On Saturday I ventured over to Port Weller, one of my favorite naturalizing locations in the Niagara Region. Port Weller is of course an excellent birding hotspot, largely due to its geography. As a long, vegetated pier with several ponds that juts into Lake Ontario, it attracts migrants that are moving along the lakeshore or across the lake.
But Port Weller is home to much more than just birds, and I thought I would highlight some of these species in this post, since I ended up photographing a variety of them during my visit on Saturday. A few birds may sneak in as well, though!
My day started off extraordinarily well. The first butterfly of the day I observed was a small, orange one that alighted with its wings closed on the path near the Jones Beach parking lot. A look through the binoculars confirmed my suspicion - it was a Harvester!
Harvester is unique in that it is the only carnivorous butterfly we have in Ontario. While most caterpillars target various species of vegetation, Harvester caterpillars dine on aphids. The species can be quite local and difficult to find, usually found in close association with Speckled Alder. I had only seen one Harvester before in my life despite spending a lot of time out butterflying - an individual in Rainy River in 2012. Looking at the Ontario Butterfly Atlas I see no records for the Port Weller area, and the last record for the Niagara Region was in 1949! On iNaturalist there is a recent record for Niagara - one was photographed in Pelham on June 8, 2018.
My camera was in the car but fortunately the Harvester was approachable, letting me photograph it with my phone from six inches away. When I returned five minutes later with my camera, it was gone.
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| Harvester - Port Weller east pier, Niagara Region |
During my last few trips to the pier one of the most conspicuous species has been the Monarch, a species at risk butterfly that has seen fluctuations in its population over the last few years, at least in southern Ontario. 2018 appears to be an excellent Monarch year. Adults have been widely reported in large numbers across southern Ontario; indeed I have come across many more than usual during my field surveys, especially in the last two months. Brown Knapweed, an invasive species that is abundant up and down the pier, is a favored nectaring plant for adult Monarchs. At least forty Monarchs were present on Saturday - many of these likely migrants that are on their way south.
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| Monarch - Port Weller east pier, Niagara Region |
Of course Monarchs were not the only species of butterfly nectaring on the knapweed; Cabbage Whites were also frequently seen as well. Unlike Monarch, Cabbage White is an invasive species, and one of the most familiar butterflies in southern Ontario, especially in weedy areas.
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| Cabbage White - Port Weller east pier, Niagara Region |
Port Weller is not the most "pristine" location to explore in Ontario. Built with fill that was produced during the excavation of the Welland Canal, most of the vegetation on the pier consists of hardy, weedy species that are commonly the first ones to populate a disturbed area. As a result, the various insects found here are also generally common species that are widespread in southern Ontario.
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| Western Honey Bee (Apis mellifera) - Port Weller east pier, Niagara Region |
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| Bicolored Striped Sweat Bee (Agapostemon virescens) - Port Weller east pier, Niagara Region |
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| Carolina Grasshopper (Dissosteira carolina) - Port Weller east pier, Niagara Region |
Thousands of Red-legged Grasshoppers populate the pier at the moment, and each step taken through the grasses and knapweed will send dozens scattering. This Yellow Garden Spider had snagged one of them in its web.
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| Yellow Garden Spider (Argiope aurantia) - Port Weller east pier, Niagara Region |
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| Yellow Garden Spider (Argiope aurantia) - Port Weller east pier, Niagara Region |
Dragonflies are often in short supply on Port Weller and the species that breed here are also widespread, species that can survive in disturbed areas. Bluets are abundant on the pier and I believe they are all Familiar Bluet, though I still struggle with bluet identification.
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| Familiar Bluet - Port Weller east pier, Niagara Region |
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| Familiar Bluets - Port Weller east pier, Niagara Region |
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| Familiar Bluets - Port Weller east pier, Niagara Region |
Eastern Forktail is the other damselfly species I commonly observe, especially around the "Big Pond".
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| Eastern Forktail - Port Weller east pier, Niagara Region |
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| Eastern Forktail - Port Weller east pier, Niagara Region |
I was happy to find a few cooperative Eastern Pondhawks around the "Small Pond". This well-named species is frequently found around still water and can be a terror to the other odonates in the area, voraciously feeding on dragonflies even the same size as them.
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| Eastern Pondhawk - Port Weller east pier, Niagara Region |
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| Eastern Pondhawk - Port Weller east pier, Niagara Region |
Black Saddlebags are often the most conspicuous dragonflies at Port Weller. They often gather here in large numbers during the summer as individuals migrate up from the south.
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| Black Saddlebags - Port Weller, Niagara Region |
Sitting right in the middle of the crushed gravel central trail was this cicada, one of the species in the genus
Neotibicen. It is most likely Northern Dog-Day Cicada (
Neotibicen canicularis) but I'm quickly realizing that cicada identification is difficult.
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| Neotibicen species - Port Weller east pier, Niagara Region |
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| Neotibicen species - Port Weller east pier, Niagara Region |
Not long after finding the cicada a raptor circled over the trees up the path, then quickly disappeared. A minute later it made a reappearance, giving me enough of a look to identify it as a Broad-winged Hawk until it slipped behind some trees and out of sight. Late August means the beginning of Broad-winged Hawk migration and during the peak days in early September, tens of thousands may pass by single locations on the north shore of Lakes Erie and Ontario. Niagara does not see too much raptor migration in the autumn due, again, to its geography. This was the first Broad-winged I had ever seen in the autumn in Niagara, and only the second time I had observed one on Port Weller. Please excuse my terrible photo below!
