Early June is always a great time of year to go out and look for bugs. I have gotten out on a few occasions to try and nail down some of my target species for this time of year. I have compiled some of the more notable sightings into this post.
Back on June 5th I went to Lambton Shores in search of some of the neat insects that call that place home. I didn't see too much of interest when I visited The Pinery, other than a Cyrano Darner and an Eastern Pine Elfin butterfly on a dock. Its not an insect, but these Northern Sunfish were just off the same dock!
Several species of dragonflies were around as well.
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| Racket-tailed Emerald |
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| Slaty Skimmer |
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| Belted Whiteface |
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| Lancet Clubtail |
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| Beaverpond Baskettail |
A couple of neat flies were seen too.
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| Bumble Bee Mimic Robber Fly |
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| Golden-backed Snipe Fly |
I next visited Fossil Road on the Ausable River, since it was more or less on my way home. I always enjoy stopping here, as it seems you never know what you will see!
I was mostly focusing on dragonflies, and came up with two species of clubtails, Midland and the rare Rapids Clubtail. I saw a couple Rapids about 4 kilometers up river last year.
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| Midland Clubtail |
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| Rapids Clubtail |
I also saw a Common Sootywing, a somewhat uncommon butterfly species.
A couple days later on June 7th I was back out to the Ausable River in search of a rare species of clubtail, Green-faced Clubtail. I worked the section of river near Rock Glen CA. It took a bit, but I finally managed to find a few Green-faced Clubtails, a new species for me!
There were a few males patrolling the river, and I caught a female later on.
One of my most notable sightings wasn't even of a live dragonfly. I spotted a dead Twin-spotted Spiketail caught up on some grass! This may be the first record of this species for the Ausable River, and perhaps Lambton County. On the 5th I had seen a spiketail sp. briefly while I was on Fossil Road, which is in Middlesex. If it was the same species, it would have constituted a new county record for Middlesex. Due to this individual's proximity to Middlesex, I can only assume they are present there too.
After I was done at Rock Glen, I made another stop along Fossil Road. Completely different than just a couple days prior in that there were no clubtails flying around! I did however find an Eastern Red Damsel, a new one for my Middlesex list.
On June 10th I decided to check out some areas close to home for odonates. I figured it was about time for a visit to the Sifton Bog, so that was my first destination of the day.
I was quite pleased to see that there were several Spatterdock Darners, which I first found here in 2019 (first Middlesex county record) out over the pond, indicative of a breeding population here. None came close enough for a swing with my net, other than this one when I only had my camera in my hand! At least I got a nice photo :)
My first "in hand" Carolina Saddlebags were seen as well. Another breeding species here.
There were a few damselflies of interest as well.
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| Azure Bluet |
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| Boreal Bluet |
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| Amber-winged Spreadwing |
Boreal Bluet was a new Middlesex species for me.
I made a visit to Komoka Provincial Park next. Here I was in search of another potentially new species for my county ode list, Delta-spotted Spiketail. After a long and grueling hike, I eventually spotted one, but was only able to get off a quick photo.
There were also quite a few of these cicadas around as well, Say's Cicada (Okanagana rimosa).
I made one last stop at a storm pond in North London, where I found an unexpected county lifer ode, Lancet Clubtail.
It was an enjoyable few days of tracking down insects! Not much else to do these days :-P
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