Out-of-season Winged Wonders

I thought it might be a nice diversion from the ongoing snow, cold, freezing rain etc., to look at some fairer weather winged critters. It will still be a few weeks, even months, before we are likely to see any of the following in real life. Hopefully they are as anxious to emerge from their pupa, or from behind the bark of a tree as an adult, as I am to see them! The following images show some of the diversity of butterflies I've shot this past year.

A couple of the earliest ones we might expect to see are these first two.

Mourning Cloak

Eastern Comma

Some of the most common, even abundant, ones throughout the year are these next ones.

Cabbage Whites

Clouded Sulphur

Clouded Sulphur

In the municipal park behind our place, there is a community garden. We've been able to plant one of the plots into a pollinator patch, featuring about a dozen native prairie plant species. They do wonders at attracting all sorts of pollinator types, which of course helps the organic garden. And between it and our own yard, so far I've seen more than 30 species of butterfly.

Common Checkered Skipper

Common Sootywing

Eastern Tailed Blue

Wild Indigo Duskywing

Giant Swallowtail

Least Skipper

Monarch

Painted Lady

Pearl Crescent

Peck's Skipper

Question Mark

Red Admiral

Viceroy

One of the great spots for butterflies not too far away has been the Reid Conservation Area, in Lambton County a bit north of Wallaceburg. It is worth checking out especially for one of the more unusual and very restricted butterfly species in Ontario, the Oak Hairstreak.

While I was at Reid on the hunt for the Oak Hairstreak, this Gray Comma came by and alighted on my equipment. The two photos were taken less than a minute and a half apart. I think the Gray Comma was attracted to some of the salt sweat

There are other goodies there as well, including these next two, found in the shaded sedge vegetation of the adjacent woods.

Duke's Skipper

Duke's Skipper

Dun Skipper

 Skippers are notoriously small and very subject to speedy and erratic flight. Those at the larger end of the scale are sometimes a lot easier to photograph.

 While I was photographing this Giant Swallowtail, above, another lepidopteran species came by. It is not a butterfly, but a moth, and looks like a hummingbird. Not surprisingly, its name is Hummingbird Clearwing, It is a member of the Sphinx Moth family.

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

Bronze Copper

Bronze Copper

Summer Azure

One species that eluded me in 2018 was this next one, Fiery Skipper. Most years I come across a few in the late summer and early fall, but not this time.

Fiery Skipper

I try and get most of my butterfly observations, particularly any of the more significant ones, on eButterfly. I've also entered some on BAMONA, the database of the Butterflies and Moths of North America, as well as BugGuide. I haven't entered any on iNaturalist yet.....there are just too many databases around, but that may be the subject of a future rant post!

Some prairie inhabitants of mid-summer

Although local butterfly counts seem to be over for the season, it is always nice to get out and explore areas for them to see what is still around. I've been out in a few places, concentrating for the most part in areas where tallgrass prairie has been planted in the last decade or so.

Many of the sites I've visited don't have a lot of prairie grasses, but lots of forbs (wildflowers) which are attractive although in a healthy prairie, should make up only about 30%-40% of the total vegetation, not the 75-80% it seems that most newly planted prairies are made up of. There is a whole topic for a future post on prairie ecology there, to be sure, but that isn't the intent of this post....maybe a future one.

At this time of year, some of the most showy prairie wildflowers are:

Prairie Milkweed

Butterflyweed

Ohio Spiderwort

Compass Plant

Gray-headed Coneflower

Mountain-mint

Some of these plants are more preferred as nectaring plants than others. But they are all part of the prairie vegetation, and are great to see.

Most of the butterflies I was able to track down are not specific to prairies but were certainly enjoying what the prairie wildflowers had to offer. This Painted Lady was visiting a clump of Mountain-mint.

 Another Painted Lady was enjoying the presumably tasty nectar of Black-eyed Susan.

 Monarchs, of course, are probably the best known butterfly. This female was resting on a Gray-headed Coneflower

 This Clouded Sulphur, with its vibrant pink edging, was sipping from a False Oxeye.

Common Wood-Nymphs are common to some degree, but they are most often seen flitting briskly over and through the vegetation. When they do land for a short time, they are often partially obscured and challenging to photograph.

Delaware Skippers seem to be fairly common in several places

 Eastern Tailed Blues are common, but not always easy to photograph.

 Sometimes it helps if they are distracted by something else.

 Viceroys are not plentiful, but are seen occasionally right now.

A butterfly I don't see often is this next one: Common Sootywing. Being as small (about 21-27mm or about one inch) and as skittish as it is, it isn't often seen by anyone I expect. I only managed to get a couple of distant shots, and this one is greatly cropped.

While it isn't a prairie site, the Reid Conservation Area north of Wallaceburg is a great spot for butterflies. I managed to catch up to a few Banded Hairstreaks earlier, but missed the Oak Hairstreak the site is known for. Apparently it wasn't a good year for the Oaks. Just yesterday I stopped by again, and saw several species, including Great Spangled Fritillary, Eastern Comma and a Least Skipper, among others.

Least Skipper

I had been hoping for a Duke's Skipper, and am quite sure I saw one, albeit briefly. However the evenly dark upper wing surface and the dark under surface with the telltale wide pale band going the length of the hindwing were fairly convincing. When photographing skippers up close, one has to move slowly. Unfortunately on this occasion, I either didn't move slowly enough and spooked the little rascal or I didn't move fast enough since just as I was focusing on it, it decided to skedaddle, and in spite of searching for it, did not see it again.

There are always lots of other things to be on the lookout for, especially when there is a lull in butterfly action. On some occasions I have seen lots more dragonflies than butterflies. It has been a good year for both of these next two species.

Eastern Pondhawk

Halloween Pennant

Pennant pair in wheel

This next one is attractive as well but not nearly as common as the previous ones.

Calico Pennant

 There are lots of moths to be found in prairies. One usually encounters them as they scurry away and hide, after being spooked when one is walking through the vegetation. The critter in this next photo is a Hummingbird Clearwing, a member of the Sphinx moth group, and can be seen flying in broad daylight. This one is sipping on Wild Bergamot.

Just to add a little more diversity to this post, I will include a photo of a Green Frog, one of the more common frog species of southern Ontario. I found several cooling off in a puddle near a prairie.

And what would a hike in the vicinity of prairies and wetlands be without a photo of a snake. This photo is of a medium sized adult Eastern Fox Snake, an endangered species in Ontario. It was quite approachable, and a close look may explain why. Note the eye on the left side of the critter. It is whitish, which means it is getting ready to shed. The outermost layer of skin, which is about to be shed, includes the covering of the eye, so at this point the eyes are cloudy and the snake has very poor eyesight. Also take a look at the right hands side of the snake's mouth and notice that it looks slightly askew.

 A closer look at this right hand side of the snake's head shows, in this next photo, that it has been damaged, and there is no eye at all! Clearly this snake has had a serious injury at some point, but it has healed over and the snake has survived. Fortunately for the snake, they have a keen sense of smell, so in spite of the poor eyesight, it can still find some food. However this individual has had more than its share of challenges to survive.