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August 2001 Sightings in Windsor

See our Upcoming events page for fall programs and events.

Wednesday, August 29: The first "weekday warbler" program of the fall started today with a trip to Point Pelee. There were good numbers of warblers flitting through the park and our group had good looks at Tennessee Warbler 2, Chestnut-sided Warbler 6, Magnolia Warbler 8, Cape May Warbler 8, Black-throated Blue Warbler 2, Black-throated Green Warbler 2, Blackburnian Warbler 7, Bay-breasted Warbler 3, Black-and-White Warbler 6, American Redstart 1, Common Yellowthroat 1 and Canada Warbler 1. Other notable migrants included orioles, hummingbirds, thrushes, Red-breasted Nuthatches, Bobolinks and a single Purple Finch. A brief stop at Hillman Marsh also produced three Bald Eagles, Broad-winged Hawk, Greater Scaup and a few hundred shorebirds including White-rumped Sandpiper and Baird's Sandpiper.

Saturday, August 25: Fred Urie found an early Orange-crowned Warbler at Ojibway Shores today along with 11 other species of migrant warblers.

Monday, August 14: Paul DesJardins spent an hour searching for lady beetles in the nature reserve today. Seven-spotted Lady Beetle, Coccinelila septempunctata and Russian Wheat-aphid Lady Beetle, Hippodamia variegata were common but an hour's searching also revealed Parenthesis Lady Beetle, Hippodamia parenthesis, Spotted Lady Beetle, Coleomegilla maculata, Convergent Lady Beetle, Hippodamia convergens, Southern Lady Beetle, Harmonia axyridis and Polished Lady Beetle, Cycloneda munda. Paul noted that the Seven-spotted Lady Beetle has become very common this year while the Southern Lady Beetle, which was present last fall in huge numbers, has become quite scarce.

Saturday, August 10: The first migrant Common Nighthawk was seen August 7 and the first Sharp-shinned Hawk was flying over the centre August 8. The most common butterfly on recent prairie hikes has been the Painted Lady, Vanessa cardui. Over 50 were seen during a short hike today, mostly nectaring at Dense Blazing Star. Only three were seen during the butterfly count in early July. A locally rare Gray Hairsteak, Strymon melinus, was also seen by Paul Pratt on Saturday.

Indian Grass is now flowering along with typical mid August species such as Smooth False Foxglove, Aureolaria flava, Flat-topped White Aster, Aster umbellatus, and Prairie Dock, Silphium terebinthinaceum. The drought which has persisted since late June has had little impact on wet prairie sites but the ground cover in drier Black Oak savanna has become brown and brittle. One benefit of the dry weather has been a great reduction in the number of mosquitoes this summer compared to last summer.

Thursday, August 2: This is the start of the second flight season for Ojibway's largest butterfly, the Giant Swallowtail Papilio cresphontes. The first individual was seen on July 28 and these conspicuous butterflies are easy to observe until early September.

The tall prairie grasses are becoming conspicuous in the nature reserve. Some of the more common species (arranged by flowering date) are: