Some North Lambton Insects

 Today, I ventured up to Pinery Provincial Park, and then stopped at Ipperwash Beach area.  Primary goal was to see some of the butterflies and tally some birds on the side.

Well, there were not as many as I usually see this time of year.  The Common Basketail caught my eye at one point.  Looked a bit deformed.

Perhaps it should be called a basketcase!

I did see a few Dusted Skippers, but none co-operated for the camera.  A couple of elfins did not co-operate as well, but I did get record photos.

Hoary

Eastern Pine

There were other more common butterflies and skippers along the way that I did not photograph.  I could have spent more time looking for others types, but time was marching on and it was getting hot.

After Pinery, I stopped by Ipperwash Beach and found a small number of Dusted Skippers.  Seems thee little bandits are scarce compared to previous visits in past years.

It is a rare skipper, only found in the Ipperwash/Pinery area.

One or two Common Roadside Skippers came along as well.

I also walked the Cedar Trail in Ipperwash Forested dunes and Swales, but it was a quiet time of day.  Pleasant walk in any case.

Common Ringlets have shown up this week in various locales.

Yesterday while doing some atlas recording, I came across this young Great Horned Owl.  I knew they had nested in the area though.

It watched me intently as I kept my distance.

Also came across this Pale Beauty moth.

Breeding bird atlas work is the on the main agenda for the next while.  However, the mosquitoes have come out in full force.  As well, ticks are too plentiful anymore.  We never used to worry about ticks, but in recent years, they have exploded in population!

Need some rain.....

Lambton Leps: Elfins, Duskywings and a Marble!

I had a window of opportunity to head up to North Lambton today before the usual weekend weather set in.  It was a bit hazy, but enough sun and warmth to bring out some butterflies.  It was a tiring day, as I checked as many areas as possible and probably walked 30 km!  I was not able to leave Wallaceburg until about 09:15, so it worked out well for what I wanted to see.
It was not a birding trip, so my targets were to find elfins and duskwings, and especially Olympia Marble. I did watch for birds of course and did come across a Prairie Warbler at Pinery, for example.

I headed straight for the beach accesses at Pinery.

I came across quite a few elfins, but all appeared to be Hoary this time.

I do not see many elfins, as there are none in Chatham-Kent and south Lambton!  As well, we are usually along Lake Erie looking for rare birds in May.

Some duskywings appeared to be only Juvenal's.  I even looked for Dusted Skipper to no avail.  However, I did not check one key area for Dusted.  Perhaps another time!

There were many Hoary Elfins.

I did not come across Olympia Marble in Pinery, which was my main target for the day.

After Pinery, I went over to Port Franks and visited the Karner Blue Sanctuary.

Wild Lupine

Here, there were dozens of duskywings!  I think it was the best day I had there for this family of skippers.  I saw three or four species.
Duskywings are notoriously difficult to ID sometimes, so I hope I got them right.
Sleepy was quite abundant, and I saw probably a dozen of these.

Juvenal's was there of course, with some well-marked.

I may have seen Columbine's as well.  These are very similar to Wild Indigo, but a bit smaller.  Red Columbine, foodplant, was fairly abundant.  Wild Indigo Duskywings can be found here as well.

I am not sure I saw a Dreamy Duskywing which is quite similar to Sleepy.  At least I did not photograph one.  I have seen them there in the past though.
This one is a bit dicey.

At one point, I saw a small white butterfly in the distance.  I knew right away what I had, but it took some time to get close and finally see it perched.

Olympia Marble it was!  😊👍

It has been a very long time since I have seen one, and in fact I could not tell you when that was.  They fly in mid spring and usually I am not up to north Lambton much at that time.  Same for the elfins which fly only a short time.

Also at Port Franks, I came across an Eastern Pine Elfin.  It was a beauty!

Later, I checked one area at Ipperwash Beach.  I saw a couple more Eastern Pine Elfins.

There is Western Pine Elfin, but one has to go farther north in the province.

No Olympia Marbles there either.

It was getting later in the afternoon, so I did not check the one trail at Ipperwash Dunes and Swales, which could have revealed more things such as Roadside Skipper.
I wanted to stop at some other areas on the way home, including Dow Wetlands, where we can find Upland Sandpiper.

I went home via St. Clair Parkway, as I needed to stop by to see some friends.  Along the way, a tardy Common Loon was off the CF Industries outflow.  Not unusal, as the odd ones can be found into summer around here.

Get ready for weekend weather......!  I am beat.

Bearberry at Pinery

North Lambton Day

For a change in pace, I headed up to Pinery/Port Franks today.  I had a feeling things would be slow along Lake Erie today and I was right.  Things were slow up at Lake Huron as well, so obviously a mass movement of birds occurred last night under the ideal conditions.
I wanted to check out butterflies anyways, as well as some different birding areas.

I first walked Riverside Trail in Pinery park, which is always the best for variety.  But, things were rather quiet and among the more common birds, I got a Mourning and a couple of Wilson's Warblers.  Often Olive-sided Flycatcher will be singing atop the snags, but not this time.

I then drove around to Cedar Trail.  Prairie Warblers were found on the extension near the dunes last week, but I could not pick out any today.  Prairie Warblers used to nest regularly at Pinery, but things changed and they have not (to my knowledge) in recent years.  We used to get them easily along the dunes of Wilderness Trail.  They could still be around though.
Wilderness Trail had lots of Pine Warblers and Ovenbirds.  These are very common in the park.

During my walks, I found dozens of Juvenal's Duskywings, and a neat little butterfly, Hoary Elfin.  I have little experience with elfins since they fly during a short time in May when we are always down on Lake Erie looking for birds at the same time.

Pinery also has Eastern Pine Elfin and Brown Elfin I do believe.
I probably saw 5 Hoary Elfins today.

Hoary Elfin

Juvenal's Duskywing

A FOY Giant Swallowtail flew by me on Wilderness Trail.

Different dragonflies are now coming out and I saw a few today.

Four-spotted Skimmer

Dot-tailed Whiteface

My next stop was the Karner Blue Sanctuary in Port Franks.  There has been considerable lack of rain this spring, and plants were looking thirsty.

Wild Lupine

The sanctuary is good for duskywings, but other than many Juvenal's and perhaps some Wild Indigo, it did not produce.  Last year I found Sleepy and Dreamy there.

I also walked part of the Lambton Heritage Forest.

It is good for several Hooded Warblers and a few Acadian Flycatchers.  In the past I have had different warblers there in the breeding season, but today, it too was rather quiet.
I came up with at least 4 Hooded Warblers and 2 Acadian Flycatchers today.

"peet-suh!"

The L-Lake Trail on the other side of Outer Drive is one I sometimes check out.  It too had lots of Juvenal's Duskywings.  The first Hobomok Skipper of the season was here...finally.

Sandhill Cranes nest in the area and today they were making much noise!

Looks like a hot week!

Elfins!

I am posting some photos (low resolution)  of elfins taken up Pinery way by a friend from Sarnia.
I do not have much experience with elfins since I never go looking for them!  I have seen Eastern Pine Elfin, which he has a photo here.

Looks like he had two other species.
Hoary...(?)

Brown...(?)

Just looking for comments.