Pelee White-M and Blenheim Sachem

I tried my luck at Point Pelee today.  I got down there fairly early to look for birds, as there was a stiff south wind blowing.  I thought perhaps something would appear at the Tip.  Lots of stuff moving, but nothing noteworthy.  I was joined by Kory Renaud for a while and we saw tons of swallows heading south.
Two shorebirds showed, but we only saw the tail end of them and they were moving swiftly.

the only goose at the Tip!

Butterflies were a bit scarce today as I moved up the west side.  I cut over to Sparrow Field to try for White-M.  I met up with Mike King, Bob Curry and Glenda Slessor who had just found a very worn White-M, almost not worth counting!  Eventually a "good" White-M was found and we took many photos.

Sparrow field White-M hairstreak

I headed over to West Beach and looked for butterflies.  They were rather scarce compared to last week.  I met Bob Yukich who had been around a couple of days.
Not even a checkered-skipper along the west side!  A few Fiery Skippers though.  No Sachems either.
I next checked south of Northwest Beach.  A couple of checkered skippers there, but not much else. Not a Gray Hairstreak nor a Sachem. A severe drought compared to last week!

Another Fiery

Next stop was behind the Day's Inn.  There was a report of 5 Red-necked Phalaropes there, and sure enough I saw them just off the dock.

Final stop in the area was Shoeless Joe's field.  There were countless checkered skippers, a few Fiery and a few Sachem and a couple of Variegated Fritllaries.

Time still left in the day so I made a beeline for Blenheim.  It has been good lately.  Today there were 7 Red-necked and 2 Wilson's Phalaropes to be found among other shorebirds.  All the phalaropes in pond 5 were spinning. Neat to see.  It has certainly been a banner year for Red-necked Phalaropes with all the reports.

Many Bobolinks were there in the weeds.

Tons of Fiery Skippers and an oddball caught my eye. It may be a Sachem, but not the classic ones I have been seeing.  I thought perhaps a variation on a Peck's, but the more I look at it, Sachem is likely.  Any opinion is welcome.  Likely a first Sachem  record for Blenheim!

I met up with John Lamey while at the lagoons and we had a nice discussion on recent happenings with birds and butterflies.  John recently checked several locations along the Burlington-Oakville area and found Sachems everywhere.  There must be a heck of a lot of them that came into Ontario!