Red Admiral , Trout Lily , Hermit Thrush - More Springtime Arrivals

Another springtime weekend is upon us! Over the last few days - I've tried to go for a walk every day after work. Some highlights, as the title of this posting suggests - were Trout Lily, Sharp lobed Hepatica, Red Admiral, Hermit Thrush and Winter Wren. 

Another good bird I noticed this week was a Hairy Woodpecker - which might be a breeder at Ojibway Park. These woodpeckers are a little bit rare in Essex County so they always nice to see. 

If the weather is good tomorrow - I might try to go out to Point Pelee.  

Good Birding!

Dwayne

Late June Lepidoptera Observations around Windsor

 Lepidoptera is a term coined by Carl Linnaeus in 1735. The term is derived from greek origins meaning "Scaled Wing". The photo above (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lepidoptera) shows a scanning electron microscopy view of the scales on a butterfly wing at 50X through 5000X. The scales on the wings of butterflies have many functions: to attract mates, camoflage, mimicry, thermoregulation, insulation and pheromone production (wikipedia). (A small area on male butterfly wings called 'stigma' glands is what actually produces pheremones if I'm not mistaken). So when I go out birding, if I get a chance to get a good look at a butterfly, I take it! With the right optics, you can really get amazing views of the details, colours, patterns that butterflies provide. Some butterflies will allow close looks where you can almost grab them, and others will flutter away and keep a safe distance never to be seen again. I recall trying to find Hackberry Emporer butterflies at Point Pelee one summer, and while searching for one, one landed on me! I had another land on the dash of my car!

"Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better" - Albert Einstein.

Even with a cheap 55-250mm lens, you can actually see scale detail on butterflies if you get a good exposure. Do you know what butterfly this is?

My latest nature walks have focused on our local endowment of about 40-80 species of butterflies that can be found in Essex County (there are 174,250 species worldwide in the order of Lepidoptera). Right now (July) is prime time to go out and get a look at these fluttery beasts*! 

Red Admiral Butterfly - Dorsal and Ventral Composite

Red Admiral Butterfly. It took several exposures and adjustments on ISO, Aperture and shutter speed to get this shot! Once in a while a butterfly will afford you some time to capture it. This is the exception, not the norm though.

Hickory Hairstreak.  This rarity is pretty easily found at Brunet Park in Lasalle. This one only gave me 3 seconds of viewing.

This photo was of an obliging Banded Hairstreak. It was fresh and was nicely perched  at the forest edge sunning itself. Its hard to describe the colours you get from a fresh hairstreak. While moving its hindwings, it gives off a sheen of blue, purple and reddish copper colours. Brilliant!

The "hairstreaks" of a hairstreak butterfly is an example of self mimicry. A hungry bird wanting to eat this butterfly might be fooled into biting the wrong end of this butterfly - its non-vital hindwing, giving the butterfly one more chance to fly away and see another day.

Banded Hairstreak

Red Spotted Purple - A butterfly that mimicks the bad tasting Pipevine Swallowtail.  Its really a colour morph of the White Admiral butterfly!

Baltimore Checkerspot

Great spangled Fritillary on Purple Milkweed

My latest birding efforts have been good but nothing outside of what would be expected. I have seen and heard a great number of Great crested Flycatchers this summer at Ojibway, as well as Orioles, Indigo Buntings and Eastern Wood Peewees. One highlight from the third week of June was a group of five fledgling Green Herons at Ojibway (see below).

Five Green Heron Fledglings at Ojibway Park

American Toad 

So next time you're out in nature, take a second look at the lepidopteric gems that flutter about you. You just might be amazed at what you see! If you don't know what you are looking at consider getting a good field guide [link] .

Interested in joining a butterfly count in Essex? Read below for details of the Essex County butterfly count:

The Windsor Butterfly Count is being held Saturday, July 5 (2014). If you would like to attend we are meeting at 9:00 am at the Ojibway Nature Centre. We will then divide up into groups to cover the various parks and natural areas for butterflies.


