April Anecdotes

 Looks like the weather has settled down a bit.  Lots of wind and rain recently!  Last Friday was a complete washout, so no walking around.  I did quite a bit of birding by car, but as usual did not see anything of note.  Lots of Lapland Longspurs have been moving through in the last week or so.  They are an attractive bird.

Saturday morning I headed down to Rondeau for a look around.  Nothing noteworthy with regards to birds, just the usual early stuff.

Foxy Sparrow

Lots of Red Admirals around of late.

And, this Garter Snake was taking advantage of the warm sun. I did not have  a "long" lens to get it all in a photograph.

There have been some prescribed burns in the park.  Here is one area near the maintenance yard.

In the afternoon it became quite warm and Reid CA was beckoning!  Some insects were out, including lots of Narrow-headed Marsh Flies.

Another very common, but very small creature was Margined Calligrapher.  Looks like there will be more when these two get done!

Bloodroot is not very common at Reid, but there are a few plants popping up here and there.

leaves

Some random forest scenes:

The evening was spent at the Sydenham Field Naturalist (SFN) annual banquet.  As always, it was an excellent affair.

Sunday, I had no other plans other than to go for a long walk at Rondeau Park.  I headed out marsh trail first thing.  The only new bird for the year was Virginia Rail.  A couple of them were calling in the same spot.

A Savannah Sparrow stuck around in the same spot all morning.

A pair of Field Sparrows was on the trail....quite far from a field.

More Ruby-crowned Kinglets are moving through.  Often we get the odd one attempting to winter, but there were none this year.  So, I did not get my first-of-year until late last week.  This one was too shy to be photographed.

Today, I stayed fairly local.  It was not too productive in the bird department, especially at Mitchell's Bay south shore trail.  I thought I would see more than I did!  

These Forster's Terns were resting on the dock.

Later, I walked Peers Wetland.  The Bald Eagle nest nearby had mostly blown down in the recent wind storm.  There were young there, but hopefully they had fledged before the incident.

I continued on up to Reid CA for a long walk (3.8 km) on my usual route.  As usual, I mainly looked at plant life.  Here are some common examples.

Wood Anemone

Downy Yellow Violet

White Trout Lily

One that I never paid attention to before (it looks like grass!), is a type of sedge.  At the SFN banquet Saturday, there were plants on the table that were to be taken by a lucky winner at the end of the evening.  This was one of them, called Oak Sedge.  I knew what to look for.

Oak Sedge

Of course, the flowers of Harbinger of Spring have long since disappeared.  I did keep an eye out for the plant, and I found yet another spot.

There are other plants yet to pop up, so I will be keeping an eye out for them in the future.

Here is one tiny insect  I tried to photograph.  

The Spotted Pink Lady Beetle is native, and I used to remember lots of these when I was very young.  I hardly see then anymore!

Easter Parade and Touring Around

 Things have been rather slow recently, so not much in the way of new sightings as Easter is now in the rear view mirror.

Not the Easter Bunny!

Easter Sunday, I went to Rondeau and paraded out marsh trail.  Surprisingly, nothing new in the way of birds.  There are countless scaup on the Bay.  Seems like more than usual this year.

  On my way back, a Brown Thrasher was singing atop at tree.  It was way up in dull lighting, so not good for a photo.

Monday turned out quiet nice, at least in my area.  After touring around a bit, I went for a long walk at Reid CA for exercise.  The cool weather has not enticed plants to change much, but some of the early wildflowers are starting to show.

Purple Cress

Virginia Spring Beauty

Sharp-lobed Hepatica

Leaves have a sharp point, as opposed to Round-leaved Hepatica.

As always, I checked the shoreline for mussels.  Mapleleaf is regular here.  These two pair were together in one spot.

Here is a very small one from Moore WMA.  Its distinctive outer shell pattern is a giveaway.

I found two more Lilliput mussels.  Not sure why I have never seen them anywhere before, but I now know what to look for!  Nice to know that these critically-imperiled creatures are here.  Distinctively small.

With some recent rain, things are still quiet wet, which is a good thing.

Old Rivercourse at Reid CA

Tuesday was rainy, so I drove around quite a bit in the Erieau-Rondeau area, but never came across anything of interest much to my dismay.

Today was mostly cloudy, but with some sunny breaks.  I went to Mitchell's Bay first thing, then toured around by car.  Some creatures are already nesting, or building nests.  Looks like this Wood Duck was checking out a nesting box.

On my travels, I came across a few Lapland Longspurs.

There was not much in the way of blackbirds.  Yellow-headed should be arriving now.  We often see them in the fields when they first come in, but I saw none today.  There was one near Jacob Road a number of days ago, where we often see them.

It will still be cool and wet for a few days it appears, so only a few things will be trickling in.  And creatures will be doing their thing.  Here is a neat photo from the past.

(Garter Snake with chorus frog)

Rondeau Ducks 'n Things

This Sunday morning I headed down to Rondeau Park.  There are not many birds away from the water bodies right now, so I looked at some ducks.  Lighting was excellent first thing this morning, so I stopped behind Rondeau Joe's.  I could not pick out a Eurasian Wigeon from there (although one was seen there later!), so I moved down to the yacht club.

It took a while, but I finally found the annual bird quite some distance out.  Here are a couple of highly cropped photos.

There was a good variety of ducks to sort through, but I only saw one of the two Eurasian Wigeons of today.
No doubt these are likely the same returning birds each spring and fall.

I walked through the campground, but saw few birds.  It was just too windy!
I checked the lake off the VC and added Glaucous Gull and Long-tailed Duck to the day's list.

The day was young, so I headed over to Erieau and walked the rail trail.   It actually was not too bad for wind, but no Orange-crowned Warbler made an appearance.

At the pier area, I saw the two male Harlequin Ducks bouncing in the waves. The one has hung around since sometime in November!  Probably some sort of local record.

(from a few weeks ago)

I checked out McGeachy Pond as well, but still no warbler (lol)!  There were a couple of open spots that held some Mallard, American Wigeon and Gadwall.

Looks like there is some phragmites control taking place there.


Heading up Erieau Road, a very nice Red-shouldered Hawk passed in front of me south of Old Street.
Further up near the landfill, a roaming flock of Lapland Longspurs flew by.  I estimated around 85, but not sure if it was a pure flock.  Perhaps a Smith's was in there!

Today's Photos

Just toured around again today.  Perhaps the highlight was a large flock of Lapland Longspurs west of Ridgetown.  Could have been close to 100 birds!
A flock of 8 Eastern Bluebirds was nice near Clear Creek Forest.
Lots of stuff at Erieau too.  That weird Red-headed Woodpecker was on post #2 today.  It refuses to let me take a photo!

'spurs were camouflaged in this field (I had no hope of getting an accurate count!)

Juncos everywhere today (plus a few white-throats)

Very Windy Today!

Lots 'o Bonies at Erieau lately

Duck Mixture at Erieau