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.
The last few weeks have been too busy - work always seems to pile up in June for me which is unfortunate because June is just such a beautiful month for nature discovery.
One neat thing that I realized while sitting in my back yard recently is that Yellow Warblers are breeding in the hedgerow behind my house. Of course they are not level-6 mega-rarities, but still, its neat to hear them singing or occasionally --- briefly see one perched and singing on my back fence. Song sparrow, Robins, Great crested Flycatcher, Grey Catbirds, House Wrens, Wood Thrush (from forest) and ever present Brown headed Cowbirds are singing constantly.
A recent walk to Brunet Park in Lasalle proved to be mildly interesting. I had noted Common Ringlets, Silvery Checkerspot, Baltimore Checkerspot and even brief looks at Nessus Sprinx Moth which was nectaring off Indian Hemp and the invasive Crown Vetch. The Nessus Moth was a lifer - I had seen the Clearwing and the Snowberry sphinx moths in the past this was a pleasant lifer for me.
I noticed that the power-line right of way (at Brunet Park) was cleared as well as some thinning out of the Massasauga Habitat at Brunet Park. I was hoping to come across some Orchid species but fell short. I did see a plant that was somewhat interesting plant that I'm starting to recognize and appreciate a little better now - Whorled Loosestrife! Later at Ojibway Park - I had seen another plant I was hoping to see - Winged Loosestrife. Its interesting to look up terms "Whorled" or "Winged" with respect to botany because up until now, I would hear these names with repetitive adjectives but did not understand what they meant. Winged for example refers to an "X shaped" cross section of a stem, and Whorled means plants that have leaves or flowers radiating from a single spot on a stem. These adjectives make sense once you acknowledge their meaning.
Fringed Gentian - with Hover Fly pollinator at Ojibway Park
Not much to report as of late. Probably my best birding high-lite has been a third Scarlet Tanager sighting in my back yard within the span of a week. This one above was seen last Thursday before work. I did go out to Pelee with my son this last weekend but it wasn't particularly exciting. I did see another Grey Hairstreak though!
3 backyard Scarlet Tanagers - in one week?
I attempted to re-find the Fringed Gentian that I saw last year at this time at Ojibway but ... it wasn't to be found. I remembered that these flowers are bi-annuals - they have a two year life cycle. They aren't perennials! So I walked around the Spring-garden area to find some really nice prairie habitat that I had not discovered before and wow - some amazing plants. Closed Gentian, Fringed Gentian, Nodding Ladies Tresses Orchid, Riddel's Goldenrod, Prairie Rattlesnake Root all well seen. But even beyond the "rarities" --- the Goldenrod and New England Asters create an ocean of colour - Purple - Yellow - White .... Its just breathtaking! The fall explosion of colour makes the end of summer just a little more bearable to the naturalist!
Bottle Gentian
Nodding Ladies Tresses
Here are two more botany connections to end off this posting:
I was cutting out some weeds from my "garden" which didn't get planted this summer when I came upon this weed/flower. It was so different ---- I couldn't bring myself to chop it out of my garden with my sickle - the flowers were too beautiful --- too mesmerizing! So later I was flipping through the botany field guide that reader Irene gave me to realize --- this plant is called Jimsonweed! I did a google search to learn more and found the following passage from Wikipedia: "All parts of Datura plants contain dangerous levels of the tropane alkaloidsatropine, hyoscyamine, and scopolamine, which are classified as deliriants, or anticholinergics. The risk of fatal overdose is high among uninformed users, and many hospitalizations occur amongst recreational users who ingest the plant for its psychoactive effects."(Wikipedia) WHHOOAO... A who says botany is boring?
OK... ONE LAST BOTANY note for this posting!
I had made a collage of summer wildflowers from Ojibway many years ago - in 2010 if you could believe, and I was looking at that collage recently and noticed this yellow - flowered plant. And I thought -- what is this? So Pat's blog last week mentioned seeing a non-flowering plant - Whorled Loosestrife -- and I followed up a google image search just to see what it generally looks like while flowering and sure enough - my mystery plant was finally identified --- if only 6 years after taking the photo!
Good birding and botanizing!
Dwayne
PS: I happened to find this video (just 1.5 mins) with Seth Godin (entrepreneur, author) discussing how great it is to be a blogger. Blogging gets you into a conversation and creates meta-cognitive experiences that boosts learning. Check it out...
