Canada Day Detours

Not sure what to do on the holiday Wednesday, I ended up going to Joany's Woods which is along the Ausable River just in Middlesex County.  I usually get there at least once a year in June or so.  It is a large property owned by Thames Talbot Land Trust and has a good selection of wildlife to seek out.
I spent the better part of three hours there walking the trails.
A good variety of birds are here, some being at the south part of their breeding range.

I usually come across Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, but not on this outing.
Blue-winged Warbler is rather plentiful here in the breeding season.

Blue-winged Warbler on Tamarack

I came across four of five of these on this walk.

Golden-crowned Kinglet is at the south part of its breeding range and I came across one of those.  A scarce species in the south anymore is Ruffed Grouse of which I flushed one.

Eastern Towhees are common here, and I actually tripped the eBird filter tallying them!

Joany's is also good for leps and odes.  I saw my FOY Northern Pearly-Eye here.

Great-spangled Fritillary

A number of years ago, Variegated Fritillary managed to breed here in numbers, but I have not seen one in a long time.

Regarding odonates, the Ausable River skirts the property for a long distance, so we can see many types.  The river's edge is rather inaccessible due to the steep bank and vegetation, so viewing is limited.  I did see a few Swift River Cruisers and clubtails (likely Midland).  Actually there were not many odes to see.  There were lots of common things like Widow Skimmer and Common Whitetail and Blue Dasher.

A number of dancers and damsels were along the trail.

Violet Dancer

teneral ??

Near the end of my walk, I noticed a large dark dragonfly I recognized as an emerald.  It ended up being very co-operative and it appeared to be Mocha Emerald.  The Mocha was not known in Ontario until recent times but has shown up in many locales.  I am not sure if it has been recorded at Joany's before, but it was a nice surprise.   Not need to "net" this one!

I actually had the Mocha on my mind since Bill Lamond identified one at Reid CA on Sunday.  I was going to look for them closer to home, but that never happened!
I have actually seen Mocha in Middlesex before. While on the Skunk's Misery butterfly count a number of years ago, we came across some on Watterworth Road near Argyll.

It was getting hot, so I made a beeline for spots closer to home that I wanted to check.  I knew the heat would be a factor and perhaps it was as things got quiet by noon.
I did stop by Florence, but the river was once again running high.  I did see some Midland Clubtails, Swift River Cruiser and a number of dancers and bluets.

American Rubyspot

I stopped at Reid CA first.  Not much was flying due to the heat, but some hairstreaks were out.  I did find two Northern Oaks.

A FOY Striped Hairstreak appeared, but I was on a bad angle.

We also get Edwards', Hickory and Coral there, but I have not seen any yet.  Coral is quite scarce.

I was going to walk back along the river, but the mosquitoes were unbearable!  I checked "area 2" where Duke's Skippers have been, but there will not be any this year.  The spot is so flooded there are no sedges!

I then went up to W. Darcy McKeough CA to look for odes.  Hardly any, which I attribute to the heat.
While walking along the river, I spotted a small fish at the surface.  It looked unique and I thought it to be one of the rare ones.  Turned out to be a Black-striped Top Minnow which is imperiled in Canada.  First one I have seen!

There are a number of rare littlie fishies in the Sydenham if one wants to get looking!

Also along the river was a Bronze Copper.

Turning back the clock, when I was up at Hungry Hollow along the Ausable River, I photographed a number of dragonflies.  One had me a bit stumped, but further analysis on the field marks seemed to fit Green-faced Clubtail.  I saw two or three of them.

It is not much to look at really, but it is actually fairly rare in Ontario.  It can be widespread, but perhaps is often overlooked.  They characteristically perch on rocks out on the river, which is what I saw.
Just prior to that, James Holdsworth photographed one at Rock Glen, a species he had never seen before apparently.  That is just downstream from Hungry Hollow.
Apparently my sighting is a first for Middlesex County.

With the heat forecast this weekend, it is hard to say what I will come across......