Point Pelee Butterfly Count! And Other Notes

 This past Saturday a butterfly count was revived at Point Pelee and surrounding area.  I always used to attend this one, but it was discontinued at least ten years ago.  It has always been in early August, making it a "fall" count.

I was joined by Keith Burk and we scoured the accessible areas south of the visitor centre.  Frankly, it was slim pickings!  A continued theme for this year.

We walked to the Tip then headed back the west side.

West beach trail has always been a prime section to look for good things.  There was not much, but Keith spotted a duskywing.  I immediately recognized it as a Horace's Duskywing!

A nice find indeed.

There were some crescents, which are now tricky to ID.  There is the Pearl, but Northern has been declared two distinct species, depending on timing.  Alan Wormington always maintained that there were three distinct species, so I guess he was right!  I am still trying to understand the situation.

The "Northern " complex (at this time of year) is presently called by its scientific name, Phyciodes diminutor.  Here is one I photographed on the count.

There were other species along the way including Dun Skipper.

I did not photograph some such as Giant Swallowtail, Spicebush Swallowtail, Monarch, Orange Sulphur, etc.

We made a second pass on the northern section of the west beach trail.  Things are always changing there, and it was certainly worthwhile.

We found two more Horace's Duskywings in short order.

Farther up the trail, I spotted a butterfly move in the shade. It opened its wings briefly, and I realized it was a Compton Tortoiseshell!  It moved to another branch, but never opened its wings.  However, it was indeed the said species.

There has been a bit of an invasion of this species of late, but it is quite rare in Essex County.  Apparently, there have only been about 17 records, and it is very rare at Point Pelee.

This sighting certainly made the day, after seeing so few butterflies.  Indeed a first for me at Point Pelee.

Keith and I had only 16 species, while the entire count ended up with 39 species.  Our Compton and the Horace's Duskywings were the only ones recorded on the count.

I have been out and about the past week, just not as much as usual, and certainly have not come across much of note.

Silver-spotted Skipper

Monday I came across some neat spiders.  There are lots out there though.  

Spined Macrathena

Arrowhead Orbweaver

Tuesday was quite foggy first thing, as I went for a walk at Mitchell's Bay.

It was such a glum morning, I went home.  But it got a little nicer in the afternoon, so I went for a long walk at Reid Conservation Lands.  

Common Wood Nymph

Common Ringlet

It was a good day for Royal River Cruisers, as I saw about twenty!

I have posted other things on iNaturalist, but there certainly has been a lack of ID participation on that forum of late!

Wednesday was such a glum day, I decided to go the museum to work for a few hours!

Today was yet another foggy morning.  It was quite dense at Wallaceburg, but I went out to Mitchell's Bay anyway.  Better visibility there at least.

It was "museum" all day today, so I was not out.

Some passerines are trickling through from the north, but I have not seen any!

Sometimes It Works Out !

 Although I enjoy being outdoors as much as I can, birding or looking at other things, it is nice to see some decent birds along the way.  It is the thrill of the hunt that intrigues many birders.  One often goes to a particular location in the hope of seeing an interesting bird, or a rarity.

Today, I went back to Rondeau.  Weather was less than ideal with a strong east wind under cloudy skies.  And yes, the usual prevailing east wind for this time of year!

Although it is only May 1, there were not a lot of birds to keep up one's interest.  I decided to leave at one point and try my luck elsewhere.  Ten Willets were reported at Wheatley Harbour, so I headed in that direction.  Upon arrival, they were still there huddled up in the wind.

A couple of early Ruddy Turnstones were on the beach as well.  Here is one.

Since I was that far west, I decided to head into Point Pelee National Park.  I did not expect to see much, and birding was a bit slow.  However, there were some quality birds around, and that coupled with the meeting of old friends made the visit worthwhile.

I parked at White Pine, and walked in to the trails and down to Tilden Woods.  There were not many birds, but already this day, people had seen Cerulean Warbler, Yellow-breasted Chat, and early Magnolia Warbler and an early Wilson's Warbler.

The Cerulean was at ground level, feeding.  One of the brighter ones I have seen!

With some effort, I managed to see the warblers, but not the Chat.  As you know, chats are good at hiding even though they may be 'within reach'.

At least three Yellow-breasted Chats had been reported this day.  Another was on Redbud trail, so I headed in that direction.  After some waiting, the Chat was very briefly seen after making some characteristic chatters.

At this site, an early Cape May Warbler (male) and another White-eyed Vireo were nice to see.

I then headed back towards the VC, when a message came through that the "afternoon shift" (Richard Carr) had discovered a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher at the Tip.  I was not far from the tram, so I waited till it arrived and hopped on board with the mob.

Luckily, the long-tailed creature was still at the Tip catching insects!  I was not a position for a good photo, but who cares.

While there, a number of gulls were on the long Tip.  Someone spotted a Franklin's Gull among them!  Rather distant, but a nice bird for this time of year.

The gull was indeed a bonus!

It was then time to head home after a long day.  Ending up at Point Pelee today certainly worked out!

Earlier this week, Tuesday had looked like a promising day for birds.  There were lots of new birds and some rarities reported, but it did not pan out as most had expected.  The numbers just did not arrive.  I stayed fairly local, checking out Mitchell's Bay, Port Lambton and Peers Wetland.  It was not as productive as I had hoped.

Osprey at Peers

shy Black-and-white at Mitchell's bay

A Lark Sparrow was found at the north end of Rondeau Park, which later ended up at Keith McLean Conservation Lands.  This happened at least once before!  

