Backyard Wildlife

 Over the years we have developed a fairly varied back yard, with lots of space devoted to a veggie garden as well as mixed plantings of native species. I tend to lean towards the tallgrass prairie species, but there are other things, along with various tree species. In the last few years, we have been busily involved with a community garden of 12 plots, in the park behind our place and just a 15 second walk from our yard. Two of those plots have been specifically planted with native plants to support pollinators, and the pollinators have found it.

Given the situation with COVID and the practice of staying home as much as possible, these 'naturalized' areas have provided lots of photo opportunities. It also helps that since I don't do well in the heat and humidity of this part of Ontario, staying at home and going out for brief forays into these vegetation patches works well.

Sitting out in the back with a morning coffee can be enjoyable, waiting to see what butterflies flutter by. I'm not always prepared with the correct camera and lens combination, but here are a few of what I have captured.

Giant Swallowtail

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

Mourning Cloak

Red Admiral

Peck's Skipper

Monarchs have been quite regular, with sometimes several flitting about at one time as they check out the numerous milkweed plants scattered about. And there is the inevitable egg laid underneath the leaf. They are very small, but visible upon close examination.

Eventually they will hatch, at least that is the hope. Considering how many adults we've seen in and around the yard, the number of caterpillars is surprisingly low. This next photo shows a very young Monarch cat, judging by the size of it compared to the size of the milkweed floret it is resting on.

The next photo is more or less what most of us are more familiar with. I suspect it went off to pupate a day or so after I took this photo.

Black Swallowtail butterflies are far less common than the Monarchs and we have only seen about three caterpillars so far. They prefer dill or parsley so those are the plants to check.

Related to the butterflies are moths. Regular readers will not be surprised that I put a plug in for moths, since I have been spending more time than ever with my black light trying to lure and photograph the myriad moths that exist. But there are day flying moths as well, and as more and more research goes on, it is evident that moths are great pollinators. Their furry abdomen easily catches pollen from one flower and transfers it to another.

Chickweed Geometer

Eight-spotted Forester

This next one is the Nessus Sphinx. There are a lot of different kinds of sphinx moths, and many of them can be seen visiting flowers in the early morning or late evening. Sometimes they appear to be at first glance, a small hummingbird, as they hover by a flower much like a hummingbird and extend their long probocis into a flower in search of nectar as this one is doing.

This next moth is quite common. It is known as either the White-speck or the Armyworm Moth. I prefer the former name.

Garden Webworm

This next one is the caterpillar of one of the numerous Geometer types of moth, and is exploring the head of a Black-eyed Susan.

An attractive moth, but not one that most gardeners like to see, is the Squash Vine Borer, shown next. It is feeding at a Common Milkweed.

 Not directly related but just as scorned, is this next one: the Squash Bug.

 While Common Milkweeds are favourite plants for many species of moths, butterflies, beetles and other invertebrates to feed or hang out on, they can also be deadly to some. The individual flowers are intricately designed, as this close-up of a couple of flowers show.

But those nooks and crannies of the flowers can be traps, as this honeybee has discovered. If an insect is small and light enough they can crawl through the flowers without any trouble. If they are large enough and strong enough, they can likely extricate a foot or leg that momentarily gets trapped. But if the insect is neither, it may be just heavy enough to get caught, but not strong enough to escape. Hence one of the most commonly trapped dead critters I have found on milkweeds is the honeybee which is not native to North America and is not as well adapted to forage on some of North American plant species.

The Large Milkweed Bug, next, can be quite abundant......

.....as can the Red Milkweed Beetle.

There are often other beetles roaming around flowering plants in the garden such as these Banded Longhorn Beetles.

Wasp types are often plentiful, such as this Great Golden Digger Wasp, on some Thyme.....

...and the Great Black Wasp. This one is busy on a Mountain-mint flower, and it is common to see a dozen or more frantically searching for food.

An even larger and more robust wasp type is this Cicada Killer.

Much smaller, and more timid, is this type of Treehopper.

This next one is a Pennsylvania Ambush Bug. It isn't all that common, as I typically only see two or three a year.

Another wasp is this type of Paper Wasp, at this point busily cleaning its hind legs.

There are many mimics in the insect world. This looks like a type of wasp, but is actually a Large Headed Fly.

Compost Fly

I always enjoy seeing a few of this next species, the Feather-legged Fly. It is colourful with its black wings and reddish orange body.

From this angle, the feathery scales on its hind leg are more visible.

These next two are members of the Green Bottle Flies group.

With so many small flying insects around a garden, it will be no surprise that dragonflies are fairly regularly seen. Blue Dashers seem to be the most common species as of late.

Here, a young Chipping Sparrow is out becoming familiar with the neighbourhood after being hatched from a nest in our White Pine tree.

There is always lots to see, and photograph!

Being A Moth-er Is A Lot Of Work!

I've been a bit behind in my blog posts. I used to do at least one every 5 days on average, but lately I have had a hard time getting one done every 7-8 days.

I blame it on the moths.

Okay I guess that isn't fair, as in reality they are not encouraging me to spend so much time looking for them. In fact if I could understand moth language, it is entirely possible they would be telling me to stop interrupting their lives with light wavelengths that don't really benefit them but only distract them from their normal night time activities! Perhaps.

