10 Year Blogiversary ... Reflections on a 10 Year Birding Apprenticeship

Eastern Fringed Prairie Orchid - Ojibway Park, Windsor Ontario

Wow - ten years ago ... I started this blog after an interest in birding started as a result of a few chance interactions with Ojibway Park in West Windsor.  At that time, I was going through some personal challenges and in a way - I found some relief in natural history. This blog attempted to document that journey.  I've met many great naturalists on this journey - such as Paul Pratt, Blake Mann and Allen Woodliffe.  I've made many new friends and acquaintances as well - mainly the Windsor Essex birding community.

During the last ten years - I think I've grown tremendously as a person, I had two new children, I earned a business degree, and traveled extensively. I did my best to balance a career, schooling, various home improvement projects, parenting etc.

Here are some other reflections based on topic below:

Travel - 
In the USA, I have traveled to Michigan, Florida, Oregon, and Arizona to further my natural history observations and experiences. On the Canadian side of the border - I have traveled to Algonquin, Carden Alvar, Manitoulin Island, Ottawa, BC, Alberta, and New Brunswick for birding and travel.

Photography - 
I've done my best to capture this journey with photography. I started out ten years ago with digital rebel (Canon DSLR), then moved to a Canon 40D, then to a Canon 7D. Just recently - I made a decision to perhaps invest in a new camera system - a mirrorless Sony Alpha 7 series camera. I bought the 350mm telephoto lens but I am waiting on the newest version of the Sony Alpha 7 series which has yet to be released (hopefully before May 2020).

Botany- 
Botany has become a strong interest over the years. I have made an effort to seek out all of the rare plants that our local Ojbiway Park contains. Seeing the rare and endangered species at Ojibway and sometimes even self-finding rare species has been tremendously exciting! (some that come to mind include Pink Laddies Slippers at French River Provincial Park this summer, Ragged Fringed Orchid in New Brunswick and Spring Ladies Tresses in Florida at Babcock Web WMA).

Butterfly Watching - 
Butterfly watching has been tremendously exciting over the years, especially observations that were made during my traveling efforts. A few special occurences that come to mind include seeing the Karner Blue butterfly in Newago Michigan, the Olympia Marble this Spring in the Pinery Area or Lambton County, and the Little Metalmark in Florida at Babcock Web WMA.


Conservation and Ethics - 
I end off this reflection with a final thought which is a conundrum that I struggle with. I am increasingly concerned with my 'carbon footprint' that I leave as a result of my birdwatching efforts.  I must admit that I think its wrong (for the most-part) to engage in cross-provincial twitching trips - yet I have engaged in them in the past and I am currently debating driving to a Toronto area bird that would be an amazing life bird. One consolation that I like to think about is that my current car is very fuel efficient (50MPG Highway) and I am hoping to eventually buy an electric car, which would be a huge carbon reduction investment.

So thanks for all the readers of Nerdy for Birdy for joining me on this 10 year apprenticeship into birding and Natural History. Its been a fun ride and I still feel I have more to learn and more to contribute moving forward.  I look forward to reading and learning from fellow bloggers and being a small part of Ontario's blogosphere.

Happy New Year and all the best in 2020!

Sincerely,
Dwayne Murphy

Butterflies and Orchids at Ojibway Park - Late June

I had a chance to walk at Ojibway Park lately, and one of my target species was Eastern Fringed Prairie Orchid - of which I was happy to find three plants this year. Last year, I had only found one and it was victim to a cruel case of herbavory [link]. 

Some recent butterfly watching efforts resulted in finding my first of season Banded Hairstreaks, American Painted Lady, Long Dash Skipper, Silvery Checkerspot, and Monarchs. I had also seen some skipper butterflies that were difficult to ID (Little Glassywing or Northern Broken Dash?).  Some checks of my favorite butterfly watching spots has turned up low numbers and low diversity - which seems to be the theme this year. Perhaps things will warm up as the weather warms up. 

I noticed a small flowering plant (weed?) which I was not familiar with this week. I think it was a Carolina Horsenettle - at least that's what I-naturalist suggested based on a photo of its flower. This plant seems to be a little bit of a noxious weed. It is poisonous for any animals that eat it, and it makes a tomato-like fruit - earning it the nickname "the devils tomatoes". 

Good nature watching!

-Dwayne

Purple Milkweed with Monarch Caterpillar (can you find it?)

Heartbreaking Herbivory of an Endangered Species

Two weekends ago - I ventured into a tick-ridden tallgrass prairie habitat that I had previously found three flowers of Fringed Prairie Orchid. Last year, I had found them a little past their ideal flowering stage [click here to see last year's posting], and I made a note of returning this year a little earlier to photograph them in their peak freshness.

So on my first visit, I walked around and only found one Eastern Fringed Prairie Orchid - but it was in a pre-blooming stage (see photo above). The flowers had not emerged.  I figured I would wait about a week and go back. Unfortunately, I went back this week and had a hard time finding the orchid from the previous weekend.  I knew something was wrong when I couldn't "see" the orchid in its expected spot. 

I think this plant might have been victim to herbivory - the act of a plant being eaten by animals. There were deer and racoon tracks around the area. Its disheartening to see herbavory and phragmites infestation take place in this habitat.  Hopefully, this plant gets a better chance next year if its roots stay intact. 

I've included a few other photographs from that habitat which was being taken over by Phragmites. Collicroot and some unidentified sedges and rushes that were noted.

Good 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

Eastern Fringed Prairie Orchid & Sullivant's Milkweed ... Botanizing in West Windsor

Eastern Fringed Prairie Orchid

Wow, today I had two botanical discoveries! I finally found the ultra rare Eastern Fringed Prairie Orchid at Ojibway Park which is a plant that I've been wanting to see for years. It's an endangered plant [link] and I was able to see it at the very end of its flowering stage.

Sullivant's Milkweed

Another fantastic discovery that I made today was this Sullivant's Milkweed - another rare plant found in prairie habitat. This plant is similar to common milkweed, but has pink central vein in the plant's leaves and two-tone colours for its flowers.


I have found several other interesting flowers while looking for the orchid above. I've done alot of reading and researching online as well as referencing a botany guide I was recently given.  A cool bug that I found recently is the Candy-striped Leafhopper.   I will let the photos below tell the story of some of my other recent nature highlights.

Wood Lily or Prairie Lily

Michigan Lily 

Butterfly Milkweed

Swamp Milkweed

Purple Milkweed

Northern Broken Dash?

Black Dash Skipper

Good Birding, Leping, Herping and Botanizing!
Dwayne