Butterflies In The Haze

 Glad I worked in the museum all day Thursday.  Wildfire smoke was thick.

Friday was still quite hazy when I got up.  The sun was desparately trying to shine through.

I went farther afield and ended up in Elgin County near Rodney.  I wanted to check out the sedges along Kerr Road where Dukes' Skippers reside.  I did not stay long, as mosquitoes were pretty intense.

I did find a couple of Dukes'.  The first one was in a difficult spot.

The other was in a better position to photograph.

A bonus was a Mulberry Wing, a small sedge skipper.

Northern Pearly-Eye and Appalachian Brown were here too.

I went home via Wardsville and stopped at the "Woods".  It was very disappointing!

Twelve-spotted Skimmer

I am just about "Dun" with that place.

Dun Skipper

At home later in the afternoon, two different swallowtails, both easterners, were in the garden.

Giant

Tiger

A Silver-spotted Skipper made a visit as well.

Saturday I went for a walk at Mitchell's Bay first thing.  Nothing of note, and after that I decided to stay indoors.  I worked at the Museum for a few hours!  I find it enjoyable accessioning artifacts where one logs all the information onto the computer as well as taking photographs of each item. Then you have to put the item in an appropriate location.  There is quite a backlog of artifacts to accession, so it will be an ongoing task.....

Today the weather was quite nice.  Good thing, as we did the annual butterfly count at Sydenham River Nature Reserve.  I did the Buttonwood side again this year.  

The dead-end road

We tallied 21 species.

The only thing in big numbers was Tawny Emperor.  There are lots of hackberry trees there, their main foodplant.

Pete and I saw only one Hackberry Emperor.

Quite a few Great-spangled Fritillaries too.

Northern Pearly-eyes were plentiful.

There was a handful of hairstreaks, but all were Banded.

There were not many odonates.  I did see a couple of Mocha Emeralds, but as usual for this year, they did not stop. 

Some views of the mighty Sydenham:

Some Swift River Cruisers were on the river.

I managed to photograph this Slender Spreadwing, the most common spreadwing, at one point.

On the way home, I swung by Reid C. L.  Nothing new.........just the usuals.

Dukes'

Noticed this at one point:

Laphria sericea

In the garden this afternoon, I caught sight of an Appalachian Brown.  Very worn, but it was a first for the yard!  Must have travelled some distance as these usually are around forest edges.

Next butterfly count is Clear Creek next Sunday.

Dickcissel Season and Another New Lambton Bird

 Time marches on!  I have been making my usual rounds of late, taking advantage of the nice weather.

Friday I headed down to Rondeau for one last walk there until perhaps August.  Mosquitoes were bad!  I walked down Harrison from maintenance to Bennett and back Lakeshore Road.  I encountered quite a few birds, including Hooded Warbler, a couple of Acadian Flycatchers and others.

Little Wood Satyr

It was then off to Wardsville to look for odonates.  Unfortunately they were a bit thin there!  I did get one of my targets, that being an Arrowhead Spiketail.

I did see at least one other spiketail which I thought was a Twin-spotted, but it was flying high and had some sort of prey. It seemed to be looking for a spot to stop and consume the meal.

There were a couple of Midland Clubtails, but no Cobras yet.

Butterflies included Peck's Skippers.

Next day was the annual bird survey at Sydenham River Nature Reserve.  Counters were thin.  Seems interest has waned in this event, as it is difficult to get volunteers anymore.

I found the usual residents on my route, and nothing special.  Although a female Common Merganser on the river was a bit unusual.

Before leaving, I took a look for odonates and managed to find what I was looking for.  An Arrowhead Spiketail!

In the past we have had Rusty Snaketail here, but it has been several years since I have seen one.

It was early in the day and quite windy, so odes were sparse.

Dot-tailed Whiteface

Common Whitetail

Midland Clubtail

The ravines here are impressive.

Yesterday, I had the urge to head up to north Lambton.  Last Thursday evening, James Holdsworth found a White-faced Ibis at the Thedford Lagoons.  This species is good anywhere in Ontario, but it was a first record for Lambton.  Probably way overdue.

I did not really have the chance or ambition to try for it until yesterday.  I went quite early, and basically found it right away.  It was too distant under heavy clouded skies to attempt a photo.

That was my second new bird for Lambton County in less than a week!  One can go years without adding anything, but to get two in short order is satisfying.

I continued on and visited various places including a walk at Ausable River Cut CA.  I looked at mussels there and found the usuals, plus the rarer Wabash Pigtoe. 

Next stop was the Lambton Heritage Forest.  Acadian Flycatchers seem to be having a good year there, as I encountered eleven singing birds.

On the other hand, Hooded Warblers are less plentiful this year.  I noticed that at Skunk's Misery as well.  I wonder what is going on with them?

I did get two Cerulean Warblers to add to the list.

Some Hobomok Skippers were flying in the sunny spots.

I also came across another Cherry Scallop Shell Moth.  Very attractive!

(cell phone pic!)

Next stop was nearby Karner Blue Sanctuary. Insects were very scarce there it seemed.  

I did encounter a Blue-winged Warbler singing an almost perfect Northern Parula Song.  The Merlin app was registering it as a parula.  It took a long time to spot the bird, as I wanted to make sure! Yep, it was the Blue-winged!

I also walked the Sandrin Tract Woods trail nearby.  The "bowl" is almost dried up showing the lack of rain we have had in the last year.

A couple of duskywings there were Juvenal's.

Not many odes, even though this has been a hotspot.

Midland Clubtail

Four-spotted Skimmer

Twelve-spotted Skimmer

One last stop was Reid C. L. before getting home.  Things not looking good there either for insects. Some Four-spotted Skimmers were flying.

Today, I knew that Dickcissels were around.  They obviously just arrived.  I went down to SW Chatham-Kent to a couple usual spots and had no problem finding some.

singing up a storm!

I am sure some will be arriving elsewhere including Lambton County soon, if not already.