Bicolored Pyrausta

I have been fascinated with moths for years, but never really gave them their due until the last few years. Certainly the existence of a terrific new field guide made trying to identify moths so much easier. Colour images in natural postures really make a difference, compared to the usual black and white photos of pinned specimens that was the predominant presentation of former reference materials.  Having said that, although the new field guide shows about 1500 species, for the geographic area that the guide covers, there are several thousand species known.

Fervid Plagodis

As I pursued moths more and more, I began to realize how much effort is required, and over the weeks and months it resulted in less time for this blog. Choosing a place to set up the black lights, and getting them set up is one thing. But a much more major effort is required once a photo is taken. On one occasion I decided to see approximately how much effort that was. All my photos are taken in RAW format, which captures the maximum amount of detail in an image. But each photo can be approximately 30 megabytes, which is far too much to use for a blog or anything else. Just in 2020 I have 'mothed' at 6 different locations, and have taken over 3000 photos. There are lots of duplicates, just to make sure things are captured as well as possible. But each photo, once it is selected to be processed, goes through many stages to ensure it looks as good as possible. I use at least a couple of different types of software, and from the time I start processing a photo to the time it is ready to be posted on this blog (or iNaturalist, or somewhere else) will require at least 160 different mouse clicks, mouse wheel rolls, or keyboard clicks. Of the probably 2000 images of moths alone which I have processed this season so far, that turns out to be 320000 clicks, etc! No wonder my index finger is getting tired :-).

And that doesn't include the time trying to identify them. As mentioned earlier, only 1500 species are illustrated in the field guide. For some species that is quite adequate. For those species with more subtle markings, the field guide might get you to the family or genus, but beyond that, one has to delve further into a database, or post it somewhere such as iNaturalist or BugGuide and hope that someone can identify it. To compound the challenge, as moths age the scales on their wings that give them all the beautiful colours and patterns wear off, to the point that identification is impossible. By comparison, identifying the confusing fall warblers is easy peasy!

Clear Creek Forest Provincial Park

I used to have to do all of my black lighting at my vehicle, as I needed to tap into the battery to power the lights. So as to not be limited to parking lots at a trail head or something similar, I have obtained two portable power sources which enable me to set up my two lights at many more places. For example, Clear Creek Forest Provincial Park in eastern Chatham-Kent is a wonderful place to go mothing. I have been there on two occasions with a Rondeau staff member, to set up in the old growth forest part of this park. Here is one of the locations, shown above, where the old growth forest at the upper level looks down on a floodplain. This is about 500 metres from the road, so it requires a bit of effort to take the various lights, tripods, sheets, ropes, power packs, etc to this location for setting it up and then dismantling it all at the end of the evening several hours later.

In spite of all of the effort required, it is very much worthwhile. Discovering new species (to me) as well as documenting some of the rarer moths and other insects is all worthwhile. Learning more and more of the world of nature is a great passion and past time!

With that, I will feature a very small number of the highlights of the season so far. I will likely spend a bit more time featuring specific places in future posts, but hopefully this one will complement the moth posts of the last few weeks.

Sometimes I just set up in our back yard. Fortunately our yard is a little more moth friendly than many urban dwellers have due to the native trees and wildflowers that we've established over the years. Without trying too hard, I've photographed well over 100 species of moths plus various non-moth critters.

Barberry Geometer

Hickory Tussock Moth

Pine Tube Moth

Purple-backed Cabbagewom Moth

A few other randomly selected moth photos from places like Clear Creek as well as Moore Wildlife Area include the following:

American Ermine

Aproned Cenopis Moth

This next one was a real treat. It is large and so distinct. The body length is about 3.5 cm and the wing span is at least double that.

Giant Leopard Moth

Grapevine Looper

Silk moths are a favourite and include some of the largest and best known moths such as Cecropia and Promethea. This next one is an Io Moth, a member of the silk moth group and a future post will highlight it with its eyes showing. The Polyphemus Moth which follows is another silk moth.

At the other end of the scale is the much tinier Mantled Acrobasis.....

....and the Orange-headed Epicallima. This one is only about 8 mm long.

Black-dotted Glyph

Common Lytrosis

Crocus Geometer

Delicate Cycnia

Dimorphic Snout

Lappet Moth

Little Virgin Tiger Moth

Metallic Casebearer

Olive-shaded Bird Dropping Moth

Pearly Wood-nymph

Red-fringed Emerald

White-spotted Leafroller

Spiny Oak Slug Moth

In addition to moths, there is always a host of other creatures, from numerous caddisflies which are often difficult to identify beyond family, to beetles, flies, wasps, dragonflies, spiders and even an occasional butterfly. I also should mention mosquitoes, as they are very definitely a major presence at some locations, although at others, they are non-existent.

White-marked Spider Beetle

This next creature is known as a Say's Mantidfly. It turns out that it is quite rare in Ontario, but we've had several on the sheets on a couple of occasions at Clear Creek Forest.

Chalenius Beetle

Round-necked Sexton Beetle

Some creatures come by to check out the myriad insects which they presumably might be able to feast on, such as this unknown spider species.....

....and this Spring Peeper. I watched it feed on several small flying insects.

But the main highlight, at least for me, is the moths which are so varied in colour and form.

Yellow-collared Slug Moth