Butterflies Close By

Along with dragonflies, I have been checking out a few butterflies in my area. I recently (last few days) found nice patch of Hemp Dogbane beside a construction site, and so far I have found a few nice butterflies there.

Hemp Dogbane

Hickory Hairstreak

Dion Skipper

Eastern Tailed Blue

Banded Hairstreak

Northern Broken Dash

Wild Indigo Duskywing

One of my highlights this week was finding a small "population" of Common Sootywings, an uncommon butterfly in Ontario. There were about a dozen individuals.

The Transition Period

Sad as it is, spring migration is virtually over.

But there is hope...this is the time of year that butterflies/moths (leps) and dragonflies/damsels (odes) start to appear in large numbers. These groups will entertain us until fall migration starts in a couple months. Today, I made my first trip of the year to look specifically to find some flying insects.

I started in my favourite spot to look for leps, a large open field adjacent to Sunngingdale Rd. and at the start/end of Uplands Trail. I can often find many skippers here. Today, I only saw a glimpse of one skipper, but there was quite a large number of Common Ringlets.

There was a tagged Monarch, but I was unable to get a photo or the tag number. A Virginia Ctenucha also didn't want it's picture taken.

An Eastern Tailed-Blue made an appearance.

There were a couple bluets, including Eastern Forktail.

Heading into the woods, I saw numerous larger species of dragonfly, such as Common Whitetail and what looked like a meadowhawk of some sort.

Heading deeper in the woods, there was a White-stripped Black moth.

Also see was one of my favourites, the Ebony Jewelwing.

Although things are still a bit slow, hopefully they will soon pick up!

Grassland Birds and Butterflies

There were numerous reports of Upland Sandpipers and Clay-colored (It's Clay-coloured, eh!), west of Strathroy, in the same area as where the Dickcissels were located. I needed both for my life list, so, hey, it's a two-for-one deal!

As soon as I stepped out of the car, Bobolinks, Eastern Meadowlarks, and Savannah Sparrows were singing.

Bobolink

Meadowlark

Red-winged Blackbird

Savannah Sparrow

You can see why the Bobolink is sometimes called the "Skunk Bird".

After a few minutes, I heard an Upland Sandpiper. I had no luck in getting a visual though.

I did manage to locate a Great Spangled Fritillary and Black Saddlebags.

After the Upland Sandpiper spot, it was off to the Clay-colored Sparrows.

Nothing at first other than a singing Indigo Bunting and some Chipping Sparrows.

I heard the Clay-colored briefly, but that was it.

The butterflies entertained me when the birds were slow. Here is an Eastern Tailed Blue.

I finally managed to add another Branded Skipper to my life list! This is a very cooperative Dun Skipper.

Common Wood-Nymphs never seem to sit still! This was the longest sitting one all day-about 15 seconds!

All-in-all, a productive day out birding.