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.

Things with wings, and endangered plants, September style

I've been at the local sewage lagoons a couple of times recently to take in migrant shorebirds, which are in abundance, and butterflies which are still enjoying the flowers in the bright sun. Yellowlegs, both Greater and Lesser, were well represented.

Greater Yellowlegs

 My real hope was that the western Willet was still around. I missed it the last time I was there. After a bit of searching, it did indeed show up and entertained me with a couple of flybys.

Willet

 Its relative size shows up better in this next image, where Lesser Yellowlegs, Killdeer, Semipalmated Plover, Semipalmated Sandpiper and other shorebirds are all in flight.

 In the sprinkler cells were a couple of adult American Golden Plover, as shown next in proximity to a one-legged Lesser Yellowlegs. A Buff-breasted Sandpiper showed up an hour or so after I left.

American Golden Plover

 The lingering Tundra Swan seems to be getting more tolerant of birders......or else it is getting weaker.

Other winged things were visible on this sunny day, enjoying the late summer show of wildflowers. Monarchs were quite numerous, along with a few Summer Azures, Eastern Tailed Blues and the usual Cabbage Whites and Orange/Clouded Sulphurs.

At least three fresh looking Black Swallowtails were active.

Black Swallowtail

A nice looking Common Ringlet was still around. The Butterflies through Binoculars guide indicates that it isn't normally seen past mid-August at this northern latitude. Guess someone forgot to tell this one.

Common Ringlet

 Another butterfly was this Least Skipper.

Least Skipper

 But the real highlight was catching up to a Common Checkered-Skipper, the first one I have seen this year. A couple had been seen here earlier by others. Unfortunately I didn't get the kind of photo I was hoping for, with its wings outspread to show all of the upper side wing details. It sat like this for a minute and then true to form, skedaddled away low to the ground and behind other vegetation and I never saw it again. Its small size (even with wings outspread, it is only about 22mm across) in the bright, dappled sunlight doesn't make it any easier.

Common Checkered-Skipper

And in other news......I spent some time confirming and photographing another rare late summer orchid: Yellow Ladies'-tresses (Spiranthes ochroleuca). It doesn't have any official legal status as Endangered, Threatened or Special Concern, but in reality, it should be Endangered as there are fewer than 10 known locations for it in all of Canada, and some of those have likely been lost in the last decade or so. It likes sand plains, and the small population I am aware of occurs on private property, which I had permission from the landowner to check out.

It looks a lot like others in the Spiranthes genus, but differs in that it:
-is slightly creamy yellow (hence the common name);
-is a little deeper yellow in the throat of the flower;
-is a little more humped at the base than others in that genus, and
-when seen from the angle as shown in the second image, shows that the individual flowers are more separated from the one above, sort of stretched out like, compared to other Spiranthes.

Still on the topic of Endangered plants, the next image shows a few clumps of Eastern Prickly Pear Cactus.

It is endangered....sort of. In the previous iteration of Ontario's Endangered Species Act, this species was only legally protected at the two sites where it was considered to be naturally occurring: Point Pelee National Park, and Fish Point Provincial Nature Reserve (on Pelee Island). There is definite evidence of the species being planted elsewhere in southern Ontario, which is why those other locations were not legally protected. As far as I am aware, that is the current position under the current piece of legislation. To add some confusion, the federal Species At Risk Act does not seem to make the distinction between naturally occurring and planted, but in reality, the feds, as I recall, do not apply their regulations to jurisdictions that have a similar piece of legislation, unless that jurisdiction shows evidence of failing to apply their legislation. Or something like that, but it has been a few years since I had to deal with such issues on the job. (Have I ever indicated that it is very nice to be retired :-).

At any rate, the evidence for the presence of Eastern Prickly Pear Cactus at the location shown in the photo is such that it may well be a naturally occurring population......it isn't 100% conclusive, but probably 90% or greater. Naturally occurring or not, it is unfortunate that this population which has been present for at least 70 years, is under threat due to improper management and unauthorized soil excavation.

On a brighter note, on the same day of visiting the orchid and cactus, I stopped under the bridge south of Thamesville, which crosses the Thames River. I was looking for damsels, but hoping not to find ones in distress. And I had more success than I expected! This is a known location for some interesting and distinctive damselflies: American Rubyspot and Smoky Rubyspot. There were several American Rubyspots, both male and female, and in spite of their reluctance to let me approach with the macro lens, I did get reasonably close with the 100-400 which has a minimum focus distance of slightly less than a metre, even at 400 mm. This first image is of a male American Rubyspot. It looks a little surreal (I've had comments indicating it looks like a painting...not what a photographer wants to hear his photos compared to, however), but the tan background is the result of the out-of-focus colour of the Thames River.

American Rubyspot

 One of my all time favourite damselflies, because it is so distinctive and dazzling, is the Ebony Jewelwing. When it occurs along a shaded forest stream and catches a bit of sunlight, the iridescent green in combination with the black wings is amazing. It wasn't quite so dazzling on this overcast day, but nice just the same.

Ebony Jewelwing

As mentioned, this site is also a known location for a less common damselfly, the Smoky Rubyspot. It wasn't until I got home and saw this one on the computer that I realized I had a shot of a male Smoky Rubyspot perched on a smartweed! It has a blacker body and smoky black wingtips. There is a type that has darker wings, but not all of them, so I was pleased to have shot one of these as well. I only got one useable shot, as this species is known to be more wary than its American relative.

Smoky Rubyspot