I decided to sleep in a bit this morning. I doubted birding would have been as good at Rondeau this morning as it was yesterday. For a change, I checked out some different spots closer to home today. I went down to Lake St. Clair and started by looking for Yellow-headed Blackbirds. Just after nearly creaming a family of geese that came out of nowhere, I saw one male at the end of Angler Line. This is the area to find them nowadays, as they do not frequent St. Clair NWA anymore.
I did take a walk around SCNWA, but did not see much. I did see a Moorhen, but for whatever reason, that place is disappointing anymore. There were more turtles than birds!
Black-bellied Plover were in the fields across the road.
Black-bellied Plover were in the fields across the road.This afternoon I walked a couple of CA's north of here. Butterflies were the topic of the day. I saw my first monarch and silver-spotted skipper at the Nicholl's Memorial Forest.
At Reid CA, I found lots of butterflies including a couple of Inornate Ringlets, numerous Northern Crescents, many Juvenal's Duskywings and a couple of Giant Swallowtails. These were all firsts for the year except the crescents. I guess I'll be checking this place out this summer!
I saw the first Black-billed Cuckoo there as well. I was just thinking this morning why we have not seen cuckoos yet. They have been very late and scarce. The only other cuckoo I have seen this year was a Yellow-billed on May 4 at Rondeau which was very early.
I also noted dragonflies and damselflies, including this Emerald Spreadwing.
Do you have any good recommendations for a dragonfly guide, Blake? I've been looking around for one. Do you have Dragonflies through Binoculars? I hear that's a decent one. I've just been using the small guide that covers southwestern Ontario, but it's definitely missing a lot of species I think.
ReplyDeleteI do have the Dragonflies through Binoculars, but there are so many photos to go through. In the last couple of years, more books have come out on dragonflies, but I don't know any details. There are some regional guides that work for ID. The Nature Nook in Point Pelee used to sell one that was good. It was for Michigan or Wisconsin--I cannot remember. Perhaps do a Google search for Dragonfly books, or check the online version of Chapters or Amazon.
ReplyDeleteI forgot that Paul Pratt has good info on dragonflies on the Ojibway site. Go to the odonata page at: http://www.netcore.ca/~prairie/odonata.html
ReplyDeleteIt lists books and references and lists the dragonflies of Ontario with some photos.