Monday, July 26, 2021

Recent Butterfly Counts

 The annual Rondeau butterfly count was held July 18, a week later than usual due to weather concerns.  We ended up with a decent day weatherwise!  My area is south point trail and south end of Harrison Trail, which I have been doing since the count's inception in 1999.

I was joined by Paul Carter and Lori Clancy as we set out in the dune area along the east edge of the forest.  We looked at anything!

Spring Peeper (in the summer!)

Salt Marsh moth caterpillar

Butterflies were not plentiful, as expected, but certainly much better than the previous year (14 species, lol).  This year I ended up with 19 species.  Average over the years is about 24 species.

Common Sootywing

Appalachian Browns were most plentiful, the most I have ever seen on a count.


Azures were also very plentiful.


Timing is everything and each year is different.

I kept an eye out for birds....of course.  Notable were a couple of adult Little Gulls on the lake.  Their calls got my attention at first.



Some damselflies included these.

Sedge Sprite

Tule Bluet

We saw some skinks as well.  At one point we found a nest.  First time I have actually looked at skink eggs.  I counted nine which makes one wonder how so many eggs come out of a little skink!




I have not heard of the results of the entire count yet.

Yesterday was the Clear Creek butterfly count, ongoing since 2000.  Once again we had good weather, despite the forecast saying otherwise all week.  A little too hot and humid though!


I did the same thing as last year starting at the Clear Creek Provincial Nature Reserve.  I was joined again by Rayfield and Donald Pye, starting at the old quarry.  It is a great place for insects.

Highlight here were the Broad-winged Skippers.  At least nine were counted.



A variety of others were seen.

Great spangled Fritillary


I kept an eye out for dragonflies, especially Comet Darner.  Still no Comet!  Not a lot of dragonflies this year, as I mentioned before.

We next moved to the Bury cemetery trail south of the highway.  We found some other species, including Eastern Comma and Question Mark on the same tree.


A couple of Northern Pearly-eyes were here too.


Our only hairstreaks were a couple of Banded.  Tough to find at this date since they were out much earlier this year.

Around noon, we moved to the Natvik properties.  One can spend a whole day here.


Here I found our only Delaware Skipper.


Skippers in general have been low in numbers this year, something to do with the weather no doubt.

There are several properties and some natural areas planted.  We chose to walk around the big pond at the end of McDonald Line.  The mosquitoes were horrendous though!

We used to spend quite a bit of time on these properties in the earlier years.  I do not remember the trail around this pond, but it was very nice.  We could have spent more time, but were getting exhausted due to the humidity and effort swatting mosquitoes.



It was early afternoon  when we finished this trail, and it was getting much to hot and humid to continue.  We did some driving after that and went home.

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