Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Monday Crop Tour

On the Monday holiday I did a bit of a tour north of Wallaceburg into Lambton county.  First thing of note was a group of 14 Sandhill Cranes at the west end of Langstaff Line near Wallaceburg.



It was the first group I had seen in the area this summer.  They tend to congregate in this area by mid summer and can be seen in varying numbers to later in the fall.  Tuesday, I only saw four, and none today.

Bobolink


I drove north along the St. Clair River, noting several southbound Bonaparte's Gulls. My first walk was at Dow Wetlands along LaSalle Line.  A flock of ten Bobolinks was in the field on the 'hill'.  A single Upland Sandpiper was constantly flying around.  It was the only one I saw, so likely some have already moved out.



The only migrant shorebird at Doug's Pond was a Lesser Yellowlegs.  A Green Heron was flying around being harassed by a Belted Kingfisher.




I did check out Perch Creek briefly, but only went so far back since the mosquitoes were quite annoying!  One section has quite a bit of Spiked blazing Star and Culver's Root, which is rather nice.


Another section has quite a bit of the non-native Elecampane, but it was well past its prime.

The next stop was McKellar Tract.  The weeds and wildflowers were thick, but I walked around a bit.



This is one place to see lots of dragonflies, but not this year!
The one pond has a few Cardinal Flowers around it, rather uncommon in these parts.



A walk at McKeough CA revealed several Flag-tailed Spinylegs, but hardly any other dragonfly, let alone butterflies.



I decided to skip Reid on this day since I had a good walk the day before.

I have seen a couple of rather fresh European Skippers, probably of a second brood.


A change in pace is scheduled for the next few days......!

2 comments:

  1. Enjoy your Sandhill Cranes on Langstaff Line this year Blake
    as I see in today's CDN that there is a plan for a large wind farm
    in that very location ! So sad !

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We do not need any more wind turbines! There are more wind turbines than trees in this municipality!

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