Butterfly Counting at Skunk's Misery 2021

 Sunday was the annual butterfly count centred at Skunk's Misery, one of the premier counts in Ontario.  It actually encompasses parts of four counties!  It is my favourite and I have been doing it for about 20 years (that long already?).

The tradition is that we  into groups and do the "Misery" part in the morning, then divide and conquer the rest of the circle in the afternoon.  Unfortunately for obvious reasons this year and last, we could not meet for lunch at Wardsville, nor the wrap-up BBQ at the end of the day (which is part of the fun!).

I have always done Centreville Drive (west), although I have done Trillium a couple of times in the distant past.  It is my favourite location along Centreville.  This year it took me a good four hours to go from Concession to Dogwood.  Always interesting as one can do birding along the way!

Blue-winged Warbler

Pine Warbler

Every year is different with regards to species and numbers.  Along my route, this year there were only a few Little Wood Satyrs in the "browns" department.  Very few anglewings (commas, question mark, etc.).  No Red-spotted Purple. And, only one azure.

Question Mark on milkweed

However, there were lots of Mourning Cloaks (usually very few!), and as expected, hairstreaks.

Northern Broken-Dash was in huge numbers as well.

Tawny Emperors had impressive numbers, as expected.

I did get a couple of Compton Tortoiseshells, which are always nice to find.

There were lots of Hickory and Banded Hairstreaks.

I did find several Striped as well.

Striped Hairstreak on Buttonbush

I did see a couple of Edwards' too, but the one photo I took was on the wrong hairstreak (!).

Near Dogwood, at the end of the walk, there were perhaps almost 200 hairstreaks, which was quite overwhelming.

I did not do too much looking in the afternoon as it was getting very hot, and I was not interested in doing a lot of driving. I did stop to walk one location along the Sydenham off the west end of Mosside Line.  It is a favourite spot of mine, and in the past has been quite productive.  However, this year there was hardly anything there!

It is also good for looking at odes on the river, but that too was not fruitful.  I only saw Stream Bluets.

On the way home, I stopped by Moore WMA, but the river is still too high.  There were hundreds of Blue-fronted Dancers (I think) on the river.

This Michigan Lilly caught my eye at Moore.  It is out in many locations right now.

I saw this one in Skunk's Misery which I assume is Michigan Lilly, not yet out.  Thought it was neat with a meadowhawk on top!

Total species tallied for the count was 50.  Record high numbers of hairstreaks were recorded!  (850 Banded).