More Summer Stuff and Feelin' Ruff in Blenheim

 Been making my usual rounds lately looking for things of interest.  Some days go at a snail's pace.

Unknown Amber Snail at McKeough

But, in general, the summer is going by very quickly! It always does it seems.

I went to Blenheim and Erieau early Sunday morning.  First stop was the lagoons where I met up with Dr. Mike Austin from Texas.  Mike is originally from Chatham, but moved to Texas in the 1970's and spends summers at Point Pelee.  We meet up on occasion.

Nothing of note, as unfortunately the Red-necked Phalarope from the previous day had left.  Of course, every thing else was there, but true to nature, the "good" bird never stays!  Dr. Bird and I were disappointed, but it is early in the season.  More will show.

I did get my first Stilt Sandpipers of the year.

I then went to Erieau and walked the marsh trail and McGeachy Pond trail.

Juvenile Black Tern at McGeachy Pond

Monday, it was close to home.  I went for a long walk around the back field at Reid CA.  Pretty mucky as the river flooded the previous week from the excessive rain.  

A couple of Great Egrets were along the river.

I saw my first Lance-tipped Darner of the year.  It was not too co-operative though.

This time of year, we see more darners.

Fewer butterflies.  Appalachian Brown's are just about done.  However, lots of Broad-winged and Dukes' Skippers are still around.  Starting to get worn though, as the summer wanes.

Northern Pearly-eye

Of course,  I always try and photograph my favourite ode, the Royal River Cruiser.  I am fascinated by them.

In the afternoon, I checked out the garden.  This Pure Green Sweat Bee might be new for my list there.

This bee I have photographed before.  It has a neat name:  Lunate Longhorn Cuckoo Bee.

The very common Transverse-banded Flower Fly was one of the visitors.

Here is a neat fly, which I am not sure of the name.

Later in the afternoon I walked Peers Wetland.  Two Great Egrets were there, and suspect they were the two from Reid earlier in the day.

I came across a Royal River Cruiser at one point.  I saw one here last year as well.

Tuesday, I had the urge to head up to Port Franks and Ipperwash to look for insects.  It was not overly productive, but the weather was nice for a change.

I started at Sandrin Tract and checked the sand bowl area. Not much in the way of odes though.

Calico Pennant

Lots of Wild Indigo Duskywings and Northern Broken-dash among others.

Next stop as the MNR parking lot at Ipperwash.  The only thing of note here was a Mocha Emerald.  It never settled down, so I did not get a photo.  I have done well with them this summer, but then, they are getting more common.

Big Sand Tiger Beetle

I also walked part of the Dunes and Swales.  I wanted to see a Shadow Darner this day.  I found one!  Not the best photo though of this large darner type.

Slaty Skimmer

I was going to stop at Marthaville Habitat on the way home, but for some strange reason it was closed for maintenance.  Very disappointed!

So, I stopped at Wilkesport nearer home for one last walk.

Familiar Buet on top, Azure Bluet below

The only thing of note on Wednesday was a nice find at Peers Wetland.  A Flag-tailed Spinyleg landed on the trail right in front of me!

The huge club really stands out.

It is a first record for Peers (as far as I know) and indeed my first Chatham-Kent sighting.

Today, I needed a change in scenery and went for the long walk at Hillman Marsh.  It was a bit on the quiet side though.  But one has to look!

Lots of Broad-winged Skippers

faded Eyed Brown

I heard a cuckoo at one point and decided to try and find it to confirm ID.  Sometimes the two can make similar calls, so one has to have a visual confirmation.  I was actually leaning toward Black-billed, but nope, it was a Yellow-billed!

Yellow-billed Cuckoo

I decided to take the long way home and visit Blenheim lagoons in case something different had come in.  Well, something really different was there!

I saw someone at the sprinkler cells and went over to find Stephen Taylor from London area.  He thought that he was looking at Ruff, so I took a gander and said that he was correct!

