Red headed Woodpeckers at Ojibway Park in Windsor + Ojibway Legal Fund

Ojibway keeps proving itself to be a sparkling diamond in Windsor's West End.

Occasionally people ask me what my favorite bird is. Its a hard question to answer!?!!? Its difficult to even round out your ten favorite warblers, or your top three owls or shorebirds. But overall, I could almost say that with the 403 bird species that I've seen... the Red headed Woodpecker has to be #1.

To my absolute amazement, a local birder/photographer mentioned a breeding family of Red headed Woodpeckers earlier today, and well, I had to stop by and see if I could find them. Sure enough, almost as I got out of my car I saw one fly over my head. I think there are two adults and two juvies... A cute family of four if I'm not mistaken. I only stopped by Ojibway for 10 minutes but almost immediately witnessed the scene above with a juvenile being fed. A breathtaking scene - breeding Red headed woodpeckers in West Windsor! This is just one more reason Windsor should be making Ojibway better and keeping it as a place that future generations can enjoy - rather than degrading it with commercial development, and increased traffic. I'm sure you are probably aware of this but the Red-headed Woodpecker is a "Species of Concern" in Ontario which means it is close to becoming a "threatened" species. See this link for more: https://www.ontario.ca/page/red-headed-woodpecker

I don't know if blog readers have read about the "Save Ojibway" organization that was fighting to have the government stop development next to Ojibway Park. The group founder, Nancy Pancheshan has been fighting and attending municipal meetings, OMB (Ontario Municipal Board) hearings etc. The OMB went with the City and the Developer who are now allowed to go full steam on their "Big Box Development". Save Ojibway was rightfully concerned that Ojbiway Park is one of the most bio-diverse parks in the province, and it has many species at risk. So if there are endangered species laws... why are they building here?  (Good Question!) The developer sued Nancy for $750,000.00 ,  and supposedly spent $40,000 on the lawsuit to sue her. The judge (perhaps wanting to warn environmentalists to bugger off) fined the two women who spearheaded Save Ojibway with almost $12,000 to Coco Paving for their legal costs.  Someone in the community made a "Go Fund Me" account for these two women, and I'm happy to say that 200 donations have added up to $9000 in just 3 days. See these two links below:

http://windsorstar.com/news/local-news/gofundme-campaign-launched-to-help-ojibway-park-activists 
https://www.gofundme.com/save-ojibway 


To me, Nancy P is a hero in our community. She is trying to get the government to follow its own endangered species laws ... and she has been dragged into the media with many people that would rather that she just "shut up and go away". She didn't. She fought hard to save Ojibway, but after a 6+ year battle, the Ontario Municipal Board sided with the builder. I don't want to obligate any of my readers, but if you care to support her, and stand behind her for standing up for the environment - I would greatly appreciate it. Obviously, I made a contribution because I think her fight demonstrates what it means to be a citizen in a country like Canada.  I could write pages of content about how special a place Ojibway is but the few people that read this blog probably already know.

On a lighter note, I would like to end with some sightings from Ojibway. I walked through a sedge meadow (shown above) earlier today to try to find my nemisis butterfly - but no luck. I feel that I saw Tawny-edged skippers, Duke's Skippers and Broad-winged Skippers. But no Mulberry Winged !!!

Good Birding!
Dwayne

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

PPNP in the News + Butterfly Watching, Botanizing Pre Ojibway Bio-blitz

Point Pelee National Park is getting 11.2 Million dollars from the Government for improving the park on several fronts. See this link for more details: http://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/federal-government-announces-major-investments-in-point-pelee-national-park  [evernote].  I can't help but think that 1 million of that money could have easily bought the old Windsor Raceway land from Coco Paving to improve the <1% of Ontario's tallgrass prairie habitat.

The Ojibway Park Bioblitz is taking place this Saturday July 18 and I wanted to get out and observe some wildlife as this event approaches. If you are interested in joining this event read more and register here: http://essexcountynature.com/2015/07/08/join-us-for-the-2015-ojibway-prairie-bioblitz/ .


I did some pre bio-blitz scouting earlier this week with a focus on Leps at Ojibway. The butterfly-watching has been a little slower it seems than normal. Fritillaries and Browns are very present, but it seems that hairstreak volume and diversity has been low this year.  Some butterflies I noted this week were:

American Copper
Coral Hairstreak
Edward's Hairstreak
Acadian Hairstreak
Little Glassywing
GS Fritillary
Red Admiral
Pearl Crescent
American Lady
Commas and Question Marks

Acadian Hairstreak hiding in this Michigan Lily

Some botanical highlights included Culver's Root and Indian Pipe (a plant that has no chloroplasts!) were noted this week at Ojibway.

Culver's Root 

Indian Pipe

Some birds that I noted at Brunet Park in Lasalle was a nice view of a female Indigo Bunting and an obliging Eastern Wood Pewee.

Good birding!
Dwayne