White-lined Sphinx Moth

This weekend, my son and I were on the Holiday Beach Migration Observatory hawkwatching tower, when from the bottom of the tower, Paul Pratt & Bob Hall-Brooks called up that a White-lined Sphinx Moth was being observed. Having seen the Clearwing Hummingbird Moth and the Snowberry Hummingbird Moth earlier this summer, I was eager to catch a glimpse at a third species of Hummingbird Moth: The White-lined Sphinx Moth! This moth was huge! Its wingspan spans 3-3.5"! The moth was attracted to a giant patch of Jewelweed.

Its funny though, my friend Rick Mayos had recently sent me a photo of a Nessus Sphinx Hummingbird Moth that he had taken in his backyard.  Along with the photo, he sent me this article summarizing the four major "Hummingbird Moths" [link]. This dialog started Rick and I on a summer-long discussion on the various moths and butterflies we were seeing.

Nessus Sphinx Moth! ©Rick Mayos

Naturally, I texted Rick a photo of the White-lined Hummingbird Moth by taking a photo of it off my camera's preview screen with my cell phone. He had never seen this fourth hummingbird moth... until he looked out his window and found one on his butterfly bush in his backyard just minutes after seeing my text message! This means Rick has achieved the holy grail of mothing... 1-Clearwing, 2-Snowberry, 3-Nessus and 4-White-lined moths ...The Grand-slam*** of hummingbird moths! I myself am one species short of this noble achievement... I still need to glance at the Nessus Moth to make that bold claim :-).

Snowberry Hummingbird Moth

Clearwing Hummingbird Moth on Wild Bergamot

Hawk-watching at HBMO is always good during the fall. Its been a tradition for me to go out to HBMO at least weekly during the fall raptor migration season. Some birds seen this weekend include: Bald Eagles (6), Merlin (8), American Kestrel (10), Sharp-shinned Hawks - (25), Northern Harrier (1), Red tailed Hawk - (2), Broad winged Hawks (100's)... and the season is just beginning. There must be at least 40 species of ducks/geese/swans on any given day along with the passerines (Jays, Waxwings, Goldfinches) not to mention warblers, vireos, wrens and Gnatcatchers. (I should be putting this all into ebird... I know.)

Broad winged Hawks (mini kettle) - At stratospheric heights... imperceptible without proper optics.

Obligatory Sharp shinned Hawk photos.

Bronze Copper Butterfly - Abundant on the Goldenrod surrounding the hawk-watching tower at Holiday Beach.

Black Saddlebags - I this photo made me realize the "saddlebags" are a visual effect from the black wing colouration... not the shape of its abdomen!

Bronze Coppers were abundant at Holiday Beach as well. Bronze Coppers can be abundant around smampy marshes and wetlands as their larval foodplant -Curled Dock is abundant in marsh habitat. Singles of Common Buckeye and Monarch were also seen... Still no Grey Hairstreaks this season!

Good birding!
Dwaynejava

*** - (Nerdy blog readers will recall when I had a "chickadee grad-slam" two years ago: Chestnut-backed, Mountain, Boreal and Black-capped [link])

Point Pelee's OFO Convention Birding

I stopped into PPNP this morning for a short birding walk. As usual, I only had a precious two hours to bird the park, so I rolled the dice and decided to walk the Delaurier Path. This path has been really good in the past, especially in the fall because there is lots of edge habitat (forest/field and forest/marsh) as well as several wet sloughs. The area around the sloughs (the elevated boardwalk & octagon platform) are loaded with dogwood berries, wild grapes, sumac and jewelweed.

The Delaurier parking lot provided a brief look at a (house?) Wren, and a few warblers were seen along the path, but really, I hardly saw much as I rounded the Delarier path. I did have good looks at Northern Flicker and many overhead Sharp Shinned Hawks. Perhaps that's why nothing was really out in the open. Even though birds were hardly seen, it was cool to see so many Ruby throated hummingbirds. Along the path, batches of Jewelweed would be guarded by a perched Hummingbird (see above photo). I must have seen about 15 hummingbirds along this path. 

Then, just as I rounded the Delaurier path, I ran into a group of birders from the OFO convention that was talking place this weekend at Point Pelee. I think the group was led by Bruce DiLabio, and his son Ben (the leader calling his son Ben tipped me off). Bruce and the group quickly spotted a Grey Cheeked Thrush which would have been a lifer. Another group member mentioned seeing a flycatcher skulking in the same bush. Ben later mentioned seeing a Yellow bellied Flycatcher as well (another potential lifer)!

Yellow bellied Flycatcher. An unexpected and exciting lifer.

I did not really see any birds at first, and I then followed the group along Ander's Path to see some hard-fought warblers, Magnolia, Black throated Blue, and a Blue headed Vireo, preening in a pine. The group quickly left Ander's Footpath shortly after (they rushed off to NW Beach). As I was about to leave myself, I tried one more time for the Grey Cheeked thrush and luckily, it perched out into the open, along with the yellow bellied flycatcher... Both lifers at #282 & #283.

A Grey cheeked Thrush. Do you see it's gray facial features? Its almost identical to a Hermit Thrush!

While exciting to get two more lifers, I must say it was a cautious excitement because these two particular birds are tough to identify. The flycatchers are so similar I really am not 100% sure of what I'm looking at when I see one. Also, the spot-breasted Thrushes are all very similar as well. But I'm quite confident the identification is correct. The thrush above is obviously not a Swainson's Thush.  Lifers are few and far between as you approach 300!

Good birding,
Dwaynejava

PS: I checked the onion fields for American Golden Plover (they were reported there yesterday) but no such luck. I think I'm the only birder in Ontario who has not yet seen an Am G. Plover!

Lifer summary:
Grey cheeked Thrush #282
Yellow bellied Flycatcher #283