ROM Butterflies of Ontario Field Guide Review plus Bonus Video: Vlogging Entimologists!

I recently ordered a copy of the ROM Butterflies of Ontario field guide online and obtained my copy today. I was a little reluctant to get a ROM guide after being a little disappointed with the ROM Birds of Ontario field Guide. The problem with the ROM birding guide was that only one image of each bird was provided, and that was a shortcoming of that book because birds can have many plumages due to age, time of the year and of course, sexual dimorphism.  My initial impression of this book though has been much better. The photography is excellent. The writeups are good and cover lots of information. The range maps are nice - customized to the province of Ontario and even include specific points that the particular butterfly has been found in. Data perhaps garnered from E-butterfly databases and other historic records.


The first section of the book is excellent and includes the following:

• History of Butterfly study in Ontario
• Butterfly morphology
• Factors influencing butterfly distribution in Ontario
• Conservation and protection of Ontario butterflies
• Where to Observe Butterflies (including nice profiles of the top 14 butterfly watching sites)
• Observing butterflies  and documenting records
• Butterfly Gardening

The image below shows the first of 14 butterfly hotspots spread out throughout the province. It was great to read about Ojibway Prairie as one of the main featured areas for butterfly watching.  The next page features Point Pelee. Two hotspots in Essex County. Exciting!  I plan on making trips out to all these corners of Ontario during upcoming summers.

Each butterfly basically has a two page spread that includes great photography of both the dorsal and ventral view of the butterfly, as well as the larval form (Caterpillar). Occasionally, a host plant images is included as well. Range maps and distribution details are excellent.

I was wondering if some extirpated species were included in this book, and it seems yes, they are. I think field guides and other books relating to natural history should include extinct and extirpated species, just to remind us of what should be here and to remind us that we need to increase conservation efforts.

Well, here is the promised video. Its not really a Vlog (Vlog is short for Video Log or Video Blog), but rather, a recorded webcast... But I just thought it would be cool to say: "Vlogging Entimologists"! Its interesting to watch these two ROM authors just sit around and talk about butterflies in Ontario. Its nice to see the authors behind the books you are reading. Enjoy!




One might be curious to know how this guide compares with the recent and excellent Kaufman butterfly guide? I think they are both great, but the ROM guide simply focuses on the Ontario species whereas the Kaufman guide tackles a much larger area: All of the US and Canada! Its a matter of depth versus breadth. So, since so much breadth is covered in the Kaufman guide, there is not much depth. The ROM guide provides much more depth, but less breadth. Both are excellent.

There was some interesting discussion about this field guide on the Ontario butterflies google group. There were some criticisms about inaccuracies in the book or mistakes... perhaps made by inaccurate data entry or mistaken observations.  The debates were interesting, and at times somewhat heated... But rest assured it remained civil :-) One butterfly enthusiast made a comment that... (I forget the context of his discussion - perhaps regarding the data discrepencies and the volunteer efforts to fix them) but he mentioned that we are all paid in "butterfly bucks"... Too funny.

I plan on reading this book and just leaving it on my coffee table for my kids to flip through. I recommend getting it!


Good Birding & Butterfly watching!
Dwaynejava

At the time of publishing, this book is 37% off the cover price at Chapters/Indigo. See link below.
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/the-rom-field-guide-to/9780888544971-item.html

American White Pelicans at Big Creek in Amherstburg V3

4,5,6...7 American White Pelicans? My first for Ontario. Heavily cropped...

After reading about the reported White Pelicans and Little Blue Heron at Holiday Beach this week, I felt I should go and check it out.  It was reported that the Egret numbers at Holiday Beach/Big Creek might be the largest recorded Egret roost numbers in Canada. This morning, I was unable to find a juvenile Little Blue Heron, as most Great Egrets were very far from the hawk watching tower, and my scope is just not sharp enough to see beak detail to distinguish a LBH from a Great Egret.

Or is this a Juvenile Herring Gull?

Recent walks of Point Pelee beaches gave views of Bonaparte's Gulls and Lesser (?) black-backed Gulls. I was hoping to see a Little Gull, but I haven't convincingly seen one yet. I can't honestly differentiate between a greater and lesser gull at this point, so I usually go by what is more statistically abundant. Ebird charts for Essex County hint that Greater black backed Gulls are much more abundant than Lesser black backed Gulls.

A quick kayak trip into Point Pelee's Marsh resulted in surprisingly low numbers of shorebirds. I was expecting more to be honest. On the various islands of mudflats I saw:
2 Semipalmated Sandpipers
5 Killdeer
1 Juv Spotted Sandpiper
3 Short billed Dowitchers
15 Canada Geese
25 Black Terns (in the Lilypads)

I should enter this into e-bird. I should go out at least one more time into the marsh. Probably in the second week of August.

Any thoughts on the subspecies of this SBD? Hendersoni?

Lots of butterflies around at Point Pelee along west Beach. Common Buckeye and American Snout are very abundant, but Giant Swallowtails, Red Spotted Purples, Viceroy, Monarch, Painted Lady and even Variegated Fritillary. I was hoping to see an Olive Hairstreak this week but dipped.

