Yellow Crowned Night Heron - Eating Crayfish

A Yellow crowned night heron was recently photographed by an Amhurstburg woman who posted it on a facebook group wondering what it was. Amazingly, a few local birders caught wind of the photo and identified it as a  Juvie YC Night Heron.

To see it eating crayfish was pretty amazing. It would catch the fish, bring it over to the grass, rip off its two claws, then swallow the body whole. In one hour, it must have caught 5 crayfish. Amazing. Its hard to think that all those crayfish could fit in its abdomen!

A local photographer (Dennis Dupuis) has a gallery here on facebook featuring this bird catching and eating a spiny softshell turtle. Click here to see his facebook gallery.

Here are some photos taken recently. 

Good Birding!

Dwayne

Baird's on the Beach

(Editors Note: This posting is about 1 week late. I was going to post it last week, but just couldn't hit the 'publish' button until tonight.)

Baird's Sandpiper on Pelee's East Beach
This past Saturday morning (Sept 7th), my son and I went to Pelee to see if we could find any interesting birds or butterflies.  We parked in the VC parking lot and soon found a worn Tawny Emporer fly by and perch on a nearby shrub. Later, while walking through Sparrow Field, we noted few butterflies other than Cabbage Whites! It would have been nice to see a Grey Hairstreak or Cloudless Sulphur, but no such luck. Going out towards the east beach from Sparrow Field, a large group of gulls were seen, along with a distant shorebird.  Long story short, a nice Baird's Sandpiper (see bottom right of photo below) was there. Just as I was noticing the first shorebird through my binoculars, I noticed it was joined by a small flock of 7 Sanderlings... Then quickly flushed by my 4-year old son!

Marbled Godwit at Harrow
An Ontbird posting on Saturday night revealed that a Marbled Godwit was at Harrow SL. Sadly, most Essex County Lagoons are locked up like Alcatraz. Unlike Blenheim, Port Stanley*, Ridgetown*, Tilbury, which allow birdwatchers to view migrant shorebirds (and sometimes are progressive enough to offer viewing platforms*), to my knowledge, Essex lagoons are locked to the public. Its ironic that Essex does this, but then tries to sell itself as a "Birding and Nature" tourism destination.

First of Year Checkered Skipper
As I was putting some books into the trunk of my car this week, I noticed a small blueish-brown butterfly alight onto a white clover plant adjacent to my car. A closer inspection turned out to be a first-of-year Checkered Skipper! I followed it for a minute and noted that it soon flew into a 'whirl-about' with another Checkered Skipper. There must be 6 or more butterflies at this one parking lot alone (alongside a clover filled courtyard).  I assumed these were recently arrived migrants but Alan Wormington informed me that they are resident in Essex County, and west Windsor has lots of ideal habitat: disturbed, industrial areas with potential for its larval foodplant: Mallow. A cool thing about this butterfly is that it is very common in the Southeastern US but drops off (non-resident) north of the 40th parallel [more on common checkered skippers].

Common Checked Skipper - First of Year - Found alongside a parking lot near ambassador bridge in West Windsor

North American Range for Common Checkered Skipper

I have some cool Holiday Beach hawk-watching photos to share. Stay tuned!

Good Birding (and Butterfly Watching),
Dwaynejava

Update*** --> Could this Tawny Emperor be a record breaking late record??
Photographed Sept 7th near the PPNP VC parking lot.

Tardy Tawny? Lepidopteric Laggard?

Green Frog - Along marsh boardwalk

Aberrant Azure

Last weekend, I went out to Pelee in an effort to meet up a few friends that were birding the park. I was late getting there and ended up walking west beach footpath on my own. I found this aberrant Summer Azure along west beach, oddly enough, on the same plant that hosted the Olive Hairstreak a few days before!  I later showed the image to 'A-Worm' and he quickly shattered my hopes of this being perhaps a silvery blue or maybe a cherry gall azure. He simply described it as being an aberrant Summer Azure. This blog [link] seems to have found the same aberrant version of this summer azure. The blog mentions that its not uncommon to have smearing or stretching in the ventral wing maculations of coppers, blues and hairstreaks.

Tawny Emporer on the Pelee Tram. I often see at least one good butterfly on the roof of the tram...

