Recent Sightings and Point Pelee

Gray Hairstreak, Point Pelee

Giant Swallowtails seem to be the big news this past week east of Toronto. Many reports posted on Ontario Butterflies. See: Ontariobutterflies

I see lots around here and at Point Pelee of course. As I mentioned last week, they were everywhere on Pelee Island in big numbers.

Some Peck's Skippers are out this week. I had one in my garden on Wednesday which was a first for here, and I saw another at Reid CA yesterday.

Peck's Skipper

Regarding skippers, I am optimistically hoping for Zabulon!! Not likely to occur here though I am told.

Today I went to Point Pelee. Virtually no skippers were sighted, but I did get a fleeting glimpse of a Silver-spotted at the north end of the park.

The highlight today was yet another Gray Hairstreak. It was nectaring on Flowering Spurge near the north end of West Beach Trail. (See photo at top). It must be a decent year for Gray Hairstreak since I have seen four this summer after a drought of many years.

Lots of crescents were out...

The only emperor was a very tattered Tawny Emperor beside West Beach parking lot.

I saw five or six Common Buckeye along West Beach Trail. They are the prettiest butterfly as far as I am concerned!

In the birding department, well, not many to look at! The only warblers I saw were Yellow and Common Yellowthroat. I did see a Yellow-bellied Flycatcher. This flycatcher seems to be abundant this fall. There were lots of Eastern Kingbirds today, especially along the west side. Some shorebirds included Semipalmated Plovers.

I stopped at Blenheim lagoons on the way home and saw at least 150 shorebirds, but nothing new. Where are those phalaropes? Buff-breasted Sandpiper should be showing up by now as well.