Bioblitz at Ojibway! Butterfly Portion

Today I went down to Ojibway to look for butterflies as part of the bioblitz.  The bioblitz is an all-out effort to find anything from herps to plants to insects to birds, etc.  It runs from 11 a.m. Saturday to 11 a.m. Sunday.

It was a mass invasion of nature-minded people!  The parking lot was full and overflowing this morning.  I saw many familiar faces and it was a lot of fun.  Although the blitz continues to tomorrow morning, I was only interested in the butterfly portion.  We covered our usual areas (Brunet Park and Spring Garden) that we normally do for the butterfly count.

Spring Garden sedge area

I came along early (I can get to Ojibway sooner than I can get to Point Pelee!) and did the trail on my own from Matchette to Malden Road.  I had 20 species of butterflies by 09:30!

Common Wood Nymph

I saw a couple of Peck's Skippers along that trail.  One I did not realize until I got home, I caught in mid-flight! Kind of neat as it appears to be just hanging there.  I did get a photo of it on the chicory a few seconds later.

At Brunet we were skunked on hairstreaks, which was highly unusual.  We did get at least 3 Dukes' Skippers--the first one which I spotted beside the pond.

A few Wild Indigo Duskywings were there as well.

On to Spring Garden, entering at Elgin Street, we went to the sedge skipper area.  Here we found multiple Black Dash.  Certainly the most I have seen at once!

There was Broad-winged here as well and one or two Mulberry Wing.  Crappy photo of the Broad-winged....

Butterfly Milkweed is not as abundant this year, but some Coral and Acadian Hairstreaks (also Edwards') were found. Most were quite worn.

At the "hill" we found oodles of Wild Indigo Duskywings.  This one was laying eggs I believe.

We had a couple more Broad-winged Skippers along the way and in the woods, the Hooded Warbler was singing away.  A Jeremy Hatt sighting was added to the list as the Hooded Warbler sang.

To finish the mid afternoon, we looked a few American Coppers at the usual spot.

As we had not had lunch, a stop at Tim Horton's down the road was in order.  While there, we recorded 4 species of butterflies from the window--one being a Silver-spotted Skipper.  All of those skippers today, were worn.

Silver-spotted Skipper at Ojibway

I had seen 36 species of butterflies by mid afternoon--certainly below average.  However, I was happy with the count, but the hot and humid weather had did me in for the day.

Ojibway Prairie