Saturday 3 June 2017

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!

6 comments:

  1. Tis the season! I saw one of those white-striped black moths at Pelee today.

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    1. I bet that Pelicans are a bit more exciting though....

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  2. Nice shots Quinten, sad that migration is coming to an end, but lots of bugs to look at that is for sure!

    The damselfly appears to be an immature female Eastern Forktail. Orange Bluets have S9 abdominal segment completely orange. The skimmer is a female Common Whitetail, note that the yellow on the abdominal segments is disjointed rather than connected in a line as with Twelve-spotted Skimmer.

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    1. Jeez, not a great way to start my ode-watching season! Thanks for the IDs Nate! I did think that seeing an Orange Bluet was a bit weird as they usually don't come out until later in the day.

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  3. When the birds slow down, there's always the insects! Nice shots.

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    1. There will be plenty of insect posts to come!

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