Compton Tortoiseshell & Catching up on the last month or two

 

After reading a recent blog posting from Blake about the Skunks Misery butterfly count, I had to give another try to find the Compton Tortoiseshell butterfly. This past Saturday, I had gotten up early and drove to Newbury ON's MOSA forest - (AKA Skunks Misery) to try and discover this gorgeous butterfly. I have seen 154 different species before adding this to my life list. To my knowledge, this butterfly is surprisingly common up near Toronto and north of Toronto but it becomes more and more scarce as one heads to the southern reaches of the province. I spent several hours driving and walking at Skunks Misery looking for this. I must have looked at hundreds of butterflies for 3-4 hours before finding this diamond in the rough!

Some butterflies seen from memory:

Compton Tortoiseshell 1

Great Spangled Fritillary

Eastern Comma 3

Gray Comma 1 ?

Question Mark 3

Spicebush Swallowtail 2

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail 2

Giant Swallowtail 1

Red spotted Purple 2

Tawny Emporer 20

Hackberry Emporer 20

Monarch 30

Striped hairstreak 4

Banded hairstreak 15

Hairstreak Sp 10

Clouded Sulphur 2

Cabbage white 2

Black dash skipper 30

Eastern Tailed Blue 2

Red Admiral 3

Crescent Sp. 4

Northern Pearly-Eye 2

Little Wood-Satyr 7

Common Wood-Nymph 5

Going back a few more days - I had taken my family for a nature walk/bike at the Pinery Provincial Park in Lambton County. 

While walking on Riverside Trail within the park, my son pointed out a little butterfly on the pathway that appeared to be dying! I went to look at it and realized it was a moth species I had never seen, an oakworm moth species!  I was hoping to see a Mottled Duskywing - but I was unable to find one. 

Orangestriped Oakworm Moth

The Neighbor

Coral Hairstreak

I have gone out with a small group of moth-ers this summer so far and have started to see some underwing species that we love so much: 

Some other noteworthy sightings and photos below just for fun:

Prairie Milkweed (Sulivants Milkweed)

Good Naturalizing,

Dwayne

Peregrine Progress v2

Not much new happening lately. I've visited the bridge area in west Windsor for the last few days and have had a chance to see the flightless, downy Peregrine chicks molt into large, beautifully feathered fledglings. The shots above are of "Lady Gaga" (aka X/64).  She was on a two-storey apartment building next to the bridge. I was only about 20m away on a porch next to the building she was perched on, and I was able to use a tree as a blind. This bird was trying to sleep, but kept getting harassed by an angry Robin! What a brave mommy Robin!

 This is Spitfire (R/11). He's not flying as well as Lady Gaga, so its easy to see him perched on a low ledge on the bridge. He's stretching, napping and eating food from his parents... working up the confidence to start flying.

How cool to be in a mid-city environment and see Peregrine Falcons flying overhead with food in their talons, perched on telephone wires, and being harassed in trees by Robins and Blue Jays (see photo below).

Some butterflies seen lately include Dreamy Duskywing, Southern Coudywing, Silver spotted Skipper, which I spotted while going on an Ojibway walk, looking for Northern Bobwhite which was reported earlier this week.

Good birding,
Dwaynejava

Dreamy Duskywing has metallic purple flecks in its forewing and has greatly extended mouthparts that are diagnostic.