WEEK 12 Species:

Rapids Clubtail (Gomphus quadricolor)

Description:

The Rapids Clubtail is a small (42 to 45 millimeter-long), brightly coloured dragonfly. Its eyes are bluish-green, with a light yellowish-green face that is striped with two dark lines, a brownish-black and yellowish-green striped body and transparent wings.

• Like all dragonflies, it begins as an aquatic larva and transforms into winged adult in the summer
• Rapids fly from late spring through early summer and adults feed on small flying insects

Important Dates:

Sept. 10, 2009: Listed as Endangered

July 1, 2012: Granted Habitat Protection

Range:

The Rapids Clubtail is found throughout eastern North America. Within this range the species and its habitat are locally distributed and there are large areas where the species does not occur.

• Mostly located in the U.S. Midwest, but range extends from northern Alabama and Georgia to southern Ontario, and from Maine to eastern Minnesota.
• In Ontario, the Rapids Clubtail has only been found in four rivers in southern Ontario: the Thames, Humber, Credit and Mississippi

Habitat:

• Typically found in clear, cool medium-to-large rivers with gravel shallows and muddy pools.
• Larvae occupy quiet muddy pools
• Adult males perch on exposed rocks and other projections in the rapids – males are quite territorial and make short flights over the water, repeatedly returning to the same perch.
• Adult females typically inhabit forests along riverbanks, and only visit shallows and pools when they are ready to mate and lay eggs.

Threats:

• The primary threat to the Rapids Clubtail is the degradation of river habitats;
• Activities which impede or alter the quantity and quality of water in the rivers, such as dams and pollution pose threats

Protection:

• A recovery strategy and a species-specific habitat regulation are being developed

o   Recovery strategy: a recovery strategy provides the best available scientific knowledge on what is required to achieve recovery of a species.

• Rapids Clubtail has also been assessed nationally as endangered by the federal Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC)

What You Can Do to Help the Rapids Clubtail:

• Soil erosion and runoff is a source of pollutants such as fertilizers and pesticides to watercourses in Ontario;

Fun Facts:

• Adult Rapids Clubtails only live for three to four weeks, between early June and mid-July;
• Larvae ‘breathe’ through the exposed tip of their abdomen when buried under a fine layer of sediment;
• The most significant predator of Rapids larvae are fish, larger dragonflies and spiders

This Week’s Species: Laura’s Clubtail (Stylurus laurae) Status: Endangered Description: Laura’s Clubtail is a dragonfly with green eyes and a pale face with one or two dark cross bars. It has prominent green or yellow stripes on the thorax (the area between the head and the abdomen), and dark abdomen with a yellow stripe on its back.

• It is named “clubtail” for a club-like widening at the end of its abdomen.
• Laura’s Clubtail is about six centimeters long
• Laura’s Clubtail eggs can take between five and 30 days to hatch
• Once hatched, larvae spend two to four years in sand and mud river bottoms
• Larvae emerge from the water and molt into adults in June. Adults die in early fall of the same year

Important Dates: Sept. 28, 2010: Listed as Endangered Jan. 1, 2014: Receives Habitat Protection Range: Laura’s Clubtail is only known to occur in two sites in Ontario; along Big Creek and Big Otter Creek in the Tillsonburg and Long Point area near Lake Erie.

• Found from Texas and the Florida Panhandle up to southwest Ontario

Habitat:

• Larvae need shallow, sandy or sadny-muddy bottomed creeks with forested shorelines;
• Sensitive to water quality degradation and are only found un unpolluted waters;
• During their adult life, they require forest cover beside the creek.
• Adults use riffle areas in the stream for foraging and require vegetation along the creek to perch between flights

Threats:

• Laura’s Clubtail has specific habitat needs and is sensitive to pollution, habitat loss and degradation are potential threats to the species
• Development, agricultural practices, and invasive species – especially round goby – may also degrade Laura’s Clubtail habitat
• Many dragonflies are also killed when hit by cars

What You Can Do to Help Laura’s Clubtail:

• You can help improve dragonfly habitat and keep Ontario’s water safe and clean by maintaining natural vegetation next to rivers. The roots of plants reduce erosion and can stop soil from washing into water bodies.

Fun Facts:

• Laura’s Clubtail is named for Laura Ditzler, a member of the group that first identified the species in 1931;
• Laura’s Clubtail was first recorded in Ontario in 1999;
• Laura’s Clubtail is one of over 170 different kinds of odonates (dragonflies and damselflies) in Ontario
• When Laura’s Clubtail are larvae, they start eating single-celled organisms and move on to tadpoles and small fish as they grow larger. Adults feed on small flying insects;
• Newly emerged adults are at greater risk from predators – frogs, spiders, larger dragonflies and birds – because their exoskeletons have not yet hardened;
• “LAURA THE DRAGONFLY” has FACEBOOK PAGE: https://www.facebook.com/LauraTheDragonfly

Just a reminder: The Ingersoll District Nature Club will be hosting two events over Mother’s Day Weekend (May 10-11, 2014)

Saturday, May 10
Long Point Walk: Bird Observatory
Excursion to the Long Point Bird Observatory, the Bird Studies Canada site and the Long Point Causeway Observation Area will give birding enthusiasts lots of opportunities for viewing. Led by Dave Baird, we’re sure this will prove to be an interesting day. Meet at the Lawson Tract at 9:00 for Carpooling. For more information, contact Dave Baird at dcbaird@rogers.com.

