The SRNR was secured by Ontario Nature in recent years, and is a real gem for a variety of reasons. Some uncommon plants, birds and odonates reside here. As well, fresh-water mussels abound in the river.
It has become an annual event as one year ago we did the same thing. We took our same areas from the previous year. I found there were not as many birds as last year, and we did not get Cerulean Warbler. However, it was all interesting.
Along the river, but on the east bank, is the famous "Buttonwood" tree. This very large Sycamore is well known.
The east side of the reserve is mostly floodplain with some interesting and unique plants. I have never explored this section to any extent yet.
The west side has some floodplain too.
While in the floodplain I came across this moth. I probably have not seen this one before, a Three-spotted Fillip.
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| Three-spotted Fillip |
We check for salamander as well. Again, we found Red-backed this year.
One spot is guaranteed a Turkey Vulture nest and this year was no exception. One egg was visible, unlike last year when two chicks were visible.
We kept an eye out for dragonflies and lucked out this year. I saw a couple of species that I probably have not seen before.
First was Rusty Snaketail, an attractive ode not so common in the area.
Later, we checked an edge of one old field and saw a Swift River Cruiser patrolling the area. Usually one sees these over or along the river, but this was far removed from the river. It never landed, so no photo was obtained.
Soon after, I caught sight of another neat ode called the Arrowhead Spiketail. We saw two or three of these creatures.
The name is appropriate as one can see distinct arrows on the abdomen pointing to something!
There were several other common species of odes as well.
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| Springtime Darner |
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| Twelve-spotted Skimmer (f) |
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| Midland Clubtail |
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| Common Baskettail |
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| teneral ode |
After three hours, the area was covered and we parted ways.
It was only 11:00, so I headed north to Ipperwash. It was on the agenda for me today, since I was half way there at SRNR anyway. My intention was to see Dusted Skipper at the "MNR" parking lot.
As soon as I got out of the car, I found some of these little bandits!
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| Dusted Skipper on Dust |
They have a white line above the eye which makes them look like a bandit.
They seemed to be everywhere at this specific location, as I counted around 30 in about twenty minutes. Certainly the most I have ever seen!
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| Dusted Skipper on cone |
I also Common Roadside Skipper, not unexpected there.
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| Roadside Skipper at side of road |
I could have spent more time in the area, but I decided to head home at this point as my mission was accomplished for the day and time to rest.
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| Baby fawn asleep |
