Comet - Neowise + Some Underwing Moths

I woke up this morning at 4:00 am, and headed out to Lakewood Park South, which is in Tecumseh ON. I met up with Steve Pelerin, who is a local astronomy expert. Using my 400mm lens on a cropped sensor resulted in many blurry, shaky photos. I had arrived having realized my wife removed my tripod from my car recently.

I will try to go back tomorrow with my tripod, and I might also try using different (non-telephoto) lenses.

I have been mothing alot lately - at least once per week. So far this year, I have seen at least 6 species of underwing moths, with three new lifer moths!

Below I have four that I was able to photograph:

Ultronia Underwing
Little Underwing (lifer)
Hawthorn Underwing (lifer)
White Underwing (lifer)
Ilia Underwing (not shown)
Girlfriend Underwing (not shown)

Good Astronomizing & Mothing,
Dwayne

Mid-July Moth Watching at Ojibway Park

The Windsor Essex Field Naturalists had a Moth -Watching event this past Friday, and I made it out for the last hour between 11pm and Midnight. Local moth expert Maurice Bottos hosted two "light traps" at Ojibway - one near the visitor center and another in the Tallgrass Prairie across the road. 

I will just post the photos and hold back on commentary - although I should just mention that you are getting two posts in one here --- The second half of this posting was an old, unpublished posting from mid-July in 2014. 

My friends who visited Friday night declined on moth-watching but sent me this photo Saturday morning.  They requested an ID. I think its a Pandora Sphinx Moth.

(Older Post from 2014 --- Never published till now --- Originally titled: Mothing Debut)

Moth watching is a natural progression for birders, butterfly watchers and naturalists... The beauty and biodiversity of moths is incredible for those who make the effort to see them. Blog readers might remember my first chance sightings of Clearwing & Sphinx Moths last summer. This along with my growing interest in butterfly watching and other bloggers who described moth watching  ignited my interest.

Local birder Steve Pike recently invited me to join him to tag along with a moth-researching biologist who often sets up sheets at night around the Ojibway area to census the moths in this area.

Some moth species that I took note of were:

Virginia Creeper Spinx Moth
Saltmarsh Tiger Moth
Leconte's haploa moth


Ilia Underwing
Ultronia Underwing

I may have mis-identified this --- Reversed Haploa Moth

I was hoping to see an IO moth or a Giant Leopard Moth but I did get to see some beautiful species on my first mothing outing. I will try to join these moth outings as the summer progresses and hopefully I can document more interesting species.

Good Mothing!
Dwaynejava