Spring Has Sprung....More or Less

 Nice to see birds arriving and other creatures popping up after a long winter.

Last Thursday, I finally saw my first Eastern Bluebirds for the year at Wilkesport.  This photo is highly cropped though.

Friday, I was itching to go for a long walk out Rondeau's marsh trail.  I was a bit hesitant at first due to the very large snow drifts still existing.  However, I was determined to go for a walk.

It may take weeks for them to melt!

I walked almost to the Long Pond trail.  While thousands of ducks were on the Bay, there was not much of note.  However, it was a nice walk once one was past the drifts!

This mink did not survive the winter!

Sunday I went to Point Pelee for a change in scenery.  Unfortunately, I ran into some rain!   Just my luck, but it eventually stopped and I was able to get out and walk.

Lots of sparrows had come in.  Included were Field and Savannah at De Laurier.

Along Mersea Road 19, a Turkey Vulture was feeding on a dead coyote.

Sunday, I did not do much!

Today, I managed to get out for a walk at Mitchell's Bay first thing.  Lots of waterfowl on the Bay.  While looking, I noticed some very large white birds set down in the distance.  Turned out to be White Pelicans!  I only saw six in flight, but a crappy photo revealed at least 12!

Certainly rather early for here, but they have already been seen at Holiday Beach.  They have been increasing in numbers in the past years.  

An annual occurrence at Mitchell's Bay, these are always nice to see near home.

This afternoon warmed up quite nicely, so I went for a long walk at Reid CA.  Chorus frogs were deafening at times.  They are very wary, but I managed to get some photos.

Along the shoreline, I came across the rare Lilliput mussel.  It is easily recognized to me by its small size.

As well, a more common, but vulnerable Mapleleaf, was nearby.

A couple of Eastern Commas were flying, a first for the spring for me.  However, they did not co-operate for the camera!

Sunny Morning at Reid CA

 Saturday turned out to be a beautiful day weather wise. All week, the forecast called for cloudy skies and some rain.  Obviously wrong again!

It was muddy walk, but nice to be out under sunny skies since it has been so gloomy lately.  I ended up walking the better part of 4 km.

In the woods, there was lots of lichens and fungi to look at.

Little Nest Polypore

On the same log:

Oak Shield Lichen

The river was low enough to check out the edge for a while.  I found quite a few mussels.  Mapleleaf is a common and easy to ID species along the Sydenham, even though it is a vulnerable species in Ontario.

Another one:

Deertoe is another fairly common one, also vulnerable.

Probably the most common species one may find is Giant Floater.

One of the rarest is Lilliput.  This is a small mussel I recognized right away when I saw it. This one was about 3 cm which is about average.

Last year, I found Lilliput here, which was a new location for the species.  I also found one or two up at Ausable River Cut CA along the cut.

It is endangered and critically imperiled depending where you are in Ontario.

The river was calm, and a single male Bufflehead was swimming at Reid.  Not often one sees a Bufflehead on the Sydenham.

Some blackbirds were flying over Reid, including lots of Common Grackles and a few Red-winged Blackbirds.  I have not seen many lately, as one would expect this time of year.  But, there are always some hanging around somewhere.

Here is another deformed tree seen along the way.

Today, was rainy as expected by the forecast.  At least they got that right!  I did some "car birding" along the St. Clair River up to Corunna.  There was not much (again!).  Quite a few Redhead (and two Canvasback) were at the Sombra waterfront.  We used to get tens of thousands of these on the river in winter, but with climate change, they have no need to congregate here.

Along the Chenal Ecarte (Snye) three Pied-billed Grebes are still lingering.  No need to leave!  No photos today due to the weekend weather.

Showing More Mussel(s)

 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!

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.

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:

Camp Kenesserie 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.  

(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.

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.

Lilliput

It is interesting that this portion of the Ausable is a dredge cut, and there was never a river here.  Shows how things will colonize when given the chance.  The dredging was started in 1872.

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)