Dion Skipper - Life butterfly at #119!

Dion Skipper

This morning I went for a bike ride along the Essex Country Greenway bike path. I was hoping to find some sedge patches that might host one of the last species in Southwestern Ontario that I hadn't really seen, photographed or "lifered". Oddly enough, I feel that I've been out on some butterfly counts where "Dion" was mentioned but I didn't really get a chance to observe the field marks or photograph it.  I had seen "several" sedge skippers this morning but none were convincingly "Dion" - the most common Sedge skipper in Essex is probably the Dukes Skipper, which is a little bit of a provincial rarity that is endemic to Essex County.

Dion Skipper's host plant is: Carex lacustris (Lake Sedge)
Mulberry wing Skipper's host plant is: Carex stricta (Tussock Sedge)

Along that greenway I has spotted some other butterflies and moths as well. They include:
Snowberry Clearwing Moth on Catnip
Horace's Duskywing
Red Spotted Purple
Eastern Comma
Monarchs
Giant Swallowtail
Common Buckeye
Duke's Skipper

Some birds included:
Brown Thrashers
Baltimore Orioles
Indigo Buntings
among many other common birds

Later near Oxley, I noticed a Northern Mockingbird on a wire - they are a little more common near Kingsville it seems. Still - a pretty cool bird to spot while driving.

Good birding!

Pelee Marsh Shorebirding & Ojibway Butterflies

Scene from an Ojibway Tallgrass Prairie... Eastern Tiger Swallowtail on Dense Blazingstar

I've spent the last month working on home improvement type tasks such as: building a fence, and "finishing" my basement which has consisted of framing walls, drywalling, mudding, painting, flooring, plumbing, electical yada yada. At one point last week, I cut a hole in my basement's concrete floor to move a future shower drain about one foot to the left. If you can move a drain in a concrete floor --- you can do anything!! I've also installed two underground sprinkler systems.

If you can do this .... you can do anything

But life can't all be about work right? I have done some occasional walks at Ojibway Park --- mainly botanizing (well --- trying to :-) ) and butterfly watching.  During one recent walk at Ojibway I found two rare butterflies...  a Common Ringlet (rare in Essex) and a Variegated Fritillary!

Other great butteflies include the regulars such as Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Eastern tailed Blue, American Copper, Common Checkered Skipper as well as Hummingbird Moths! Photographing the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail on fresh Dense Blazingstar was awesome. This is what makes Ojibway Park such a special place... but so few people realize this.

I also did a little botanizing. I have been trying to find the real rare botanical jems at Ojibway. One recent one that I found is Round headed Bush Clover. I wanted to find this plant and photograph it while it was flowering. Pretty cool! Mountain Mint is a new plant that I've acknowledged this week. Its alot like Wild Bergamot --- its part of the mint family.

I've met a new nature enthusiast at Ojibway a few times and we realized that we would like to go out to the Point Pelee Marsh. We met up last week and carpooled to Pelee with the intention of canoeing the pelee marsh in search of shorebirds. The day we went was like over 100 degrees F. Shorebirds seen include the expected: Short billed Dowitcher, SP Plovers/Sandpipers, Least and Spotted Sandpipers. A Wilson's Snipe was nice to see. We also had a Black bellied Plover with an injured leg. It seems it might have a fish hook stuck in its leg joint. --- I wish there was something I could do to help it but I'm afraid nature will take its course on this beautiful bird.

Least and Semipalmated Sandpipers. The Least has yellow legs. 

The fellow I was with probably had 7 lifers that afternoon, including this Yellow bellied Flycatcher that was flycatching (low) along the wet areas at Delaurier Trail. I love this flycatcher!

Yellow Bellied Flycatcher? I think so!

Good Birding, botanizing, Lepping and anything else related to nature!

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.

Late Summer Walk at Point Pelee

I birded Point Pelee this morning, and wow, what a morning! I started my trip to PPNP by stopping at Pelee Wings and testing some binoculars. As I was looking at a pair I was considering, I heard a Red Headed Woodpecker outside! Two were around, one juvenile and one parent. What a great way to test out a pair of Bushnell Ultra-HD's!!! I did not buy the binoculars though,,, I don't know if I can handle my sigma 500 and a pair of 10x42s. My camera lens is almost as powerful as the binoculars. But, seeing the RHW in full 'stereo' vision was really nice.  It's pretty well my favorite bird. I might save the bino purchase as a Christmas gift (If santa is listening...).

Great Crested Flycatcher

I moved on into PPNP and started off at Delaurier Trail. The brushy area west of the parking lot had many birds, but Great Crested Flycatchers, Cedar Waxwings and Blackburnian Warblers were the highlight.

Then at the beginning of Anders Footpath, I hit a really nice pocket of foraging warblers. I must of stood there for 20 minutes. Most of the warblers mentioned in my list below were right here.

Then, near the Octagon and sloughs of the trail, I spent 30+ minutes. It was extremely birdy. Vireos, Flycatchers, warblers, thrushes, waxwings everywhere. Hummingbirds and BG Gnatcatchers as well. I saw a Wilson's Warbler here, which was pretty exciting, because I only saw this once in May, and had a poor look at it.

Overexposed (blown out yellows) Wilson's Warbler

Wilson's Warbler

The area 100m on each side of the octagon was really, really birdy. There were many bugs and ripe grapes and various berries which were attracting the birds.

Red Eyed Vireo

Preening Waxwings

OK... the list ( no major surprises)

Sturgeon Creek***
Red Headed Woodpecker (one drumming parent and a brown-headed juvenile)
American Goldfinch
Morning Dove

Delaurier Trail***
Blue Grey Gnatcatcher
Cedar Waxwing (lots)
Great Crested Flycatcher
House Wren
Red Eyed Vireo (many!)
Eastern Wood Pewee (lots)
Least Flycatcher
Black Throated Green Warbler
Wilson's Warbler
Blackburnian Warbler
Nashville Warbler
Black and White Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
American Redstart
Black Capped Chickadee
Wild Turkey
Starling
Grey Catbird
Red Tailed Hawk
Ruby throated humingbird (lots)
Downy Woodpecker
Double Crested Cormorant
Mallard Duck
Baltimore Oriole
Thrush (unidentified)

Woodland Nature Trail***

Northern Waterthrush (teetering on a branch close to where I saw him in the May)
Ovenbird (heard)
American Redstart
Grackels
Downy Woodpecker

Two birds and a nervous caterpiller on the bottom of this branch

After Delaurier, I walked the Woodland Nature Trail at PPNP and well, it seemed much quieter. I did see a Northern Waterthush near the dry sloughs though. It was cool to see it teetering on a low branch. It was right where I saw it in May. I heard Overnbirds but could not spot them. What a wonderful morning though. So many birds, and every 3 minutes, a flyby of a Monarch butterfly, or Swallowtails, or Red Spotted Purples.

Northern Waterthrush

Red Spotted Purple

I was going to upload about 5 Flycatcher photos today. I think there is some 'lifer' potential buried in these photos. I would like to learn the calls and have the joy of distinguishing them by ear next year. I still struggle to differentiate them.

Good birding!
Dwayne