End of July Sightings!

 Here we are at the end of another month!  Still no rain, and it does not look good.  Everything is burnt to a crisp.

Lots of shorebirds are moving through, but nothing of note.  I made a couple of visits to Blenheim lagoons in the past week.  Lesser Yellowlegs are in big numbers, but sorting through them, there were no novelties.

Lesser Yellowlegs

Middle pond has some edge!

This past Sunday was the annual Clear Creek butterfly count.  Unfortunately for the first couple of hours it was cloudy, so there was little activity.  Eventually the sun came out and things picked up at the old quarry area.

Question Mark

We did not find Broad-winged Skipper this year despite three of us looking.  Last year we even saw a Dukes' Skipper there, which was a new location.

View of upper pond at back

Rayfield managed to spot our only hairstreak of the day, a Hickory.  And it was well worn.

There were very few odonates, and bluets have been scarce lately.  I only saw one, an Azure Bluet, which people tend to be afraid to ID on iNaturalist.  Not a good photo, but enough to go on.

There were a number of Summer Azures, and this one seemed to have quite a bit of black on it.

A few Giant Swallowtails were flying or posing.

We later moved over to the Bury Cemetery trail which was productive. 

Northern Pearly-eyes were plentiful here, in fact we had 22.

A Common Sootywing was a nice find at the cemetery.

We were done there during the noon hour and it was getting hot.  We were basically done the count by then.

Monday was a non-event day and not much going on.

Tuesday I went to south Chatham-Kent and last stop was Keith McLean C. L.

Black Swallowtail

Water levels are getting shallower, so there might be mud there soon for shorebirds.  A Short-billed Dowitcher was there in shallow water where the "island" is, so I know it is not deep!

Prairie-type plants are in bloom now, including Prairie Dock.

Wednesday I spent some time at Reid C. L., finding the usuals.

Broad-winged Skipper

Red-spotted Purple

Lots of Dukes' Skippers of course.

Took a look in the garden later in the afternoon.

Mexican Grass-carrying Wasp

This one is one of the leafcutter, mortar, and resin bees.  I put these things on iNaturalist, but there seems to be lack of participation lately on that forum.  I can only guess since it is not confirmed.

Thursday I went for some walks first thing before going to the museum.  Spiked Blazing Star is coming into bloom at Wilkesport.

This morning, I went to McKeough first thing while bird activity was good.  I just found out yesterday that a Blue Grosbeak was there about three weeks ago.  I saw that list, but it was first put down as a Purple Finch.  I had no luck in detecting a grosbeak there today.  Alerts do not come through like they used to on the Discord channels.

Drove around quite a bit afterwards. I found a large group of Sandhill Cranes at the south end of Port Lambton.  It is that time of year they start gathering in the fields. There were 62.

Stopped at Reid again.  There were quite a few hairstreaks to my surprise.  At least ten Banded and a couple of Hickory.

Dukes' were numerous as usual.

Saw this Painted Lichen Moth fly in at one point.

I went back to McKeough for one last stop.  I was hoping for some odonates, but they were few and far between.  Managed one Flag-tailed Spinyleg.

I was hoping for Pronghorn Clubtail, but no luck. I even missed them last year.  Wonder what is going on with them, as they are regular at McKeough.

A Painted Lady was in the same area.

Like many odes, Eastern Amberwing is scarce this year.  I saw my first for the year here....long overdue!

Might be some rain this weekend, but not enough to do anything.  Who knows, weather forecasts are usually wrong!

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....