Continuing With Insects!

 This past Sunday afternoon, a few of us checked out Reid C.L. for insects.  It was a perfect weather day--sunny and not too hot.

The theme was Dragonflies and Other Insects as I led a Lambton Wildlife outing.  Turnout was low with only three other people, so I guess other priorities were in order that day.

We had a wonderful time finding lots of things!

There were very few dragonflies, but we did see at least one Mocha Emerald on the wing.

We spent most of the time at the low spot where there was once a river channel.

Among the sedge skippers were Broad-winged, Dukes' and that single Dion.

Broad-winged

Dion

Dukes'

There were several baby tree frogs seen.

Some other insects:

Acanthocephala terminalis

Smeared Dagger

Short-lined Chocolate moth

Slender Spreadwing

Winthemia

Chokecherry Leafroller Moth

Carolina Grasshopper

A couple of Banded Hairstreaks were seen near the gate.

Next day, I wanted to go farther afield and ended up at Hillman Marsh and Point Pelee.  Things were scarce at Hillman, but several Broad-winged Skippers were around the shorebird cell.

An Eyed Brown was in a usual locale.

Dragonflies were extremely low in numbers.

Widow Skimmer

I went into Point Pelee for a brief walk down west beach trail.  The previous evening, a Striped Hairstreak was seen there.  I had no expectations of finding one, but I got lucky! Like finding a needle in a haystack, I just happened to spot a Striped Hairstreak.

Not all that common there, but I have seen a few many years ago.

No Common Checkered-Skippers were detected at Hillman which was very unusual.  However, that afternoon I found one in my yard.

Tuesday, I went up to Sarnia.  I needed to get a new cell phone (been putting that off too long!), but before that, I walked a portion of the Howard Watson trail between Modeland Road and Blackwell Sideroad.  I have found it good for insects in the past, but once again they were scarce (the trend this year).

One of my targets was to find Double-striped Bluet.  I managed to find one!

I also found only one Banded Hairstreak.

On the way home, I stopped at Moore WMA for a quick look.  Some Blue-tipped Dancers were along the river along with Stream Bluets.

Today, went just north of town first thing in the morning before the heat of the day arrived.  First walked Nicholl's Memorial Forest and Wetland.

Double-banded Grass Veneer moth

Then went to Reid C. L. and spent quite a bit of time there.  

I walked around the back field, and finally got a photo of a Royal River Cruiser for this year.

Along the main trail, I found quite a few hairstreaks.  More than last year and this year combined!  Most were Banded, but a few were Hickory.

Hickory

Banded

I spent most of the time at the "low spot".  

Lots of Broad-winged Skippers were flying.

A few Dukes' as well.

I did see a Mulberry Wing, but it never settled for a photo.  Second time I have seen one, but unable to photograph!

Few odonates.

Eastern Forktail

Slender Spreadwing

It was clear this morning, but as I write this, wildfire smoke is extremely thick here in Wallaceburg.  As bad as it was three years ago.  Hopefully it is better tomorrow.

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....