Ontario Field Biology: Gyr Up

Today was a mixed bag. I was on the road to Windsor by 5:00am (to my morning person delight) for work and upon arrival heard my first Tree Swallows and heard/saw my first Belted Kingfishers of the year. An adult Bald Eagle flew north up the Detroit River and I found a pair of chubby Deer Mice beneath an old sheet of plywood, all before 9:00, so much action!

Walking along a hydro corridor I noticed a few tufts of a grass with red-golden leaves. It's one that can be mistaken for Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium) at a distance, and the two can grow side-by-side in prairie habitats. I have found that Broomsedge takes on a more 'sparse' look with only 20-25 or so blades whereas a mature Little Blue is more clump forming with hundreds of ascending blades. Also, Broomsedge seeds are ensheathed, you can kind of see it in the first photo. Little Blue are not ensheathed, thus the 'snowy' look come fall. While it shares the look of Little Bluestem, it is of the same genus as another staple prairie grass, Big Bluestem (Andropogon gerardii).

The grass in the photo below is Virginia Broom-sedge (Andropogon virginicus). The Oldham 1993 list for Essex County notes it to be vulnerable, and actually it's rare throughout it's range in Ontario (apparently with the exception of Huron County).

I scrounged up a few Little Bluestem seeds from the yard to show the two side-by-side, Little Blue on the left, Broom-sedge on the right.

If admiring dead prairie grass wasn't exciting enough, my co-worker and I took the long way home and stopped by Brick Yard Line where the continuing Gyrfalcon has been hanging out for some time. We watched it for 15 minutes, the 40-50km/h winds making it a bit of a challenge to keep my scope steady. The bird mostly just sat contently looking around, then made a short low flight over to a carcass of some sort which it proceeded to chew at.

Given our trajectory home it seemed logical to try and re-locate the Eurasian Wigeon which had been reported from southwest of Northville, east of Outer Drive (haha). After scanning about 200 or so ducks for 10 minutes we weren't so lucky. Although a few Pintail, Wood Duck, American Wigeon and Northern Shoveler made the stop well worthwhile.