibway, but the 6 Peregrine Falcons at the bridge are the big story. According to Patrick from the Canadian Peregrine Foundation, here are some names/stats for the four new Peregrine Fledglings (summer 2012):

Name	Colour Band	Band ID
Viper (female)	Blue Band	23/W
Twitter (female)	Yellow Band	S/23
General Brock (male)	Red Band	22/V
Eddy (?)	Green Band	S/24

 

What a difference a day makes

This next four or so photos are taken over the span of a week (May 28 to June 6th). Soon they will be learning how to fly, hunt and perform aerial displays at the foot of the ambassador bridge. Six Falcons? Very Cool!

May 28th

May 31st

June 5th  - Twitter (yellow) & General Brock (red)

June 7th - Viper (blue)

It was pretty cool to see 6 Peregrine Falcons today while standing next to the bridge in Windsor. Twitter & General Brock have started flying and are perched about while their parents try to feed all four fledglings.

Twitter dropped part of a dead bird, so parent has to go pick it up.

I feel strange calling one of the meanest, fastest most fearsome birds on earth "twitter". LOL. I read somewhere recently that Falcons are closer (genetically) to Parrots than to Hawks.  Strange no?


A quick walk at the Ojbiway Prairie had nice looks at Baltimore Checkerspots & Orchard Orioles among others. The Baltimore Checkerspot was in the exact same spot I saw it last year! Other birds seen at Ojibway this week are Eastern Towhee, Northern Flicker, Field Sparrows, Indigo Buntings, plus you most common and basic birds. I'm saddened not to see any Eastern Bluebirds. Usually I hear and see them easily at this time of year.

This summer, I will try to pay more attention to Skippers and Hairstreaks. I have a butterfly guide now!

The tiny Least Skipper. Least only in name.

Here is a cool video about Peregrine Falcons and how they kill their prey:




I'd love to go out to Hamilton to see the breeding Prairie Warblers, but I just do not have the time.  I might save seeing a Prairie Warbler for retirement...

Good birding!
Dwayne

Raymond Barlow shot this incredible photo of a Peregrine Falcon. You owe it to yourself to check it out:

http://www.pbase.com/raymondjbarlow/image/142337407

 Or Jerry Peltier's once in a lifetime photo of a Peregrine Falcon destroying a blue-jay in mid air.http://www.mybirdingplace.com/details.php?pic_id=3338



Bonus: Venus Eclipse!

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA) Hinode spacecraft captured this stunning view of the transit of Venus.

Baltimore Checkerspot and the quest for Shorebird Habitat in Windsor

A recent posting by Josh V. (Ontario Birds and Herps) had featured beautiful Baltimore Checkerspot butterflies, a species that I've never seen in person before, so I figured I would go out and see for myself. Sure enough, just minutes after entering the Provincial Ojibway Reserve (across the road from the visitor center) I spotted the Checkerspot. Oddly enough, I saw it again days later at the exact same spot along the path. It's a very tame butterfly in my short experience with it. You can almost walk right up to it. When it flies, it hardly tries to avoid you, almost running into you. And in both cases, I walked away from it. It's not shy.

I have been trying to get out to the Spring-garden area in West Windsor which is part of the Ojibway Complex. It is well reputed as being a great spot for butterflies as well. The Mourning Cloak butterfly above was seen there as well as many uncooperative Giant Swallowtails. Black Oak Heritage Park has been good for butterflies and birds as well.

When you approach Ojibway, make a point of looking in the pond as you drive in. Saturday, I saw a female Wood Duck with 11 or so baby ducklings.

Belted Kingfisher on the Owl Nestboxes of the Ojibway pond. Always interesting to see. The Wood Ducks and the Kingfisher were taken from inside my car as entered the park.

I also brought my wife and son to see the new Ojibway Nature Center this Saturday (it was really our first walk through the new center). My son is two years old and I hope he can learn so much from the staff, programs and resources at Ojibway. My son already enjoys bird watching! We look at Robins and American Goldfinches in our back yard and he points at them, smiles and says: "bir-bie!". In my front yard, I have a fruit-bearing Mulberry tree which has attracted many birds as of late. This week I have my first Cedar Waxwing as a yard bird. I also have been given great views of House Finches, Goldfinches, and Robins.

Shorebird Habitat in LaSalle?

On Father's Day, I visited relatives in LaSalle, just near the corner of Huron Church Rd and Cousineau (Near Windsor Crossing or St Clair College). There is a school with a stormwater detention pond (map) and soccer fields next to it. It seems like this pond has been a little bit of a  migrant trap or an oasis in an otherwise urbanized / monoculture farmland environment. Today, I spotted a Mallard Duck family, Great Egret, Killdeer (many), and Spotted Sandpipers (many) ! This seems to be pretty nice shorebird habitat, and I think I will keep an eye on it more in the late summer/fall (or pay my little nephew to keep an eye out for me).

Is this the only shorebird habitat in Windsor/LaSalle? I'm not aware of any other spot that has mudflats in Windsor!

Good birding,
Dwaynejava

PS:

I've recently purchased a butterfly field guide from the Ojibway Nature Center, so if I've been painfully botching some of my identifications, I hope to be a little more accurate.  :^)