Good Birding!
Dwaynejava

* "Fluttery Beasts" was a term coined by Ohio Blogger Jim McCormac. I must give him credit for that lexicographically brilliant description of butterflies.

Yellow Bellies, Rumps and Throats

New Scope Purchase
My entry into the birding world has been a slow burn from the start. I birded for the first year without binoculars or a field guide (don't laugh!). The second year, I birded without a scope... So for my third year of birding, I treated myself to a scope. I bought a Bushnell Elite 80mm scope even though I was tempted to get the gorgeous Vortex Razor HD 85mm scope or even the Kowa 88mm scope. The Bushnell Elite scope has Bak-4 prisms and some Flourite Lenses, along with a new eyepiece that has twist-out eye cups. I wanted to buy a Kowa or Vortex so bad, but I just have so many upcoming purchases (minivan) , wide angle lens (maybe), my first cell phone and the list goes on and on. With my own budget in consideration, and the amount of usage I will get, the sub $1000 range is where my budgetary equilibrium landed me.  I lined up all three scopes at Pelee Wings and looked at a distant card stapled to a tree across the road from the store. Long story short, I'm quite happy with the performance of the Bushnell, even when compared to the Vortex and the Kowa (77mm)!

Yellow Bellied Sapsuckers
After visiting Pelee Wings, I walked Point Pelee's Delaurier Trail & Woodland Nature trail with hopes of seeing any Mid-April migrants. As you can see above, I had "soul satisfying views" of Yellow bellied Sapsuckers! One was working a tree along the Woodland Nature Trail and swooped right in front of me as I was walking! Another YBSS tried to use this one's sap wells, and this one chased it off, right in front of me. I'm really happy with the way these photos turned out. My first photos of the YBSS were up high, with a cloudy sky in the background, but later, the bird repositioned lower on the same tree (Shagbark Hickory?) with a nicer backdrop.

Inaugural Scope run at Hillman Marsh

Were you expecting a Vireo or Warbler?  :-p

Upon arrival to Hillman Marsh, I bumped into Richard Carr, who quickly pointed out this large turtle in the middle of the shorebird cell at Hillman Marsh. This turtle was looking up, sticking its head up in the air as if he was saying, look at this obvious yellow throat! I'm a Blandings Turtle! (turtle lifer!)

While scoping out the shorebird cell (flooded field) at Hillman, we noticed something was stirring things up. A distant falcon profile was seen and later it flew by us heading north. Richard and I thought it was a Merlin, but maybe it was an American Kestrel. Later on as I was leaving, I saw this Kestrel perched about 500m north of Hillman. 

Thousands, possibly millions of Red Admirals were everywhere today.

Well...Back to work!!!

PS: You have to see this Great Horned Owl nest in S.E. Michigan!!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/53477149@N02/6932179996/in/photostream

PSS:
I wanted to learn a little about the Exit Pupil concept and other technical specifications of scopes and binoculars a found this good resource: Nikon info guide for choosing binoculars (or Monoculars ie Scopes).

PSS:  Amazing Video of Osprey Catching fish...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nA3LtXnNIto&feature=player_embedded

Good birding,
Dwaynejava

Ojibway Park Butterflies

I've photographed several butterflies since late June. I'm still a noob (newbie) with butterflies and I would not even classify myself as a butterflyer
... I should buy a guide before I do that! Here are some that I've photographed since late June. I figured if I don't post these beauties to my blog, they will get buried in my computer and forgotten about. The odd thing about photographing butterflies with my birding lens is that I have a minimum focal length of 8 feet, so I can really only take horizontal shots. 

I'm still learning alot about Butterflies so these may be mis-labeled. A recent butterfly count in the Ojibway area had over 50 species identified.

I've always wondered why a Question Mark butterfly was named like that. This photo actually shows the question mark symbol on the bottom of its wings. It looks like someone drew a question mark symbol with a metalic silver marker.

This photo was composed from two photographs... One with the tops of its wings, and the other with the bottoms.

And this one from last fall at Point Pelee a Giant Swallowtail  ...