Bioblitz at Karner Blue Sanctuary Port Franks

Today, August 10, a number of naturalists and volunteers performed a bioblitz at the Karner Blue Sanctuary in north Lambton.  This 15 ha oak-pine area is an interesting piece of property where the Karner Blue Butterfly once thrived.
I arrived at 06:00 to start looking for birds.  A few of us spent the next few hours looking and listening for resident birds.

Eastern Wood Peewee

We did not find anything spectacular (and virtually no migrants yet).  A pair of Scarlet Tanagers was a nice find at one point.
And, a family of noisy Tufted Titmouse was amusing to watch.
I tallied 34 species of birds on my eBird list, but some were flyovers.  The best flyover was a Red-shouldered Hawk.
https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S58883991

Soon, others arrived to look for any living thing.  A bioblitz is a survey performed by naturalists to look for anything and everything in a givern area on a given day.  We had plant experts like Will Van Hemessen and Larry Lamb and Jeff Skevington for flies and insects.

One good find was this Virginia Flower Fly.

I recorded about 15 species of butterflies.  There were lots of Wild Indigo Duskywings.

Columbine was present as well.

Hairstreaks included Hickory, Banded and Coral.

Some skippers included Tawny-edged, Silver-spotted, Dun and Northern Broken-Dash.

We also saw about nine species of dragonflies.  Lance-tipped Darners were numerous.

Probably the most interesting dragonfly was a Royal River Cruiser that I spotted at one point.  These things obviously tend to wander and this was no exception, as there is no water source very close!

Eastern Forktail was the only damselfly I saw. It can vary in colour.

Some plants included the resident Cylindrical Blazing Star and Rough Blazing Star.

It was a tad early for Leonard's Skipper, which will nector on the Liatris shown above.

At one point someone found a Northern Walkingstick.  I had not seen one in a long time!

Green Milkweed was near the road, but not in very good shape.

Ebony Spleenwort was a nice find.

We were done by about 1 p.m. and then met for lunch down the road at Grog's, famous for their pizzas!

It was a fun day with near perfect weather and good comaradary.

Bioblitz at Ojibway! Butterfly Portion

Today I went down to Ojibway to look for butterflies as part of the bioblitz.  The bioblitz is an all-out effort to find anything from herps to plants to insects to birds, etc.  It runs from 11 a.m. Saturday to 11 a.m. Sunday.

It was a mass invasion of nature-minded people!  The parking lot was full and overflowing this morning.  I saw many familiar faces and it was a lot of fun.  Although the blitz continues to tomorrow morning, I was only interested in the butterfly portion.  We covered our usual areas (Brunet Park and Spring Garden) that we normally do for the butterfly count.

Spring Garden sedge area

I came along early (I can get to Ojibway sooner than I can get to Point Pelee!) and did the trail on my own from Matchette to Malden Road.  I had 20 species of butterflies by 09:30!

Common Wood Nymph

I saw a couple of Peck's Skippers along that trail.  One I did not realize until I got home, I caught in mid-flight! Kind of neat as it appears to be just hanging there.  I did get a photo of it on the chicory a few seconds later.

At Brunet we were skunked on hairstreaks, which was highly unusual.  We did get at least 3 Dukes' Skippers--the first one which I spotted beside the pond.

A few Wild Indigo Duskywings were there as well.

On to Spring Garden, entering at Elgin Street, we went to the sedge skipper area.  Here we found multiple Black Dash.  Certainly the most I have seen at once!

There was Broad-winged here as well and one or two Mulberry Wing.  Crappy photo of the Broad-winged....

Butterfly Milkweed is not as abundant this year, but some Coral and Acadian Hairstreaks (also Edwards') were found. Most were quite worn.

At the "hill" we found oodles of Wild Indigo Duskywings.  This one was laying eggs I believe.

We had a couple more Broad-winged Skippers along the way and in the woods, the Hooded Warbler was singing away.  A Jeremy Hatt sighting was added to the list as the Hooded Warbler sang.

To finish the mid afternoon, we looked a few American Coppers at the usual spot.

As we had not had lunch, a stop at Tim Horton's down the road was in order.  While there, we recorded 4 species of butterflies from the window--one being a Silver-spotted Skipper.  All of those skippers today, were worn.

Silver-spotted Skipper at Ojibway

I had seen 36 species of butterflies by mid afternoon--certainly below average.  However, I was happy with the count, but the hot and humid weather had did me in for the day.

Ojibway Prairie