Friday: Winged Things and Wings Over Wallaceburg

 Today was one of the nicer days we have had in a long time--clear skies and moderate temperature.  I was looking at things with wings of all sorts!

I had no plans to go far today, but went for a long walk at Reid CA, then a shorter one at McKeough CA.

Lots of birds have now fledged for this year, including this Wood Thrush.

It seemed to be a better day for insects and at one point I nearly fell over when I spotted a hairstreak.  Appeared to be a fresh Hickory at Reid, so I not totally skunked on hairstreaks there this year!

Some butterflies are doing well this year, including Appalachian Brown and Common Wood Nymph.

Kept an eye out for other insects as well.

Transverse-Banded Flower Fly

Over at McKeough, only one Pronghorn Clubtail along the riverbank.

Very few odes in fact. I may have had a fleeting glimpse of a Flag-tailed Spinyleg.  They should be out by now.  

Our smallest dragonfly here is the Eastern Amberwing.

Eastern Tailed-Blues were quite plentiful today.

A few Delaware Skippers were flitting about.

A Bronze Copper was an uncommon sight at McKeough.  Very worn, but identifiable.

A few bluets were along the water's edge.  Possibly Familiar.

At home this afternoon, the garden is coming along nicely with all the rain, and lots of insects were coming and going.  I did not get on all of them, but it is interesting all the different flies and bees that visit the garden.

Tufted Globetail

Margined Calligrapher

Hump-backed Beewolf

Gymnoclytia occidua

Alfalfa Leafcutter Bee (?)

type of weevil wasp

Today and tomorrow there is a special event at the museum called Wings Over Wallaceburg (the mechanical kind).  Did you know Wallaceburg once had a thriving airport?  This weekend's event celebrates the Wallaceburg airport (1959-1971) and Seneca Air Services.

I can even remember the airport, so that tells you how old I am!

The museum has displays and activities, as well as a BBQ.  About 2:30 this afternoon, there was a flyover of special aircraft.  I was out in the yard looking at the insects when they flew over, so I had my camera on hand.

The event continues on Saturday.

Common Whitetail

The Bends

Today, I decided to write about a local waterway, namely the Chenal Ecarte or Snye River.  It is a unique winding and scenic watercourse that is a distributary of the St. Clair River flowing into Lake St. Clair.  The Sydenham River, running through Wallaceburg, flows into it at a bend west of town.
The name is French, but somewhat unclear in its meaning.  Loosely, it means 'apart', or 'separate', probably referring to the fact it branches off the St. Clair River.  It was sometimes called the "Lost Channel", as early explorers thought it seemed to go nowhere!  It was sometimes called Snye Carte as well.

The Snye borders Walpole Island and St. Anne's Island, and at one bend, branches into the Johnston Channel.  As a boater, I spent lots of time on Snye, with the Johnston being my favourite.  The latter waterway is a story for another time!
We have had several boats over the years, which were well-utilized to traverse the local waterways.

The Chenal Ecarte is a deepwater channel all the way to Lake St. Clair.  Wallaceburg was once one of the busiest ports in the province, hence the Snye was a good navigable waterway.  There is a good list of ships that plied these waters, both passenger and cargo.

Put-In-Bay

The land is so flat around this area, that the Snye can reverse its flow when certain conditions are met.  For example, when the Sydenham is running high in the spring, the Snye will reverse from the "forks" to the Johnston Channel and flow out the Johnston.
In rarer events, the entire river will reverse and flow back into the St. Clair River at Port Lambton!  (I have seen this a couple of times).

There are some sharp bends, four in particular, that had unique names.  These often presented challenges for larger ships.
The attached Google Image shows the Chenal Ecarte, with the bends labelled.  As well, there are other points of interest.  Wallaceburg would be in the top right.

Bend "A" is the Johnston Bend, appropriately named where the Johnston Channel begins.  It is a fairly wide bend.

Johnston Channel

Bend "B" is the well-known dark bend.  There is thick forest on St. Anne's Island creating a shade later in the afternoon.  It is a scenic spot, often photographed as shown in the following post cards.

It was always one of my favourite spots, as one could see or hear many birds.

Approaching Dark Bend early morning

Just before "Dark Bend", there is a spot on St. Anne's Island where the bones of Chief Tecumseh were allegedly buried after being removed from the Thamesville area.  I have the info on that, but that is a story for another time!

A short distance downstream is Bend "C", "Devil's Elbow".  It is the sharpest bend in the river, hence its name.

Green-winged Teal in early summer

Heading downstream from there, one passes the area of the original Baldoon Settlement, established in 1804 by Lord Selkirk.  It was somewhat of a failure due to the swampy terrain not very suitable for farming, heavy clouds of mosquitoes in early summer, and long winters.

We soon come to Bend "D"....you guessed it, Baldoon Bend.  It was another fairly sharp bend.  One is getting close to Wallaceburg at this point!

