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

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

Wheatley Sedge Skippers and Grassland birds

One of my butterfly watching goals this summer was to see a Dion Skipper - a sedge skipper that looks like a Dukes Skipper but with only one, not two "rays" on its lower hindwing. Alan Wormington suggested that I visit some good sedge habitat - and informed me of this small area on the north end of Wheatley Provincial Park. I arrived at the prescribed location, an unassuming country road in Wheatley, the road dipped downward as the land had a little valley where a small river was passing under the road. I pulled over and found this scene above, beautiful in itself. Chickory and Red Clover along with Common Milkweed were found along the roadside. Belted Kingfishers, Great Blue Herons, Willow Flycatcher and Accipiter raptors were noted.  Its hard to tell, but at the back of the Sedge floodplain, a small waterway meanders by. To the left of this photo, a large swath of Phragmites is choking out the vegetation and the view. One has to wonder if this sedge floodplain will be consumed by Phragmites in the next few years?

After walking around for a few minutes, I did note skippers flying above the sedges but too distant for photos. I took some photos of the sedge habitat with my cell phone with "HDR" (High Dynamic Resolution) enabled --- with some cool results.

Sure enough, I found some sedge skippers around a nice roadside patch of Common Milkweed. I don't think I found a Dion Skipper (Or Mulberry Winged) - but Dukes Skippers were pretty common. I took some photos of the Dukes Skipper tapping into some Common Milkweed.

Being in Wheatley, I stopped by the Campers Cove area - a birder is obliged to visit here when passing through Wheatley.

At campers cover area, I almost immediately heard a Grasshopper Sparrow, (perhaps two) singing.  Some other expected birds present were Dickcissels, Bobolinks, Indigo Buntings, Song Sparrow, Northern Flicker, not to mention other common birds.  Some nice grassland / old field habitat here includes lots of Dark eyed Susans, Showy Tick Trefoil along with other weeds such as Milkweeds and Goldenrods which havent yet flowered. 

Good Birding and Naturalizing!
Dwayne

PS: Some local media has been talking about the increased traffic that the new "Mini Mall" plaza will bring to Ojibway Park. Talk of Closing the main bisecting road (Matchette Road), roadkill, natual corridors and Fragmentation are being thrown around, which is nice to see.  The artist for the paper Mike Graston made this cartoon recently which I couldn't help but share. An opinion piece was written in support of Ojibway and in closing Matchette --- which I will give a link to and  paste below.

Image Source: http://windsorstar.com/gallery/mike-grastons-editorial-cartoons-for-july-2016

The Windsor Star Editorial can be found here: http://windsorstar.com/opinion/columnists/jarvis-windsor-can-cut-the-death-toll-at-ojibway-and-make-it-truly-great  or (Evernote Backup)

A Walk Through Canard Valley Conservation Area

I stopped by Canard Valley (CA) Conservation Area today on the way to going to Colasantis with my son. It is not a well known area and it not well marked. You have to really want to go there to find the place! Anyway, I only walked along the Canard Valley (Creek) for about 100 or so meters but it was very nice! It just felt special to walk down to the water level of this waterway and to stand on its floodplain and realize that this is a tiny remnant of our region's natural history. This conservation area is known for one of Canada's best population of Kentucky Coffee Trees, a rare hybrid of Trout Lily among other things. This site is even mentioned in a fantastic publication by the EPA about the Lake St Clair/Huron/Erie Ecosystem [link].

Upon getting out of my car I noted a Banded and Striped Hairstreak as well as some unidentified skippers. Lots of Summer Azures were present as well.

I noticed many Dun Skippers nectaring on a perennial that I've been seeing a lot lately - Heal-all. Heal all is an edible plant! It also has beautiful petals. 

My best observation though was a nice Dukes Skipper! The first one I had seen was very obliging and I captured both dorsal and ventral views of the fluttery beast. I noted a second Dukes a moment later but I only had a chance to photograph the dorsal markings that distinguish it from a female. The male has the black line (stigma) though the orange patch on its upper forewing. Below, I've featured a Dukes Skipper image that features dorsal and ventral composite views, showing both the male and female sexual dimorphism of this species. 

Dukes Skipper - Dorsal and Ventral Composite

Other pics from this week:

This female Black Dash looks very similar to a Mulberry Winged Skipper that I have been looking for.

Good Birding!
Dwayne

Further Reading:


Brilliant Atlas of the Lake Huron/St Clair /Erie Ecosystem
http://www.epa.gov/ecopage/stclairbiodiv/stclairbiodiv.pdf

Map of Natural Areas in Essex County
http://wecec.org/pdf/publications/Natural_Areas_Map.pdf

Canard Valley Land Donation in the News
http://rivertowntimes.com/canard-valley-conservation-area-grows-thanks-to-public-private-partnership/

Kentucky Coffee Tree in Canada
http://www.sararegistry.gc.ca/virtual_sara/files/plans/rs_kentucky_coffee_tree_e_final.pdf

Dukes Skipper
http://www.cbif.gc.ca/eng/species-bank/butterflies-of-canada/dukes-skipper/?id=1370403265601

Heal All Plant
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prunella_vulgaris

Where are the Monarchs? Summer 2015
http://www.cbc.ca/player/News/Canada/Windsor/ID/2672318991/