Sunday, July 27, 2025

Another Butterfly Count, Another Dukes' and Miscellaneous

 Friday I toured around locally.  I was going to go for a walk at Mitchell's Bay, but it was raining in that area, so I headed back north!

Along the way, I saw a few Sandhill Cranes, ever so common anymore.



I went for a short walk at Reid again.  Broad-winged Skippers and a Dukes' were in the sedges as usual.

Dukes'

A couple of Royal River Cruisers were working the trail.  One decided to stop and hang around.


The walk at Peers Wetland revealed a Bronze Copper, not often seen there.


Saturday I went to south Chatham-Kent and checked out Keith McLean C. L., then Blenheim lagoons.

Nothing of note has been at McLean's this year other than the Lark Sparrow.  There is not much in the way of shorebird habitat either.  Lots of Marsh Wrens chattering in the reeds!


There is very good potential for a good heron type though!  Stay tuned...

The lagoons held lots of shorebirds.  I did a thorough search, but could not find anything of note, not even a Baird's Sandpiper.

Solitary Sandpiper

Today was the annual Clear Creek butterfly count.  Thankfully the weather forecast was wrong again, and it was a nice sunny day, albeit rather hot and humid.  We had a crazy amount of rain (again!) overnight.

I worked the Clear Creek nature reserve area with the Pye brothers as we do every year.  Cabbage Whites were in big numbers this year.  We had a good variety of other things, but in low numbers.  Some things like anglewings were virtually absent.  Monarchs were in pretty good numbers too.

Most of a Viceroy!

Red-spotted Purple


We found a total of eight Broad-winged Skippers, which was a good number.




Near the end of the quarry walk, another similar skipper flushed up.  Turned out to be a Dukes' Skipper!  This is a new location as far as I know for the species.





We also walked the Bury Cemetery trail where Northern Pearly-eyes were in good numbers.  No other "browns" though.


View beyond the cemetery

At lunch time, were checked out Clearville Park along the lake.  I am always interested in the little creek loop where the land goes to a point.





We also checked out the beach where Clear Creek flows out.  The creek was not flowing though due to build-up of sand.


Of course I kept an eye out for other things.  There were lots of odonates at the old quarry, but I did not spend much time looking.  Comet Darner should still be flying, but I did not see one.

Bluets included Double-striped.  These are uncommon tiny bluets that are difficult to photograph.  There were a number of them present.


I did not see any cicadas but there were some Cicada Killer Wasps buzzing around.



In the old pond at the back of the quarry, a Green Heron was preening.



Headed home early afternoon....


Wednesday, July 23, 2025

A Butterfly Count, More Dukes' Skippers and Other Things

 This past Saturday, a number of us took part in a new butterfly count situated at Sydenham River Nature Reserve.  Weather was perfect!  The forecast looked iffy, but as usual it was inaccurate.

I joined Pete and Allanah at the end of Buttonwood Road to survey the most recent property acquisitions to the reserve.  Butterflies were sparse as expected (the trend this year), but we did fairly well tallying about two dozen species.

View of pond in upper field



Tawny Emperors won the prize as the most numerous species.


Monarchs were in good numbers.

Right at the end of our walk, we encountered a close cousin, namely a Hackberry Emperor.  I did not get a photo.

We managed three species of hairstreaks, but only a single representative of each.

Hickory Hairstreak

Striped Hairstreak

I did not get a photo of the Banded Hairstreak.

Other species:

Least Skipper

Red Admiral

There were very few odonates, but a number of Mocha Emeralds were flying.  Near the end, one finally co-operated for a photo op!



This one was photographed at the lower field.

Also saw Black-shouldered Spinyleg, as well as Wandering Glider.

Wandering Glider

Since Shetland was on the way home, I made a brief stop to look for odes.  As expected things were scarce, but I did get one target, a Blue-ringed Dancer.  Seemed to be the only one there!  It is early though.


There were lots of Stream Bluets, but a couple of dancers included Blue-tipped and Powdered.



Essentially the only "large" dragonflies I saw were a couple of Flag-tailed Spinylegs.


Monday I went somewhere different for a change, into Elgin County.  I first went to the Port Stanley sewage lagoons.  Shorebird habitat is fairly good this year, but I saw nothing special to note here.

Stopped by Southwold Earthworks as usual on the way back west.  Back in 2012 (?) I had a spectacular time there with butterflies, but this year there was virtually nothing!

This spot has lots of American Beech trees, and every one shows the blight unfortunately.  The large one I photographed last year has been cut down.  It was dead anyway!  Just a stump left.

2024

Happier Times

My main target of the day was to look for Dukes' Skippers east of Rodney beside Tanager Tract.  These were discovered last summer as first records for Elgin.

It did not take long to find a few!



I did walk through the Tanager Tract, a Thames Talbot Land Trust property.


I then worked my way up to Wardsville Woods.  Not unexpected, there were very few odes, but I did encounter a Fawn Darner in the shaded areas.


This Giant Swallowtail posed nicely at one point.



Yesterday I went out to Mitchell's Bay first thing.  It was a stellar day weatherwise.  I keep hoping for something in the way of a good heron type, but not this day.  One never knows until one tries!

This Broad-winged Skipper was along the trail.


Near home, I stopped by Peers Wetland.  It has been disappointing for birds here this year.  I photographed some "yellow" plants, most of which are planted.

Compass Plant

Gray-headed Coneflower

Black-eyed Susan

False Sunflower

Perennial Sow Thistle

Cup Plant


Around noon, I went for a long walk at Reid Conservation Lands.  Again, disappointing for insects, but a couple of Dukes' Skippers showed.



A couple of Broad-winged Skippers were in the sedges as well.


I came across a Lance-tipped Darner in the bean field at one point.


Today was another stellar day, although a bit on the warm side.  I drove up along the St. Clair River first thing.  I spent some time at Seager Park since it was so nice.

An Osprey was perched just downriver, and other birds included a family of Yellow Warblers that kept me interested.

The Algoma Buffalo was downbound.  Algoma is not much for keeping up the paint work on their ships!


The rest of the day I did various things, including a project at home I had been wanting to do for some time!