I spent quite a bit of time at Rondeau on Thursday. It was quite calm, at least on the east side, so it was good for lake-watching, not to mention walking through the woods. I started at dog beach. Most numerous duck was Long-tailed. There were hundreds out there, many beyond scope range. There are more out there than you think!
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| Horny Grebe |
A number of Horned Grebes were floating around too.
My hope was to see a Red-necked Grebe at some point, and I actually did! In fact I caught sight of two from that vantage point, but too distant for a photo.
I checked out south point trail next. Nothing earth-shattering, but more Fox Sparrows and kinglets were in.
I noticed a few mussels at the washout beach....needless to say.
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| Eastern Pondmussel (species of concern) |
One of the more common ones I find at Rondeau is Fatmucket. This one below caused a bit of a controversy on iNaturalist as it was not the usual shape.
The "new" washout is just beach now. Although I did not take a photo, the beach is fairly wide at that point, at least for now. One would never know there was a road there!
Here is a scene of the erosion where the trail used to be. It continues to erode. One can always see the layers of time, so to speak.
Speaking of erosion, the other day there was an interesting article in the Chatham Daily News about a camp at the end of Kenesserie Road. Camp Kenesserie, a church camp, has been in existence since 1903. I had no idea!
The article concerns erosion of the cliff there and the buildings are in jeopardy. Funds are being raised to move some of the buildings. Here is a link to that article:
This is of interest to me as I was a camper there for a week in the summer of 1972. I happened to save the shown item from that time!
I remember we had to name our cabin, and we chose "Canada".
That was not the only time I was there. Back in the summer of 1969 (medieval age!), I recall staying a couple of days when my mother was assisting in the kitchen. I remember the craft cabin and archery site. Fox Snakes would hide in the hay bales! Probably the first time I had ever seen a Fox Snake.
The buildings were WAY back from the shoreline then, and I recall a staircase going down to the beach. One afternoon, when I was a camper there, we hiked the beach from Kenesserie to Palmyra, then back the highway. Imagine that....we would be way out in the lake now!
Some wildflowers are starting to peak out at Rondeau, including Bloodroot.
And, Cut-leaved Toothwort.
Today, I was crazy enough to head north. There were some clear skies, but I ran into several snow squalls. I just needed to do something different. Not much in the way of birds, so obviously I picked the wrong day for birding up that way.....again!
However, the sun was out when I stopped into Ausable River Cut CA.
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| (old photo) |
Usually there are never many birds there, and this held true today. I wanted to look for mussels along the river's edge, as there are always oodles of them in one area.
There were lots to choose from, so I just picked out some select ones. Three-ridge is quite common here.
Mapleleaf and Deertoe are here as well.
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| Deertoe |
Fatmucket is common here it seems. More normal in appearance than the "lake" specimens at Rondeau.
I found a couple of small ones, which I suspected to be Lilliput. Sure enough upon examining photos at home, they were (!).
This was significant as they are rare in our area as alluded to in previous blog posts. There is only one other record on the Ausable River.
And, as you recall, I found them at Reid CA last week as well. I have been looking at mussels for many years, and for whatever reason, this is the first year I have seen them. Perhaps I have overlooked them before, but I do not think so.
They are typically small, usually being about 3 cm, as these ones were today.
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| Lilliput |