My photos are highly cropped as we did not approach the creature too closely.

It appears to be a moulting male.  Ruffs are highly variable, so all kinds of plumages and colours are possible.

Probably overdue for some time, since the last one here was fifteen years ago already!  How time flies.  I think I have seen four Ruffs here now.  

Certainly a nice way to cap off the day!

Recent Rounds: Wetlands to Other Things

We are finally drying out  a bit after the excessive rains.  Still lots of flooding though, and many fields under water.  I noticed some fields were under about 2m of water, mind you they were in flood plains!  No doubt lots of crop insurance claims will be seen this year.

Only high ground places were walkable the last couple of days.  Yesterday I did not get far in Reid CA.  The river had backed up in the ancient river channel.  I have seen this before, but not this time of year.  Seems to be more frequent!

Making my usual rounds this week, here are some things I found.  Wednesday at Reid the wetland skippers were enjoying this wet summer.

Broad-winged Skipper

Dukes' Skipper

Least Skipper

A couple of common moths in the back field:

Lucerne Moth

Green Clover-worm Moth

And, of course the Royal River Cruisers were hanging around.

Twelve-spotted Skimmer (F)

Thursday I decided to venture into Elgin County.  I went as far as Port Stanley lagoons, then worked my way back.  The lagoons have been wonderful for breeding waterbirds.  American Coots and Pied-billed Grebes among other things nested there this summer.

American Coot with cootlets

Pied-billed Grebes with grebelets

I stopped by Southwold Earth Works, but it was extremely quiet for everything.  There are a lot of American Beech trees here, but every one is either dead or dying due to the blight.  This prized tree I photograph every year, is completely dead.  What a shame.

Next stop was the Storey Wetland at John E. Pearce P. P.  I had hoped to see the Comet Darner here as in past years, but no luck.  Just the common stuff.

Spot-winged Glider

Twelve-spotted Skimmer

Transverse-banded Flower Fly

Heading back west, I stopped briefly at the Clear Creek quarry.  I wanted to get one of those bluets in hand to make sure it was a Slender.

While here, at least one Comet Darner was patrolling the pond, but I never bothered to get a photo.

Friday, I stayed close to home.

Common Buckeye at Peers Wetland

Some garden insects: 

Wilkes's Mining Bee

Ectemnius Maculosus (?)

Common Thick-leg Fly

Today was a Lambton Wildlife outing to Sydenham River Nature Reserve.  I always take advantage of these in order to get into the reserve.  Today's focus was odonates.

There was not a big number by any means, but we had a good time looking around.

Powdered Dancer

Azure Bluet

Ebony Jewelwing

Unfortunately, the river was running very high (for obvious reasons!), and that eliminated much good habitat.  At least is was a good 2m lower than it was at its peak a couple days ago!

I was hoping to get a good look for bluets and dancers along the river's edge on this outing, but those hopes were dashed, obviously.  I suspect Blue-ringed Dancer is here, and perhaps Dusky as well.

Here is a list of species we saw at the reserve:

Ebony Jewelwing, American Rubyspot, Blue-fronted Dancer, Powdered Dancer, Azure Bluet, Stream Bluet, Eastern Forktail, Fragile Forktail, Common Green Darner, Black-shouldered Spinyleg, Royal River Cruiser, Eastern Pondhawk, Widow Skimmer, Twelve-spotted Skimmer, Blue Dasher, Spot-winged Glider, Eastern Amberwing, Common Whitetail, Ruby Meadowhawk, Black Saddlebags.

Some butterflies included Red-spotted Purple.

Not much in the way of birds, but I was not paying too much attention to them.  This Belted Kingfisher was at the bridge earlier in the day.

Since Shetland CA was on the way home, I briefly stopped at the boat launch.  Thankfully, the water level had receded to a reasonable point.  Not much flying, but maybe things drowned this week!

I did see some Blue-ringed Dancers among a few other common things.