 

 

Good Birding,
Dwaynejava

Long Dash Skipper? ... Probably Pecks

Late Summer Kayaking at PPNP

SB Dowitchers were abundant today. Click image for full size view.

I went for a little kayak trip to Point Pelee's marsh again on Tuesday. Not much different than usual... In fact, it was pretty well the exact same list of birds from a trip that I took last year at about this time. Its amazing how cyclical nature can be.  I saw the Great Horned Owl that had hatched earlier this year near Sanctuary Pond. Closer to the marsh, there were numerous short billed dowitchers and a surprise black bellied plover.

Some species (rough estimates) seen on my 1-hour Point Pelee Marsh kayak trip:

Spotted Sandpiper 5

Semi-Plover: 20

Semi-Sandpiper 25
Lesser Yellowlegs 2

Short billed Dowitcher 40

Black bellied Plover 1

Black Terns 300-500

GB Herons 4

BCN Heron 1

Northern Harrier 1

Great Horned Owl 1 (Near Sanctuary)

Double Crested Cormorant 50+ (overhead)

 I guess its obvious at this point, but kayaking gives great looks at shorebirds at this time of year. 

Good birding!
Dwaynejava

PS: Two years ago at this time I photographed several Rudy Turnstones on East Beach at PPNP. I love this photo, but I it should have been dated: Aug 14th, 2009:

American Avocet in Leamington

While driving on hwy #3 today, I noticed a large shorebird in a newly excavated area in field about 400m west of Talbot Rd East in Leamington.  I stopped to check it out and wow... American Avocet. I wanted to high-five somebody when I saw this bird, but I was by myself on the shoulder of highway three... lol.



I think this is a female Avocet. Female Avocets have a sharp curve near the last 1/3rd of their bills, as opposed to males that have an upward curve through the whole bill. Any thoughts?

It was a tricky day for photography, every 5 minutes it went from being sunny and bright to cloudy and dark. I found myself constantly switching my white balance from cloudy to sunny, then ISO from 200 <-->800. I've never worked so hard to take a photo of a bird! These Avocet photos are not that great, but at least they are diagnostic.

More on the American Avocet : http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/American_Avocet/lifehistory.


I went on to look at Hillman Marsh which had many Egrets and Herons, but not much else of interest. The shorebird cell is completely dry. I can't understand why the shorebird cell is dry with major migration taking place in August and September. Does it cost ERCA money to flood this field?

***

Earlier on in the day, I visited Tilbury S.L., which had a good assortment of shorebirds... Nothing new though.

Some included...

Long billed Dowitcher
Short billed Dowitcher
Greater Yellowlegs
Lesser Yellowlegs
Semipalmated Sandpiper
Semipalmated Plover
Killdeer
Spotted Sandpiper
Pectoral Sandpiper

Good Birding!
Dwaynejava

Lifer Summary:
Lesser Black Backed Gull (correction, never counted #276)
Semipalmated Plover (Correction, never counted #277)
American Avocet #278

Deja vue... Kayaking Point Pelee's Marsh

I took two of my pre-teen nephews out for a canoe rideto Point Pelee today. On the way there, I figured I would stop by the Leamington Docks to see if we could see the Red Headed Woodpecker. Its been a while since I've seen it. One of my nephews was looking at the tree through binoculars and informed me that he sees a woodpecker! I was really happy that these two young guys shared in the joy of birding.

These two photos are about the best I can do without tresspassing private property, the bird is probably about 50m away, and these are cropped images taken with a 500mm lens on a 1.6x crop factor sensor.

The same field that this tree is in hosts a few Northern Mockingbirds and we got some really close looks at them again. Hence... dejavue.

We then headed to Point Pelee marsh for a two hour canoe ride with a mid-way stop at the East Beach just past the East Cranberry Pond. We saw some small Least Sandpipers, Semipalmated Plover, Killdeer, Common Terns, Black Terns, and again, Short Billed Dowitchers.

 As we headed back to the windsock marsh landmark, we saw many, many terns flying iradically in large flocks and I had taken a photo to possibly identify them later... are they Black Terns? Anyway, moments later, I noticed that a larger bird was causing all the excitment, yes... A Hungry Peregrine Falcon!...

Overall, a good day! Good birding!
Dwayne

Great Horned Owl & Short Billed Dowitcher

I had a great day at Point Pelee National Park (PPNP) today! I met up with Rick from Leamington and he expertly showed me the location of two Great Horned Owls (along with Kevin, the Owl whisperer).

Rick and I later did some Butterflying on the west beach area, where we saw Giant Swallowtail, Yellow Sulpher, Painted Lady, Pearl Crescent, Monarch and Common Buckeye (thanks to Blake for the heads up on the Buckeye). We also saw Snout butterflies while talking to a butterfly researcher at the researcher's lodge.

Later in the afternoon, I kayaked the PPNP marsh ... which was pretty quiet, but I did see some roosts of Terns, Black Terns, Short Billed Dowitcher (lifer), Least Sandpiper, Killdeer, G/L Yellowlegs, Sanderling. At one point, a young Black Crowned Night Heron flew from the reeds and landed on a nearby peat island.

Good day overall, but I think I need to invest in a wide brimmed hat! I think I'm aging myself with so much sun exposure lately.

Good Birding & Butterflying,
Dwayne