Early August Travels

 As the summer wanes, I have been taking advantage of some of the nice weather.  Last Monday I scheduled myself to visit West Perth Wetlands.  I usually stop by once in mid summer to roll the dice on shorebirds.  There were quite a few birds (mainly Lesser Yellowlegs)  but nothing of note.

Regarding shorebirds, I have checked other places recently as well.  Seems to be a bit of a lull in the shorebird department.  I stopped by Strathroy on the way home from Mitchell on Monday, and there was virtually nothing in shorebirds!

Today I stopped by Forest Lagoons, and it was essentially a waste of time.  Not much has been there recently, but hopefully things will pick up.  The water levels need to decline a bit, but will not if we do not stop getting all this uneeded rain.  We are getting drier at the marina, but there is no leeway in water levels as we are at the brink now!  This past week we have been cutting out walls and insulation from the three floods this summer, to dry things out.

Today was one of the nicer weather days.  After stopping at the aforementioned Forest lagoons, I took a long walk (~8 km) at Ipperwash Forested Dunes and Swales.  There was not much in the way of birds, but I did hear a Purple Finch.  Likely they are on the move, as I had one in the yard this afternoon.  Rather strange, as it is the first one this year (probably a year and a half!).

Although not much was seen, it was quite enjoyable.  

Appalachian Brown

Next stop was Karner Blue Sanctuary in Port Franks.  It was exactly a year ago we did a bioblitz there, so I thought it was time to check it out again.  The Liatris species are just coming out in bloom.

Cylindrical Blazing Star

Rough Blazing Star

A few butterflies were around, and I was hoping for Leonard's, but perhaps a tad early for them.

Wild Indigo Duskywing

Peck's Skipper

Northern Broken-Dash

I bumped into John Lamey there, and we talked about plants, including Cardinal Flower, of which I saw lots at Ipperwash earlier in the day.

As Port Franks is nuts with tourists (not sure what they do with themselves!) this time of year, it was time to get out.

For the next stop I had the idea of stopping at Marthaville Habitat near Petrolia.  There is a good planting of prairie stuff there, so this time of year was good.

Spiked Blazing Star

Prairie Dock

Compass Plant

Slaty Skimmer

I made a brief stop at Moore WMA, but it was a waste of time.  The river was running too high with all this ridiculous rain recently.

Last Monday I stopped by and found a few more mussels.  This one is a Pink Healsplitter, vulnerable in Canada.

Last stop was Reid CA where I went for a long walk.  Some Dukes' Skippers are still flying.

One surprise was a hairstreak.  It was a Banded, and perhaps the latest I have seen one there.

I saw a good number of Royal River Cruisers, but none co-operated for photos.  Some Eastern Amberwings were around.

I decided to walk around the back field again, as I find it interesting.  A Bronze Copper caught my eye, which I think is a new species for my list on the property.  My lep list is now at 55 species for Reid.

I was most of the way around, and some Cardinal Flower caught my eye.  It is new for my plant list on the property!

All in all, a decent day.

Mixing Oil and Nature

Today's feature event was going to the Fairbank property at Oil Springs and the root of North America's first oil producing area.  However, the outing was not begin until 10 a.m., so I checked out some other spots beforehand.
First stop was Blackwell Sideroad, Sarnia.  Here there is an old landfill and an extensive solar farm that I have mentioned a few times before.  Two years ago Dickcissels and Grasshopper Sparrows were in abundance with other grassland species.  This year, a couple of Grasshopper Sparrows were at the solar farm, but little else in the landfill.  I only got a couple of Eastern Meadowlarks this time.  Like all grassland species, they are down in numbers compared to many years ago.
A couple of Great Egrets were in the landfill pond.

Back of the landfill is the well-known Perch Creek Habitat Area.  I walked that too!  There was not really much of interest there and not a lot of birds, which seems to be the trend everywhere this year.

With a little time left, I went to Marthaville Habitat Area near Petrolia.  This is a neat little spot with a nice pond and marshy area.  First off I heard  White-eyed Vireo singing away!  Not one I expected this morning.
Some dragonflies included Dot-tailed Whiteface.

On to Oil Springs....

The outing at the oil fields, led by Larry Cornelis, was interesting.  There are 600 acres with mostly grassland and scrubby-type habitat with a couple of decent woodlots.  Owner Charles Fairbank accompanied us.

Charles Fairbank, left and Larry Cornelis

Here they have the primitive jerker-rod system that was developed early on.  It is highly effective though, with an endless network of rods throughout the property moving back and forth driven by electric motors. (In the old days it was steam).

With all the wells and jerker-rod lines, the area is not suitable for modern farming, so there is a lot of habitat for meadowlarks and other birds.  Oil and nature do mix!

I noted quite a few Orchard Orioles as well.
No Grasshopper Sparrows were detected, but as usual these are difficult to find anymore in this part of the province.

By noon, the tour was done, but I was not.  I headed over to Skunk's Misery in hopes of finding some butterflies.  The poor year continues, as I did not see many there!  Some Juvenal's Duskywings were still flying among other species.

Dragonflies were better this week, with many species. Black-shouldered Spinylegs and some clubtails out today including this one.

Midland Clubtail

I noticed lots of the very large darners, which could have been Swamp Darners.
Birds were rather quiet by this time of day, so I did not hear many.

Not far away, west of Wardsville, is Thames Talbot's Wardsville Woods (the old Mosa Hills golfcourse). Here I found quite a few butterflies including Peck's Skippers, Tawny-edged Skippers, European Skippers, lots of Silver-spotted and others.

A couple of Blue-winged Warblers were on the property.