Giant Swallowtail

Later, I kayaked the Pelee Marsh. I've done this now for the last three summers in August, and  get a great chance to see some shorebirds up close. No major rarities this time around, although I guess a nice look at Wilson's Snipe is always nice.

Black Tern - Juvenile

Pectoral Sandpipers

Wilson's Snipe

Late August is a great time to get out and see shorebirds, or to visit a natural area and see the late summer wildflower show!

Good Birding!
Dwayne

Cylindrical Rough Blazingstar at Ojibway

Grasshopper Sparrows at Wheatley

 

About two weeks ago, I was informed that Grasshopper Sparrows were at a field in Wheatley. Of course, I wanted to go and see them myself but couldn't really make it out there until the last couple of days. Sure enough, from the roadside you can hear their buzzy call! I was lucky enough to find (lifer) this bird in Ottawa in late June, but seeing it so close to home (this weekend) was a real treat. Over the last two or so years, I had been trying to find this bird at Pelee during spring migration but could never seem to catch up with it!

I did not even think Essex was in its breeding range [map], but yes, its well in this birds breeding range. Its just that the lack of ideal habitat (large grassy/weedy fields) that this bird requires renders this bird to the vast list of Essex & Chatam-Kent's extirpated birds. From my understanding, one would generally need to drive from Windsor to Glencoe (1.5 hours north of Windsor) to see one [See ebird map for grasshopper sparrows in Southwestern Ontario in 2013]. Lots of Dickcissels still singing and chasing each other around as well at this site. I can't help but wonder why this 50-acre field at Talbot Trail and Campers Cove Road has been spared from agriculture? I'm thankful to whoever it is that owns this field.  I've had amazing birding moments here seeing Dickcissels, Eastern Meadowlarks, Bobolinks and now Grasshopper Sparrows.

Couture Dyke at Hillman
I walked Couture Dyke at Hillman Marsh [map] to see if there was much butterfly action going on, but not much really happening. Its still a great walk, just brimming with wildlife. Leopard Frogs scatter as you take each step, Osprey and Great Blue Herons flying overhead... Lots of biting flies as well! Some personal highlights were Bronze Copper Butterflies, Least Skippers and Question Mark butterflies!

Bronze Copper 

This image shows the sexual dimorphism of Male and Female Bronze Copper. The female has a solid bronze colour on its upper forewing.

Dorsal and Ventral view of the Question Mark butterfly. Do you see the Question Mark on the underside of its wing?

I only had two hours on this particular afternoon, so I walked the main Hillman shorebird circuit quickly. I saw a Common Buckey butterfly but not much of note other than that. Another Willow Flycatcher was seen. It was singing actually!





Out of time, I swung by the grassy meadow at the south end of Pelee's Northwest Beach for a final 20 or so minutes of butterfly watching. Some butterflies seen include two Viceroys, two fresh Question Mark butterflies and this dopey looking Tawny Emperor butterfly.

Tawny Emperor - Dorsal & Ventral

Good birding!
Dwayne

I dislike deer, because they are vectors for ticks... but, I rarely see an 8-pt buck!

Red necked Phalarope at Point Pelee's Lake Pond

With numerous Ontbirds postings over the last week about Red necked Phalaropes I figured I would make an attempt (my last for the season) to kayak Point Pelee's Marsh (Lake Pond) and find them myself. Sure enough, a pair was spotted at one of the first "Islands" that I visited. The black streak across the eye is easily seen from great distance! One of the two Phalaropes had some golden highlights in its plumage, and the other was monochromatic.

Like I've said many time before, it seems shorebirds ignore people when they are in a kayak. I was about 5 meters away from these two Phalaropes, a Greater Yellowlegs and a few Semi-Sandpipers. At one point, they flushed because of a Northern Harrier that flew by, but then returned immediately.

Some birds that I saw today (Saturday) include:

Red necked Phalarope  2
Short billed Dowitchers 20
Black bellied Plovers 3
Least Sandpipers 30
Semipalmated Sandpipers 30
Yellowlegs Sp. 6
Semipalmated Plovers 5
Spotted Sandpiper 5
Killdeer 10

Perhaps more diversity could have been found by navigating to other areas of Point Pelee's Marsh (see map), such as West and East Cranberry Pond, but as usual, I only had a few precious hours to bird on Saturday.

