Earth Day Weekend Wanderings

 Friday was a bit slow for birding, so after looking around, I went up to Reid CA for another long walk.  It is a fabulous place for many things, including plants. I photographed a few common ones.

Sharp-lobed Hepatica flowers can vary in colour quite a bit.  I found this one which stood out.  It was the only one of this shade.

I did find Harbinger of Spring in a completely different spot of the property.  Naturally, the flowers are long gone at this point.  I think animals eat them, as I could see the stems.

Here are some other plants.

Red Trillium

Large White Trillium

Early Meadowrue

Bloodroot

Virginia Waterleaf

Sharp-lobed Hepatica (white form)

Yesterday, I went out to Mitchell's Bay.  The weather was a little iffy, but the rain held off for a walk and tour.  The first Yellow Warblers have already arrived, and I encountered three along the trail.  However, none did want to be photographed.

I include this one from the past.

In fact, nothing did!  Lighting was horrible anyway.  

Yellow-headed Blackbirds are now around and I saw one at the end of Angler Line.  More were a concession south in a field, but I did not check them out.

A Rusty Blackbird for consolation:

At Peers Wetland near home, the Purple Martins are now occupying the nest house.

A Greater Yellowlegs was foraging, a bit distant, in the south pond area.

I did see a Wilson's Snipe, but it was sitting on a dead tree in the middle of the wetland.  Seemed like an odd spot.  A bit too far to photograph though. Try and find it in this photo!

Last evening was the Lambton Wildlife Annual Meeting and dinner at Camlachie.  It was an enjoyable affair.  The bucket raffle is always a highlight, and I managed to come home with a hoarde of stuff!  I only spent $10.00, but a gas card for $25.00 was certainly handy!

Guest speaker was Jessica Linton of Natural Resource Solutions, talking about the re-introduction of the Mottled Duskywing at Pinery PP.  I had met Jessica a couple of years ago when I gave her a tour of Reid CA with regards to the Northern Oak Hairstreak.

Today was a Rondeau day.  Things were still very quiet, but Steve found a Louisiana Waterthrush on Bennett which was singing nicely for us.

I headed down to south point trail and cut out to the light beacon.  I contemplated looking at the beach, and decided to take a quick look.  Good thing I did!  A Piping Plover was huddled up in the cobble.

It was my second self-found Piping Plover in the park.  This one was unbanded!  That is somewhat unusual in this day and age.

I put out the alert, and others in the park managed to come along to see it.  Later, two Black Vultures were found on Rondeau Estates Line, but I spent too much time getting there.  I did not see them.  Despite driving around (too much!), I never did find them.  Lots of Turkey Vultures were out and about today though.  However, I was happy just to find the piper.

I felt abandoned, as everyone bailed and went to the see the White Wagtail near Barrie, lol!

I forgot to post this photo the other day, where erosion continues on south point.  Soon, I think the shoreline will be at the trail!  The campground office used to be here, but would be well out in the lake today!

Recently, the storm surge pushed sand onto the trail.

This month reminds of a special time in my history.  It was when I was only about 3 1/2 years old that my father took me to see the locomotive 7470 at the old sugar factory. I wrote about this a couple of times before since I discovered this thing still operates in New Hampshire at the Conway Scenic Railroad!