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.

Windsor / LaSalle Butterfly Count 2013

Coral Hairstreak Butterfly. We saw at least 6 or so of these today.

I joined Blake Mann this morning, along with (Jeff Larson, Paul Desjardens, Ian Woodfield) to assist in the local butterfly count. I've been tagging along now for two or three years, mainly for the purpose of learning more about the fine art of butterfly watching. I've really enjoyed butterfly watching, and Windsor/LaSalle have some great spots, not to mention the other natural areas in Essex such as Holiday Beach, Cedar Creek and Point Pelee.

It was nice to finally see some hairstreak butterflies today, as I had not seen any this year yet. The best butterfly of the day for me was finding an American Copper in a particular meadow within the Spring Garden  area of Ojibway. Edward's Hairstreak was a new life butterfly for me and was very exciting for me to identify it with my butterfly field guide while referring to the photo I had taken.

Edward's Hairstreak is a life butterfly

This American Copper butterfly below is my first in Canada. I had seen one at Oak Openings Metropark in Ohio a few summers ago. Just a gorgeous butterfly!

This was a stunning butterfly. It gave such good looks, it must have sat on this one flower (common knapweed) for 10 minutes. What perspective is more beautiful for this butterfly? Dorsal or ventral?

Dorsal Perspective of the American Copper butterfly

It was a good morning of butterfly watching. Most people that are into Ontario Butterfly Watching would probably agree that this year is 'slow' and crappy for some strange reason. Perhaps the extended winter we had, or abundant rain this summer? Or maybe last years butterfly watching (comparitively) was so good. There were no Fiery Skippers, Checkered Skippers or Variegated Fritillaries this year (to my knowledge). Still nice to get out and see these winged gems! I hope the final tallies from today are listed somewhere. Perhaps the Ontario Butterflies Google Group?

Good Birding & Butterfly Watching!
Dwayne

PS: Bonus Images - Great spangled Fritillary & Baltimore Checkerspot from Ojibway Tallgrass Prairie early this week.

Hairstreak Butterflies

One of my favorite butterfly photographs of an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail on Dense Blazingstar Wildflowers

While birding last summer, I realized that there can be some exciting breeding birds to see, but really, birding becomes a little bit static. Many great nature blogs that I was reading, (Burg Birder in particular) focused a little more on butterflies during this time and if some good birds were seen, then bonus!

Common Buckeye is found easily on PPNP's West Beach Pathway in midsummer.

This Snout Butterfly was found at PPNP in the researchers' lodge parking lot.

Great Spangled Fritillary on Butterfly Milkweed. Common at Ojibway in Early July

So I was familiar with Monarch Butterflies, and some of the big, beautiful Giant and Tiger Swallowtails. Other exciting butterflies seen and photographed last summer include Common Buckeye, Question Mark and Comma as well as Snout butterflies! Baltimore Checkerspot is just a dirt-common butterfly at Ojibway this summer, as well as Great Spangled Fratillary butterflies. You can't forget about Mourning Cloak butterflies which show up in your local forests very early during Spring.

But this posting is about a particular type of butterfly... Hairstreaks. They are really cool butterflies. They are pretty common and offer challenging identification opportunities. I must say, I saw a "Coral Hairstreak" last week with its bright orange spots (see below) and that was pretty exciting! Check out some photos below of Hairstreaks:

 Banded Hairstreak (on the roof of my car at Point Pelee)

 Striped Hairstreak

Coral Hairstreak on Butterfly Milkweed

Hickory Hairstreak

Grey Hairstreak

I'm still looking for an Edwards and White-M Hairstreak.  Non-Hairstreak butterflies I would love to see are Tawny or Hackberry Emperor, Milberts Tortoishell and oddly enough, American Copper!

So next time your out enjoying nature, don't just look for the large obvious butterflies... Look a little closer at the flowers and you might be pleasantly surprised at the tiny butterflies that are not obvious to most people. If you give them a chance, they can make for an exciting discovery. One thing about Hairstreaks you need to appreciate is that they are only 1-1.5cm in size. You could cover these hairstreaks with a nickel. Its good to have optics or a decent camera to document what you're looking at!

To identify these Hairstreaks, I recommend getting a butterfly guide. I bought one (Photo Field Guide to the Butterflies of Southern Ontario) at Ojibway Nature Center for about $10 and has been very useful. Next topic: Duskywings and Skippers... not!

Yours in birding,
Dwaynejava

Sources:
Carmichael Ian, "Photo Field Guide to the Butterflies of Southern Ontario",  Print, 2003, Alymer Express St Thomas Ontario.

Dickcissels in Wheatley

Click photo for larger view

A very observant birder (Ken Burrell) made an Ontbirds Posting recently about several Dickcissel (Spiza Americana) in Wheatley and I figured that I would go and try my luck at finding them. I found them quite easily. I had an Ipod on me but found I did not need it, because there were three birds in that area singing: Red winged Blackbird, Dickcissel, and Indigo Buntings!

A drive out in Essex County along Cabots Trail will give views of many Oil Derriks Pumpjacks (aka Thirstybird). I wonder what the stats are on Ontario's oil production?  It really smelt like oil next to these strange machines...

I also coupled my trip out to Wheatley with a quick visit to Hillman Marsh and Point Pelee. Hillman Marsh was surprisingly quiet, although I only spent about 10 minutes there. Belted Kingfisher, a single fly-over Great Blue Heron and some Terns were about all that was noted.

I kayaked the marsh at Point Pelee today and did not see much. Black Terns were abundant though! They don't mind you so much if you are in a kayak (the photo below was shot while kayaking) but... if you walk on the boardwalk, they pretty well dive bomb you. They literally would hover 2ft over my head!

One of my favorite birds, the Red headed Woodpecker returned to the docks in Leamington.  I can't help but wonder if someone should come in and consult with the local landowners about making life more hospitable for this bird. Its  a "Special Concern Provincially, Threatened Nationally" (ROM) . There were all kinds of feeders around which seems to be attracting House Sparrows, Brown headed Cowbirds and the like. It would be cool if someone suggested planting various fruit bearing trees, remove the cheap feeders etc... or is it better to just leave these woodpeckers in the environment they've chosen?

Good birding!
Dwaynejava

This (Banded?) Hairstreak butterfly was on the roof of my car as I was about to remove my kayak at Point Pelee Marsh Boarwalk. I think my car needs a wash!!!

Sources:
 ROM, "Red-headed Woodpecker ", Royal Ontario Museum, Web, Obtained June 27th, 2011,
 http://www.rom.on.ca/ontario/risk.php?doc_type=fact&id=120