I was hoping this was a Western Sandpiper, but no, its Semipalmated.

Yellow legs

Butterfly Watching
 
A ditch on the nortwest side of the road leading to Point Pelee had about 20 meters of Purple Loostrife and many butterflies had taken notice. Whites, Sulphurs, Painted Lady, Monarch, Common Buckeye, Grey Hairstreak, Fiery and Sachem Skippers were all present. 

Earlier on in the week, I had photographed this Duskywing below. I had heard about some duskywings having a plume on their hindlegs, so I thought I had found something interesting here.  An online book I found while researching (Butterflies of Canada) mentioned that the following duskywings have such plumes: "Male duskywings of Icelus (Dreamy Duskywing - Too late in the season), zarucco, Funeralis, Persius (Persius Duskywing), Lucilius (Columbine), Afranius (Afranius Duskywing), and Baptisiae (Wild Indigo) have hair plumes on their hindlegs. So, considering the time and location, I think its just a Wild Indigo that had its wing oriented with the sun in a way to show some really nice iridecsence. The four white spots are hardly visible in this photo, but in others they are visible from the underside of the forwing.

Iridescent Wild Indigo Duskywing, with plumes on hindleg

Ventral View of a Tawny Emporer

Sunday Visit to Holiday Beach

Some of my best birding trips in my short three years of birding have been at Holiday Beach (Warblers peaking on Labour Day Weekend), and today gave me a little taste of what is to come over the next two or three weeks. Since May was a such a letdown in the warbler department, I look forward to enjoying vireos, flycatchers and warblers, as well as Raptors on their Southbound migration over the next month. Holiday Beach is one of North America's best Raptor Migration hotspots.

Some birds seen at Holiday Beach include:

Hundreds of Great Egrets
Many Great Blue Herons
Heard Carolina Wrens (many)
Cedar Waxwings (many)
Eastern Wood Pewee
Alder Flycatcher
Black and White Warbler
Cape May (or Magnolia) Warbler
Yellow Warbler

Hundreds of Egrets are still at Big Creek. This is a split photo, the top looking north from the big creek bridge, the bottom looking south. I looked for wing-tags but saw none.

Good Birding,
Dwaynejava

Sorting Through Swallows & Some Butterfly Lifers

Tawny Emperor... A Point Pelee Specialty

Over the last week or so, I've been able to get out a few times and rack up a few more butterfly lifers. The best butterfly of the four was found serendipitously. While bringing my son to the tip of Point Pelee, I couldn't help but notice a worn but still beautiful Tawny Emperor (dark phase) on the tram as we were driving! It was on the tram on the way to the tip, and was still on the tram when I went back later on! Tawny Emperors are very rare in Canada. They are best found at Point Pelee or Pelee Island. The southern latitude and generous abundance of Hackberry trees make this a 'common' butterfly at Point Pelee.

Dainty Sulphur. Little, Yellow, Different.

 A recent walk at Hillman Marsh gave nice views of what I think are Dainty Sulphurs. I had read about them on a Ohio-based blog that I follow, and even in Ohio, they are very rare. They are very tiny! I also photographed a nice Fiery Skipper which was exciting. Peck's Skipper was another Butterfly Lifer that I picked up a week or so ago as well. Hillman Marsh was quiet bird wise, with the exception of a generous showing of swallows. 

Another blog that I read from Michigan had some Bank Swallows photographed recently and it dawned on me that I lazily haven't added this bird to my life list. So, its a lazy hindsight lifer that I just never bothered to pick up until now. Cliff Swallows are not really on my 2nd year life list either, so I might be upping my list by two here. Road 19 between Concession C&D has swallows perched on the telephone wires. Bank Swallows, Barn Swallows, Cliff Swallows, Rough Winged, Purple Martins and Tree Swallows are pretty easily seen for anyone willing to sort through them. All-about-birds has a nice write-up on all the swallows at this link: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/browse_tax/31/.

 

Its pretty cool to think that of the 8 North American swallow species, 6/8 can be pretty easily seen at Point Pelee right now. The other two absent species are Cave Swallows (Texas Resident) and Violet Green Swallows (Western Resident). I lucked out and saw Violet-Green Swallows last year in BC.

Good Birding,
Dwaynejava

Lifer Summary:
Bank Swallow #303
Cliff Swallow #304