Newport News

Sunrise over Lake Erie

Today I started at Rondeau.  It was way too warm for this time of year, hence not a lot of birds to see.  I did take a look at the lake at dog beach, but not much was moving....yet again.  There was a good selection of warblers at the end of Lakeshore Road to keep up my interest.

Yesterday was  bit better with a good number of passerines with a few decent "pockets" of warblers and vireos.

Ovenbird

I checked the goldenrods near marsh trail and found a Fiery Skipper.

I checked out McLean's on Friday as well.  Some shorebirds were on the flooded field.  There were three dowitchers, and at least two of them were Short-billed.  I did not have a scope at the time.

Three dowitchers were beside the road today, which appeared to be Long-billed.

Bronze Coppers are plentiful right now.

The highlight today was near Wardsville to tour the Newport Forest.  It is a 45 ha "closed" property owned by Thames Talbot Land Trust TTLT) that borders on the Thames River.  It is not open to the public, so only guided tours or special permission is required.  A joint outing of Lambton Wildlife and Sydenham Field Naturalists was in the offing today.

Here is a layout taken from the TTLT site:

It is actually a fabulous place and we spent at least three hours there.  There are many uncommon plants there such Virginia Bluebells and Green Dragon, as well as Wingstem.

Wingstem is very common there and was well past its prime.  

The other two aforementioned plants bloom in the spring.  We did manage to find a withered Green Dragon though, a plant similar to Jack in the Pulpit, along with some of its bright red berries.

The trail parallels the river at one point.  

I had in mind that rubyspots would be there, and sure enough I spotted some across the river!  I suspect both American and Smokey are here, but it was a bit difficult to tell from the distance.

They were resting on the logs across the river.

A good selection of trees are here including Blue Ash, Hackberry, hickories and elms.  We looked at a large American Elm which obviously has beaten the Dutch Elm disease.

Slippery Elm is here as well.

The entrance goes through an abandoned field rich with asters and goldenrods.

Heath's aster

Smooth Blue Aster

Lance-leaved Aster

Flat-topped (Grass-leaved) Goldenrod

Some common butterflies were seen and even a Common Buckeye.

It was a pleasant walk through the property on a nice day!