I stopped by Strathroy Sewage Lagoons which are open to birders and walkers. As we know, there are other lagoons around open to the public that work well. Too bad some good spots such as Thedford could not be more open to the public. I see no reason they could not!
Anyway, one can see a good variety of birds at Strathroy. The one cell had lots of mud, but too bad it was not a good time of year for shorebird migration! Some good birds have been found here in the past.
Notable ducks included a Lesser Scaup, a Greater Scaup and a Bufflehead that have decided to spent the early summer here.
Just before I left, I noted a Virginia Rail calling in one corner.
After the lagoon walk, I headed towards Arkona. I was going to go to Joany's Woods, but stopped by the Ausable River at Hungry Hollow. A recent visit by Quinten had me interested just to see the place. I have been here a couple of times before, but only birding in the winter. In March 2005, a Townsend's Solitaire was found here by my good friend Pete Chapman. He lived nearby and was out on a walk one day.
Fossil Road is a dead-end road which used to be the main road through here.
One can see the old bridge abutments. Here is a Google Image of the area.
One can get down to the river's edge and it is a good place to look for odonates. I found quite a few species here on my short visit.
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| American Rubyspot |
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| Midland Clubtail |
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| Powdered Dancer |
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| Violet Dancer |
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| Powdered Dancer |
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| Black-shouldered Spinyleg |
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| Green-faced Clubtail |
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| Midland Clubtail |
Sunday I headed in the opposite direction down to Point Pelee. It is now open to the public, but the gates are not open until 10 a.m. I guess we can at least be thankful it is open now!
Birders like to get to the Tip early, but unfortunately, some tourists who seem to have no interest in birds or nature, get there ahead of time and scare all the birds off the Tip.
We did get there eventually to find some gulls loafing around and swimming off the Tip.
A first cycle Little Gull was hanging around and one or two Lesser Black-backed Gulls among others.
Several American White Pelicans have been seen lately and it was my hope to see some. This time of year it is normal to find several pelicans wandering around the area, since they now nest on the little islands on the other side of Pelee Island.
It was not long until we spotted some, albeit way in the distance! Twelve in total were seen.
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| Pelicans in front of the Cuyahoga which was heading to Kingsville |
Butterflies were very few and far between on our walk back. I decided to leave after this as the park was getting too crowded with tourists.
Today, I made a brief stop to look for Oak Hairstreaks. I found two right away!
These were the only two hairstreaks I saw and they did not stay long. Others have been looking this past weekend as well, since I noticed the trampled vegetation. Hopefully just observing, as there is absolutely no need to use a net.
A Four-spotted Skimmer was nearby, just begging to be photographed.
I think that second to last clubtail photo is a Green-faced Clubtail! Appears to have some lines across the face, and has very limited yellow on the club. That'd be a new record for the county. Just upstream from where James had his. You got me wondering about some of those "suspicious" clubtails I saw. I might have to go back now, lol.
ReplyDeleteLooks like I will have to look a little closer at that one. I thought it looked different in the field at the time.
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