Weekend Wanderings Around Chatham-Kent

With the change in weather, birding has been fairly good.  Friday I went down to Rondeau Park and joined Steve Charbonneau to look around.  It got a bit rainy for a while, as we watched the lake.  The lake was extremely active with thousands of gulls.  But, try and find a rare one!  Things were not overly close, which did not help.
Later on, I walked south point trail myself and found quite a good selection of birds.  One always looks for flycatcathers this time of year, but just the usuals were evident.

Saturday we met up again and found lots of birds on south point trail.  Highlight, was a late Purple Martin.

The lake was fairly active again, but nothing of note.  Several Bald Eagles joined the birds on the lake, stirring things up.

At one point, I saw some Closed Gentian at a known location.

Recently, an explosion of Bronze Coppers has been seen at McGeachy Pond, Erieau.  I went to check it out late morning.  They are attracted to the New England Asters and other flowers along the trail in the middle section.

I counted as many as 60, which is certainly more than I have ever seen in a single year.

Common Painted-Lady is quite plentiful this year as well all over southern Ontario.

I did find a single Fiery Skipper, but no hairstreaks.

This Sunday morning I did not go far and went to St. Clair NWA.  It was a nice morning with clear skies and no wind.  Several Sandhill Cranes were around.

I saw several small groups of Sandhills.

Most numerous land bird was Swamp Sparrow, as they kept popping up everywhere.

I tried hard to find a Nelson's Sparrow but that did not work.  No doubt there are some around.

A Peregrine Falcon flew over the tower at one point--the only raptor I saw.

I also checked out the south shore trail at Mitchell's Bay.  There were several birds to sort through, with the highlight being a late Yellow-bellied Flycatcher.