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| Broad-winged Hawk - Port Weller east pier, Niagara Region |
The Broad-winged was not the only avian surprise on the day. Perched along the edge of the Big Pond were two Green Herons, intent on watching for minnows in the water below. This may be a little ho hum for most birders, but it is actually a pretty decent Port Weller bird. For some reason I had never seen one on the pier before; my only sighting for the area was a flyby at the base of the pier back in May of this year. The above caveat about terrible record photos apply here too.
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| Green Heron (and Midland Painted Turtle, Red-eared Sliders) - Port Weller east pier, Niagara Region |
The butterfly diversity increased once I passed the Big Pond and approached the Small Pond. I was pleased to see several Orange Sulphurs along with some Common Sulphurs.
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| Orange Sulphur - Port Weller east pier, Niagara Region |
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| Orange Sulphur - Port Weller east pier, Niagara Region |
Wild Indigo Duskywing is a species of skipper that used to be quite rare and local in southern Ontario, a reflection of its foodplants which included Wide Indigos (
Baptisia) and Lupines (
Lupinus). In the last few decades, Wild Indigo Duskywing has added Purple Crown Vetch (
Coronilla varia) to its diet, enabling it to expand its range in the east. Purple Crown Vetch has been planted in several spots at Port Weller, especially on the east side of the pier near the Small Pond. As a result the small dark skippers are easy to find.
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| Wild Indigo Duskywing - Port Weller east pier, Niagara Region |
Below are four other species of butterflies that also find habitat at Port Weller and which can be found during most visits in late summer. I'm still trying to figure the crescents out; so far I've only confidently identified Pearl Crescent.
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| Pearl Crescent - Port Weller east pier, Niagara Region |
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| Pearl Crescent - Port Weller east pier, Niagara Region |
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| Eastern Tailed-Blue - Port Weller east pier, Niagara Region |
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| Least Skipper - Port Weller east pier, Niagara Region |
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| Black Swallowtail - Port Weller east pier, Niagara Region |
Reaching the end of the pier, I stopped to scan the lake off of the lighthouse. Gulls and terns were in short supply, though a single Common Tern hunted just offshore.
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| Common Tern - Port Weller east pier, Niagara Region |
Peaking over the edge towards the rocks at the water's edge, a trio of shorebirds appeared. One was a Spotted Sandpiper (they breed on the pier) but the other two were migrants from the Arctic - one each of Least and Semipalmated Sandpiper.
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| Semipalmated Sandpiper - Port Weller east pier, Niagara Region |
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| Least Sandpiper - Port Weller east pier, Niagara Region |
Great Blue Heron is a species that I rarely observe at Port Weller for some reason. Yet while I was photographing the above shorebirds, one came in off the lake and landed not far from where I was crouched along the shoreline. This was only my 4th sighting in 77 visits to the pier (according to eBird).
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| Great Blue Heron - Port Weller east pier, Niagara Region |
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| Great Blue Heron - Port Weller east pier, Niagara Region |
A little further down the shoreline stood another shorebird - this time a Greater Yellowlegs. My only two previous sightings of this species at Port Weller included one on the Big Pond on September 14, 2016 (water levels were much lower that year), and a flock of eight that flew over this spring on May 2, 2018.
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| Greater Yellowlegs - Port Weller east pier, Niagara Region |
But the highlight of the day was yet to come. I quickly scanned the gulls and terns on the concrete pad near the mouth of the Welland Canal, then turned and began walking south. Looking to my left, a strikingly-patterned orange, black and white shorebird stood partially hidden on one of the rocks lining the pier.
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| Ruddy Turnstone - Port Weller east pier, Niagara Region |
I went into stealth mode and took my time slowly approaching the shorebird, in hopes of not flushing it. Fortunately the Ruddy Turnstone was tolerant of my presence and before long I had nestled myself in the rocks with the sun at my back and the bird ten feet in front of me.
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| Ruddy Turnstone - Port Weller east pier, Niagara Region |
A splash in the water brought my attention to an American Mink that swam to a nearby rock and exited the water. It could sense something was off and sniffed the air in my direction but eventually carried on with its day. A minute later a little brown face appeared from a crevice between two rocks, only a meter or two from where I was sitting. I remained perfectly still while the mink sniffed the air in my direction, trying to figure out what I was. No photos of that unfortunately - it was much too close and I was afraid of flushing it by moving my camera.
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| American Mink - Port Weller east pier, Niagara Region |
American Minks patrol the shoreline of Port Weller. I encounter them on perhaps 20% of my visits to the pier.
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| American Mink - Port Weller east pier, Niagara Region |
Back to the turnstone - Ruddy Turnstone is another species of Arctic-nesting shorebird that passes through southern Ontario during its migration. This species is more strongly tied to coastlines than many of the others, and they are rarely seen away from the shorelines of the Great Lakes in southern Ontario. Ruddy Turnstone was long-overdue for my Port Weller east pier list and I was happy to add it as species #208.
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| Ruddy Turnstone - Port Weller east pier, Niagara Region |
A distant pleasure craft passing caused a series of waves to pass over the rock that the turnstone had picked, yet he remained balanced during the affair.
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| Ruddy Turnstone - Port Weller east pier, Niagara Region |
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| Ruddy Turnstone - Port Weller east pier, Niagara Region |
Aptly named, turnstones use their broad, flat bills to pry up rocks and search for invertebrate morsels found underneath. Once I had maxed out my photographic possibilities with the turnstone I slowly retreated, taking care not to flush it on my return to the path. It was certainly the best photoshoot I had ever had with a Ruddy Turnstone and a great opportunity to study the clown-like plumage!
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| Ruddy Turnstone - Port Weller east pier, Niagara Region |
That's all for now. Port Weller remains full of possibilities and I'm already looking forward to getting back there, especially as autumn bird migration progresses. You never know what will pop in!