Sunday, May 11
Trillium Walk Daytime Family Event
Enjoy the trilliums and other spring flowers and wildlife at the Lawson Nature Reserve. Bring the whole family and explore the trails. This month, see Lawson Tract at its best. Bring Mom! Self-guided tours. All welcome.
For more information, contact Sheila Fleming at sheila.fleming@lawsonresearch.com.

Yellow-breasted Chat (Icteria Virens)

Status: Endangered, Special Concern Nationally

 Factoid:

• The yellow-breasted Chat’s song consists of a weird assortment of clicks, whistles and even chuckles;
• They will lay from 3 to 5 creamy white eggs with reddish brown blotches or speckles, incubated by the female, hatch in 11 to 12 days;
• Both parents tend the young, who fledge in approximately 8 to 11 days;
• Nesting occurs mid-May to June

Description: The Yellow-breasted chat is a medium-sized songbird, about 18 centimetres long, with a long tail. It has a bright yellow chest and throat, olive-green back, white circles around its eyes, white belly and undertail.  This bird eats insects and berries gathered from the foliage of low, dense shrubs, or from the ground.

• The Juvenile Yellow-breasted chat lacks yellow and has dusky spotting on throat and chest

Important Dates:

Nov. 30, 2011: Species is listed as “at risk”

Jan. 24, 2013: Species reassessed and labeled as “endangered”

Range:

• Found in much of United States. In Canada, it lives in southern British Columbia, the Praries, and southwestern Ontario, where it is concentrated in Point Pelee National Park and Pelee Island Lake Erie
• Winters along the Gulf of Mexico

Habitat:

• Lives in thickets and scrub, especially locations where clearings have become overgrown.
• Spend winters in coastal marshes
• Nests in shrubs

Behaviour: Gleans prey from foliage of low, dense shrubs, or from ground. Holds food with foot

Food:  Small invertebrates, fruits

Threats:

• Habitat of overgrown clearings is disappearing

Protection:

•  The Ontario population has declined by 55% over the past 20 years and it is declining in neighboring jurisdictions as well
• There are likely fewer than 10 breeding locations in Ontario
• The population in the Point Pelee National Park also receives protection

What you can do to help:

• Maintain and enhance remaining riparian habitat including cottonwoods, aspen, rose thickets and snowberry;
• Protect off-road vehicles from disturbing and degrading stream-side vegetation;
• You can use an online form to report your sightings to the Natural Heritage Information Centre (http://nhic.mnr.gov.on.ca/)
• Private land owners have a very important role to play in species recovery. You may be eligible for stewardship programs that support the protection and recovery of species at risk and their habitats
• Volunteer with your local nature club or provincial park
• Bird Studies Canada is working to advance the understanding, appreciation and conservation of wild birds and their habitat in Ontario and elsewhere. For more info on how to help, visit: www.bsc-eoc.org

Fun Facts:

• Yellow-breasted Chat’s in Ontario tend to be more subdued in colour than their relatives in Western Canada, and separate subspecies are recognized;
• The Yellow-breasted Chat’s song consists of a weird assortment of clicks, whistles and even chuckles;
• Was first described in 1758 by Carolus Linnaeus, Swedish botanist, physician and zoologist;
• Song is louder and lower pitched than those of their other wood warblers; one common phrase consists of three whistles exactly like someone calling their dog!
• Chats often sing at night

The Snapping Turtles of Centreville

By Karen Paton-Evans

This spring, travelers along Mill Line near Centreville, the gently winding road ending in Karn Road to the south and Beachville Road to the north, will need to be watchful for the annual day-long trek that mother Snapping Turtles make to lay their eggs.

In late May and June, those mother snappers, aged 17 years and older, leave the safety of Centreville Conservation Area’s marsh, make the slow trek across Mill Line. After crawling up Indian Hill, they will find the right spot to dig a large hole and lay up to 50 eggs, before heading back to the pond.

It will not be until autumn that the loonie-sized hatchlings will hatch and instinctively make their way to the Centreville Pond in the Conservation Area, which is overseen by the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority and cared for by the Township of South-West Oxford. As these turtles get older, some will be found in the park’s one-acre pond, and even “sunbathing” on logs. Mostly, snappers stay in the water, the natural habitat that gives them life. In turn, snappers play an important role in keeping our lakes and wetlands clean.

As Canada’s largest freshwater turtle, according to the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, the Snapping Turtle can grow up to 36 cm or longer (some Centreville snappers have been known to have even bigger shells) and weigh between 4.5 and 16 kg.

The Snapping Turtle takes 15-20 years to reach maturity, and therefore, the species’ survival rate is impacted by adult mortality rates. However, with the right environmental conditions, the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) states, “Snapping Turtles are believed to live well over 100 years!” which means, the huge Snapping turtles residing in Centreville Pond could very well be the hamlet’s oldest residents.

The Snapping Turtle is listed as Special Concern under the Ontario Endangered Species Act and as Special Concern under the Federal Species at Risk Act. Snappers are designated as a Specially Protected Reptile under the Ontario Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act. All of these acts protect both the snapping turtle and its habitat. The habitat of this species is also protected by the Ontario’s Provincial Policy Statement under the Planning Act.

“As with many other rare plants and animals, the Snapping Turtle depends on wetland habitat,” the Ministry of Natural Resources states, and adds that “You can help by protecting any wetlands and surrounding natural vegetation on your property.”

Centreville residents do their best to protect their snapper neighbours by accommodating nesting turtles and protecting their eggs; serving as traffic directors when the snappers are crossing Mill Line; and volunteering to maintain and watch over the Centreville Conservation Area and Pond.