Ojibway Washout, A Strathroy Visit and More Yard Critters

 The weekend certainly left a lot to be desired weather wise.  Once again, butterfly counts took a hit.  This year I decided to go to Ojibway for the butterfly count on Saturday, as I always enjoyed that one in the past.  However it was cloudy and threatening rain.  That made matters worse in a year when butterflies have been scarce.

We did get a walk in at Brunet Park.  A walk indeed, as we only tallied about ten individual butterflies!  Usually it is a good spot for hairstreaks, but not one was found.  Things have certainly grown in quite a bit compared to almost twenty years ago when I did my first Ojibway count.

I did find a couple of Little Glassywings, although I did not realize it until I looked at my photos.

Seemed to be more moths than butterflies.  Leconte's Haploa is highly variable.  We found this one.

After Brunet, we skooted over to Spring Garden complex and started at our usual point at the end of Elgin Street.  This place is fabulous for plants, different habitats and variety of butterflies.  We did find a few butterflies at least!  Very disappointing that we could not spend much time here.

The only hairstreak of our walk was a Coral that I found.

We did get Appalachian Brown, Delaware Skipper, Dun Skipper and Peck's Skipper as well..

Peck's

A Reversed Haploa moth caught my eye at one point.

Some provincially rare plants:

Colicroot

Spiderwort

One of the "rare" milkweeds included Purple.

We only got so far and it started to rain, so that was the end of it!

Sunday was the Rondeau count, but I decided there was no sense in doing it this year.  The last couple of years have been very disappointing, and this year would have been worse.  Sunday morning was cold, damp, and cloudy in any case!

The afternoon turned out quite nice though as the sun came out.  I checked out Reid and McKeough.  Here are some things I found:

Mourning Cloak

Peck's Skipper

Royal River Cruiser

Common Checkered-Skipper

Eastern-tailed Blues were very plentiful, so I did not take their photos.  At least they are doing well this year!

Down the road, I found this unfortunate victim.

Fox Snake

I also looked at the garden at home.

Monarch on Purple Coneflower

Red Admiral

Ursine Spurleg Lady Beetle

Margined Leatherwing

Eastern Calligrapher

Dun Skipper

Common Thick-leg Fly

False Milkweed Beetle with Red Goldenrod Aphids

common flower fly sp.

Mexican Grass-carrying Wasp

Today, it was off to Strathroy to look at some shorebirds.  There is excellent habitat this year.  The Black-necked Stilt family was out and about (3 young and 2 adults).

There were several Solitary Sandpipers.

Least Sandpipers numbered 29 to my eyes, and there were a couple of Lesser Yellowlegs and three Short-billed Dowitchers.

On the way home, I stopped by Shetland boat launch again.  River level was still way too high with all the rain.  Seems we either get too little or too much rain!

A few Blue-ringed Dancers were around among the many Stream Bluets and some Blue-tipped, Powdered and Violet.

Blue-tipped Dancer

I did catch sight of a teneral Flag-tailed Spinyleg, but it took off.

Before going home, I stopped by Reid CA.  Broad-winged Skippers were flying, but no Dukes' yet.

Getting back to the parking lot, I had the sighting of the day.  A Compton Tortoiseshell was flying about!