Findings and Tours This Week

After excessive rains (again!) on Tuesday, things were back to flooding for a while.  Seems to be the norm anymore.  I will likely wear out another pair of boots this summer!

Wednesday morning I walked Peers Wetland first thing.

Pearl Crescent

Least Skipper

Fragile Forktail

In the afternoon, I did the long walk at Reid CA.  The Zabulon Skippers were still present!

One has to wonder how many are around undetected.

Other insects:

Brown Wasp Mantid Fly

Common Buckeye

Dukes' Skipper

And, the trusty Royal River Cruisers. I saw at least twelve this day.

The usual Cardinal Flower was in bloom, indicating mid-summer.

 Thursday was uneventful, as was Friday was too.  It certainly has been a bland summer for birds, so I have been looking more at insects.  Hopefully things pick up soon.  Insect hunting has been decent, but lately, I have not found much as the summer wanes.

Friday morning while relaxing on the back porch, I noticed a large dragonfly come in.  It was a Royal River Cruiser, constituting the fourth yard record here.  I only had the cell phone available, so quality not good.

Today was the most interesting day of the week.  A Lambton Wildlife outing was held on a property NW of Alvinston.  It was quite fabulous walking through the woods and the creek valley, where lots of uncommon to rare things could be found.

Pawpaw trees are common here, and in fact it is apparently the largest population in the province.

We also looked at a Butternut tree, another rarity.

I am told Virginia Bluebells are here as well for forest floor plants.

Different fungus was found on the forest floor, including these.

Violet Coral Fungus

Fairy Fingers

Ghost Pipe

Great Blue Herons nest on the property.  Of course, they were long gone by this time!

Brown's Creek winds through the property creating interesting scenery and habitat.

We found a mussel at one point.  Not sure, but maybe deertoe.  (will update later).

Very few butterflies, but this Hackberry Emperor briefly posed.  Hackberry trees were nearby.

Lots of Black Walnut on the property.  These are young trees, but there are some older and quite impressive ones.

After finishing there, I headed home.  But, since Shetland CA was on the way, I had to stop by the boat launch!  Unfortunately, there was not much of anything flying.  I think with these flood cycles this summer, the odes took a beating along the river's edge.

The usual Flag-tailed Spinylegs were around.  Always looking into the sun at this time, so photo is backlit.

A couple of Royal River Cruisers were doing their thing, but never settled down for photo ops..

There were only a handful of dancers, including Blue-ringed.

Violet Dancer  had only a couple of representatives.

A few Blue-fronted Dancers were around as usual, but they are too common to bother with. 

So, that was it for today!