Ventral view of a fresh female Hobomok Skipper as it taps into a wildflower
I've attempted to view and photograph some butterflies this week and just figured I would share some of my sightings. I find I'm still learning so much with regards to identification! While I was photographing these butterflies, I heard Song Sparrows, Field Sparrow, Indigo Buntings and Great crested Flycatchers singing from the surrounding trees!
This week, I've seen:
Black Swallowtail
Spicebush Swallowtail
Giant Swallowtail
Hobomok Skippers
Tawny-edged Skippers
Peck's Skippers
Viceroy
Eastern Tailed Blue
Juvenals Duskywing
Duskywing Species
Pearl Cresent
Common wood Nymphs
Cabbage White
Orange/Clouded Sulphur
Black Swallowtail - Note the tiny black "dot" at the very bottom of its wings
Peck's Skipper Nectaring on Red Clover
Dorsal views of a female Hobomok Skipper butterfly - Note how it proceeds to coil its probiscis before taking flight!
Tawny edged and Crossline skippers are similar, but Tawny are smaller and are more common in June. This collage features both a ventral and dorsal view of a Tawny edged Skipper.
I've realized that there is now an e-bird equivalent for butterfly watchers! Its called E-Butterfly and if I'm not mistaken, its based in Ottawa Ontario! I created an account recently but I just don't know if I have time to really log my sightings.
Good butterfly watching!
Dwaynejava
PS: My birding friends recently participated in a Ballie Birdathon which raises money for Bird Studies Canada. I don't know if I can motivate any of my blog readers to donate but if you are so inclined, please click the link here for the "No rEgrets" team. Kory Renaud, Jeremy Bensette, and Jeremy Hatt have raised over $1000, and I just donated $40 myself. I read recently that North Americans spend $2 Billion per year on Halloween Candy... Imagine people donated just a fraction of the money they spend on Halloween candy to conservation and research?
This is a late posting, since this walk took place last Saturday (May 19th), but I figured I would do a quick write-up anyway. Our walk started off at the tip, because a California Gull had been seen the day earlier, but the most noteworthy birds were small flocks of Rudy Turnstone and a Lesser Black backed Gull.
Lesser Black Backed Gull... Can you find him?
Red eyed Vireo. Difficult to photograph!
Our walk between the Tip and the vistors center had the following birds: (off the top of my head)
Northern Parula
Eastern Wood Pewee
Common Grackle
Tennessee Warbler
Black throated green Warbler
Magnolia Warbler
Eastern Kingbirds
Black billed Cuckoo (heard)
Blackburnian Warblers (several duller females)
Chimney Swifts
Great crested Flycatcher
Plus the birds photographed below:
Poor photo of one of my favorite warblers. Just a few meters from the trail. Backlit with sun behind this tree. Thanks Kelly and Paul for getting me on this bird!
Philadelphia Vireo singing at waist level in a thicket. I saw two more later on in the day on Shuster Trail.
Coin Series 2012: "Our Legendary Nature"
I've been looking for these quarters that have been recently been released from the mint but have been unable to find them. So I stopped by a small collectables store on University today and picked up a few. My first hunch was that the bird coin was a Snowy Owl, but it turns out to be a Peregrine Falcon. Canada Mint as a pretty cool advertisement on Youtube for this series.
The media (and the former youtube video) really make a big deal about these birds and how amazing our environment must be that this extremely rare birds are making a comeback. To a certain extent, yes, its good news that DDT was banned, but we still have a long way to go. I must admit that seeing four fledglings grow up just minutes from my house will make June a little more exciting.
Ojibway Walks
Ojibway walks this week had:
Ring necked Pheasant
Blue Grey Gnatcatchers (nesting)
Green Heron (Being Mobbed by a Blue Jay)
Indigo Buntings
Eastern Towhees
Hobomok & Silver Spotted Skipper as well as many duskywings.
Hobomok Skipper on Blue Flag Iris
The grassy antenna field in LaSalle that I visited last summer has a few grassland species again. The most prominent bird is Red winged Blackbird, but there are a few Eastern Meadowlarks and singles of Bobolink and Savannah Sparrows.
Amazing bird. Only the second or third time seeing this in Ontario in my life. Very skittish though. I could only get within about 60m before it would move to a distant tower support line.
The song of a male Bobolink is really incredible. It might be the coolest bird song I have heard out of 300 I have on my life list.
I think I will be going to the Carden Alvar OFO Field Trip... I'm 70% sure I'm going. Very exciting... I could be seeing potentially 5 or more life birds.
