Clear Creek Butterfly Count August 4

Sunday was the Clear Creek Butterfly Count, much later than usual.  Ongoing since 2000, the 15 mile circle is centred about Duart and includes Clear Creek Nature Reserve.  I have done most of those counts and it is one of the more interesting.  It used to be held in mid-July, but for various reasons has been later in recent times.

With a bit of time to kill before meeting at the designated co-ordinates, I stopped by the Tecumseh Monument park as usual.  It is always a nice spot for a walk early morning.

For the second year in a row, we started at Moraviantown, led by local resident Darren Jacobs.  We began under somewhat overcast skies, but it was surprising the number of species we kicked up right away.

Tawny-edged Skipper

bashful Question Mark

Amerian Painted-Lady

Probably the best one early on was a Common Checkered-Skipper that I flushed up.

We found lots of Hummingbird Clearwing Moths during the day.

Before lunch, we moved up to the trail along the river at the north end of the Reserve.  We did not have time to properly check this spot, but a nice trail has been developed here.

Lunch was along Cleeves Line at the former Benishek property.

After a quick lunch, we surveyed the property.  New owners have recently taken over and are keen on preserving what has been established here.
Wild Bergamot is doing extremely well this year everywhere and butterflies such as American Painted-Lady were taking advantage.

I spotted a worn hairstreak at one point.  I assume it was Banded, although there has been some question whether it is a Hickory.  I still lean towards Banded!  Does not strike me at all for Hickory.

I watched for moths along the way and found some neat ones. Hopefully the labels are correct.

Omnivorous Leafroller

Spotted Grass Moth

Lost Owlet

Double-banded grass Veneer (some are difficult to ID)

Carrot Seed Moth

Our party ended up with a respectable 33 species.  As is the trend this year, fewer numbers.  Monarchs have done well though, which was our highest count at 45, one behind Summer Azure.

This count does surprisingly well at this late date, so we will see what the final tally is.

Clear Creek Butterfly Count 2018

Today, Sunday, was the annual Clear Creek butterfly count.  Weather was excellent, at least in the morning.  Along Lake Erie, there were severe thunder storms late morning, so we were lucky to avoid that at Moraviantown while our party searched some sites for butterflies.  I left at noon as skies were not looking all that great.

This count can be quite interesting with many good areas to search, especially old railway lines.  Those railway corridors were my favourite spots in the earlier years, but they have deteriorated to some degree since then.
This is one of the latest counts, so you miss many species.  However, it did quite well last year.  It will be interesting to see what the results are.

Our group (led by resident Darren Jacobs) met around 09:00 at the Tim Horton's/grocery store on the Delaware of the Thames First Nation at Moraviantown.  I had never really checked this area before either for birds or butterflies, although we touched a bit on it in the very first year of this count in 2000.

Wild Bergamot seemed to be the flower of choice today for many of the leps.  We found lots of it!

Giant Swallowtails were in numbers rarely seen, as they were all over the place.  Right now, all places are abundant with them.

Monarchs are doing quite well this year, with higher numbers than in recent years.  I did get a photo of its mimic, the Viceroy.

At the north end of the community, there is a trail and some prairie plantings along the Thames River. (just above "Moraviantown" in the above Google Maps photo).  We checked that out just before heading out for lunch as thunder rumbled to the south.

Note dark skies to the south!

I managed to find a few Tawny Emperors.  There is a lot of Hackberry, the larval foodplant, along the banks of the Thames.

At one point I caught sight of a hairstreak which turned out to be a Hickory.  It is getting late for the satyrium hairstreaks, but Hickory is one that can be found at this time.  I was not able to get a photo before it took off.

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

Common Sootywing

Our group ended up with at least 24 species in the morning.
Heard that the total species count for the entire day was 43.  Fairly good for this time of year!

Before we met in the morning, I stopped by the Tecumseh Monument area east of Thamesville.  It is a nice spot for a walk and to learn about early history of the area.  Interpretive signs tell about the War of 1812 and Chief Tecumseh who was killed nearby.  The area has a rich history, and significant events happened here during the War of 1812.