Jolly Tiger II approaching Baldoon Bend

Not too much farther, one comes to a fork in the river, "E", where the muddy Sydenham flows into the Chenal Ecarte.  Here one can find an abrupt change in water colour.  You can actually see this in the image!  The emerald colour of the Snye, mixes with the mud-coloured Sydenham.  I always remembered this when I was young, going by in the boat.

From here, the Snye winds several kilometres southward until it reaches Lake St. Clair near Mitchell's Bay.

Label "1" on the Google Image is a point of interest, but it lies in the depths.  The Snye averages around 25-30 feet deep its entire length, but here there is a "hole" about 90' deep.  Why this is here, nobody knows!  If one pays attention at this spot when travelling by boat, you can see whirlpools at the surface over this deep spot.
Divers have descended on this spot and found the remains of oxen and a cart perhaps from the early 1800's, along with other artifacts.  Perhaps the river did not freeze as much here, and winter travellers were unaware of the dangers.

I do not have a boat now (!), but the Chenal Ecarte was always one of my favourite boating routes for birdwatching and its spendid scenery.

Flood Watch

With the recent unprecedented rainfall, flooding has occurred in many areas.  Good for waterfowl!
Seems more ducks have appeared along the St. Clair River at least.  Gulls, however, have spread out and not many have been milling about the Shell Refinery area the last couple of days.

There are lots of gulls all along the river now as they search for food.  The water is extremely turbid.  I noticed many dead Shad today.

For the second time in recent months, the McKeough floodway was in operation north of Wallaceburg.  The dam was closed late Sunday and is doing exactly what it is supposed to do.  A high volume of water is being diverted out to the St. Clair River and preventing serious flooding in Wallaceburg.
I checked out the outlet after work today.

Water was still flowing out today.

Here is a photo of the floodway from February 2018.  These events are getting too frequent!

Someone did some drone footage of the Wallaceburg area.  Here is a link:
http://sydenhamcurrent.ca/2020/01/14/drone-footage-of-wallaceburg-flooding-darcy-mckeough-floodway-video/

One can only hope we do not get a lot of rainfall this spring or we will be in serious trouble around here!

Snowy on a Hot Day

I have been making some rounds the last couple of days, but nothing of note until this afternoon.  I was going to a variety store this afternoon, but decided to take the long way around to take a glimpse of the flooded fields along Otter Creek.
On the south side, I saw three or four Great Egrets, but when I got to the north side of the creek, I saw another egret out of the corner of my eye.  I did an about-face as I thought it looked much smaller.  Sure enough it was a Snowy Egret!  I had no camera on hand so I rushed back to the house and came back to snap a few record photos.

Just last Friday, I finally saw some shorebirds there, including some very early Short-billed Dowitchers.  At the time, I predicted something decent will show up here.  A Snowy Egret will do! Something even better will have to show now....perhaps a Limpkin?  There are a couple in Ohio right now.

Yesterday, I went down to Rondeau for the first time in a few weeks.  I wanted to check on the situation for the upcoming butterfly count which is tomorrow.  My area, south point trail, is still flooded of course, and the levels are not much lower than in May.  It is very swampy, infested with mosquitoes and other critters!  There was a bit of a north wind yesterday, so Stable Flies were in numbers as well, which did not help.
There are not many flowering plants other than Common Milkweed either.  I saw very few butterflies, just like most other places this year.

Black-dotted Glyph (moth)

Delaware Skipper

Along the beach, I came across a dead Cecropia Moth.

The White-winged Dove was still up to its antics as I passed by.  Maybe a female will once again show up soon like last year.
On the maintenance loop, I checked for Oswego Tea flowers in a known spot.

Scarlet Beebalm

I stopped by Lagoon Road where a few shorebirds were across from the compost pile.  Included were three Short-billed Dowitchers.
I checked out Blenheim Lagoons as well.  Two more Short-billed Dowitchers were there too.  Seems they are on the move early this summer.

dowitchers

In the afternoon, I was relaxing on the back porch watching the garden. I was surprised to see a Banded Hairstreak fly in.  It was a first for the yard.

Red Admiral on Purple Coneflower

Today, I went up to Sarnia to check a couple of usual haunts.  Dow Wetlands did not have much other than mosquitoes.  I then moved over to the old Blackwell Landfill where a couple of Dickcissels moved in, finally, last week.  I quickly found one singing male.

I eventually managed to get quite close and got full frames shots of it.

I met up with the Nethercott's and we traversed the place.  We came across the two Sedge Wrens which had not been reported lately.  We thought they had left!

Bobolinks are now on the move, and several were at the old landfill.

On the way home, I stopped by McKeough and Reid to look for insects.  Very few....again!  Flag-tailed Spinylegs and Pronghorn Clubtails should have been around, but I found none.  With the high water, there is no edge along the river where they always liked to perch.

At Reid, there were lots of Banded Hairstreaks which probably just emerged.

I guess the Oak Hairstreaks are now done for this year, as I have not seen any for a while.  I also did not see Dukes' Skipper, but some are there.