I was not going to rush down for it though.

Wednesday I was at Rondeau first thing.  I wanted to get there early enough for Whip-poor-wills, but I slept in about 15 minutes too late!  Lots of time for them this month.

Although a nice day, there were not many birds.  Some first-of-year birds were added though.  I left the park before 08:30, if that tells you anything!

I then decided to check out McLean's in case the Lark Sparrow was still around.  I spent some time there, and eventually I spotted it!

first observance

It was nice that it stayed another day.  Actually it was still there today.

I moved on from there and went to the marsh trail at Erieau, and McGeachy Pond.  Some new birds included this Bobolink.

Bobolinks must have come in overnight as they were in multiple locations on Wednesday.

I then went to the Blenheim lagoons.  A large number of Lesser Yellowlegs was still present.  I counted over 120, which is the most I have seen at this location.

While walking I noticed some insects in the grasses.  Here is a Yellow-shouldered Drone Fly, which I do not think I had photographed before.

While in that neck of the county, I decided to try for the wacky Whimbrel near Erie Beach.  It had arrived a couple of days earlier, and in fact probably the same bird at the same location from last year!  It is incredibly early for a Whimbrel, but these things happen.  It was another bird that Jim Burk spotted for his "tractor" list.

Thanks to Jim for directing me up the laneway of the field to see this bird.  Unfortunately, there was a lot of heat haze this day and I could not focus.

The month of May is now here.........!!  (And I already have Whimbrel on my list!)

Mid-November Things

 This past week was rather uneventful, so not much to report!  If we ever get more seasonal weather, things should pick up.  Climate change.......

Wednesday I stayed local and took advantage of the nice weather.  I went for a long walk at Reid CA in the morning.  Hardly any birds of course, but I checked out the riverbank since water levels are quite low.  Some river mussels (shells) were visible.

Mapleleaf

Giant Floater

Thursday was a rainy, but windy day so I had the notion to head down to Wheatley Harbour to watch the lake.  It was not as productive as I had hoped!  Lots of gulls, but as usual, no rarities.

I did get into Point Pelee for a bit, but it was mostly car-birding as it was still raining.

Friday was uneventful locally!

Saturday I headed down to Point Pelee.  I wanted to be in Essex County to attend the Essex County Field Naturalists annual banquet.  More on birding at Pelee later, but the dinner event was a chance to get something off my bucket list, so-to-speak.

Guest speaker was Adam Shoalts, of whom I have written about before.  Since reading all five of his books, I have become quite a fan!  I always wanted to go to one of his presentations, but he is so popular that it is difficult to get tickets.

Adam's focus was his canoeing adventure from Long Point to the Arctic a few years ago.  The name of his book about this trip is Where The Falcon Flies.  Fascinating stuff!

My day started at Point Pelee with a Tip Watch.  I joined Keith Burk with conditions that were perfect with excellent visibility and not too strong of a wind.  It was cloudy, but that is better for lakewatching anyway.  Wind was light out of the NW so not the best to bring in birds to the Tip.

Lots of loons and a fair number of White-winged Scoters were flying, but not much else.........until a bit later.

At one point I noticed masses of ducks to the NE heading west.  'Masses' was an understatement!  Eventually, looking to the west, it was the same thing.  Honestly, I have never seen so many ducks at once.  They were essentially all scaup, and no doubt Greater Scaup.  Here are some unprocessed views.

The skies were filled with ducks to the north, and most circled back to set down on both the east and west sides of Point Pelee.  I estimated around 100,000 ducks, and they were basically all scaup.  It was mind-boggling!  Especially for one species.

After some thought and discussion, I roughly estimated about 90,000 Greater Scaup!  Record high from Alan Wormington's records less than twenty years ago, was about 60,000 as I recall.

I walked various trails in the park later, but there were not too many landbirds.

Tip bonies

Today, it was down to Rondeau Park.  A decent SW wind was blowing, so I was lured to dog beach for a lakewatch.....again.   Hardly any gulls, but a few more ducks were moving, especially White-winged Scoters.  At least it paid off this time with a decent bird.

Before that at one point, a shorebird came by which turned out to be a late Greater Yellowlegs.  Not the godwit that I was hoping for!  A bit too far for my measly camera.

Several loons were moving or swimming offshore, including a few Red-throated.  At one point, I noticed loon swimming not far offshore.  It was difficult to get on through the waves, and it was diving more than it was up.  However, my brief views allowed me to determine it was a Pacific!  Eventually it stayed up longer (but distant) to allow us to make sure it was a Pacific. It was just two years ago that Steve and I found Rondeau's first Pacific in the same spot!

Hopefully there will be more loons and ducks for the Christmas Bird Count in the area on December 15.

Some historical filler from year's past:

Fifty-five years ago today, the 1905-built Ridgetown was laid up for the last time (originally Wm. E. Corey) .  It was eventually sunk as a breakwater at Port Credit in 1974.  It still exists today, but probably will not last much longer due to deterioration.

Her identical sister (Henry C. Frick) was retired in 1972, and sold for scrap.  Michipicoten was being towed for overseas scrapping, but broke in two in the Gulf of St. Lawrence 15 November 1972.  

Michipicoten breaking up
(photo from Boatnerd)

It was a favourite of mine when I was quite young, so much so, my Dad commissioned a line drawing done of it!

One of these days, winter will arrive!  Maybe.