Butterflies of 2012

In putting together a mammal and herptile list, I figure I might as well share my butterfly list for last year as well (I'll also eventually get back to birds and post my final 305 bird list from 2012 and a summary at some point!). 2012 was an amazing year for butterflies in Ontario w/ many rarities recorded in high numbers. My personal list is going to be a bit patchy as I'm putting it together from rough notes, emails, and eButterfly entries but I think I can remember most of the species I saw (butterfliers, please let me know if any of my picture ID's are incorrect). One of my new years resolutions this year is to keep better field notes of other wildlife sightings than just birds. Butterflies marked w/ a '*' were lifers.

Skippers

Silver-spotted Skipper
*Northern Cloudywing

Photo by Mark Field - Rainy River District

*Dreamy Duskywing

Photo by Mark Field - Everard Road, Thunder Bay District

*Common Checkered-Skipper

Photo by me - iBinned (record shot...?)

Common Least Skipper

European Skipper

Fiery Skipper

*Indian Skipper

Photo by Mark Field

*Sachem

*Hobomok Skipper

Photo by Mark Field - Everard Road, Thunder Bay District

Swallowtails

Black Swallowtail

Giant Swallotail

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

Canadian Tiger Swallowtail

Photo by me - Everard Road, Thunder Bay District

Spicebush Swallowtail

Whites and Sulphurs

Cabbage White

*Mustard White - first seen at Moosonee Sewage Lagoons

Clouded Sulphur

*Little Yellow - multiples seen at Point Pelee
*Sleepy Orange - 1 Point Pelee (NW Beach) w/ Marianne Reid Balkwill, Tom Preney, and Russ Jones
*Dainty Sulphur - multiples at Hillman Marsh

Photo by me -Hillman Marsh, Shorebird Cell

Coppers, Hairstreaks, Blues

Bronze Copper

Photo by me - iBinned at Couture Dyke, Hillman Marsh

Banded Hairstreak
*White-M Hairstreak -first seen at Sparrow Field w/ Matt Timpf. Saw another later in the summer w/ Marianne

Photo by me (I need a real camera)

Gray Hairstreak
Eastern Tailed-Blue
Spring Azure
Summer Azure
*Silvery Blue

Photo by Mark Field - Rainy River District

Brushfoots

American Snout
Variegated Fritillary
Great Spangled Fritillary
*Silver-bordered Fritillary

 Photo by Mark Field - Rainy River District

*Silvery Checkerspot

Photo by Mark Field - Agawa Bay

Pearl Crescent

Photo by me - Hillman Marsh

Northern Crescent

Baltimore Checkerspot

Photo by me -Sunnybrook Park, Toronto

Question Mark

Eastern Comma

Mourning Cloak

Photo by Mark Field - Everard Road, Thunder Bay District

American Lady

Painted Lady

Red Admiral

Common Buckeye

 Photo by me - Comber Sewage Lagoons

White Admiral

Photo by Mark Field - Rainy River Sewage Lagoons

Viceroy

 Photo by me - St. Clair National Wildlife Refuge

Hackberry Emperor

Appalachian Eyed Brown

Little Wood Satyr

 Photo by Mark Field - Rocky Point

Common Ringlet

Common Wood-Nymph

Monarch

Red-spotted Purple

Total Species: 52 

Total Lifers: 14

Hillman, Onion Fields, and Leamington Marina

A hot day of birding and butterflying today around the Point Pelee area. I started at Hillman Marsh Conservation Area w/ a walk over to the Shorebird Cell. The Cell is planted w/ crops right now so nothing in the way of birds there but the lane around the Cell was good for butterflies. One of the first ones I saw was a Dainty Sulphur, a lifer for me as I continue to learn my butterfly identification and put more effort into finding uncommon species.

Dainty Sulphur at Hillman Marsh - I ended up seeing 4 in total.

Next up was a calling Willow Flycatcher where you would expect at the Shorebird Cell corner w/ the bench. Ridiculously, I completely forgot to keep an eye and ear out for Dickcissel so I didn't even end up getting this species today despite them being reported there recently. 

I was also able to take a photo of what I believe to be a Pearl Crescent (if anyone disagrees w/ this ID, please let me know. I had about 12 Northern Crescents in Hillman as well, all of which lacked the full black line across the above hindwing. This individual does have orange on its antenna clubs but my understanding is that female Pearl Crescents may have orange here as well). 

Pearl Crescent? - Hillman Marsh

Many Painted Ladies about and 1 Common Checkered Skipper were other highlights.

Butterfly list from Hillman:

Cabbage White

Silver-spotted Skipper-1

Painted Lady

Dainty Sulphur-4

Viceroy-3

Monarch-4

Red-spotted Purple-1

Common Checkered Skipper-1

Eastern Comma-1

Orange Sulphur

Buckeye-1

unidentified skipper-1

At the south end of Hillman near the lake I also found 12 Northern Crescent just at the parking lot and many more Cabbage Whites.

Next stop were the Onion Fields. As of today, there are some mudflats in the north end of the Pelee Marsh on the gravel turnoff at the end of Concession E. Shorebirds present here included 2 Semipalmated Sandpipers, 1 Least Sandpiper, 1 Spotted Sandpiper and Killdeer. I was hoping for more shorebirds today and Pelee Days Inn did not disappoint. 

In Sturgeon Creek, there are some mudflats visible from the boardwalk at the back end of the Days Inn. Here I had a good number of Semipalmated and Least Sandpipers, a single Wilson's Snipe that I flushed near the boardwalk, 4 Pectoral Sandpipers, and single Lesser Yellowlegs. 

I finished my day at the Leamington Marina where I added my first juvenile Bonaparte's Gull for the year, found both Common and Forster's Tern (juveniles of each species present), and added Northern Mockingbird and Pied-billed Grebe to my day list. 

Not a terrible morning but still hoping to run into a surprise year bird one of these days around the area!

Marine Blues

In my previous post, I mentioned a morning of birding (but it mostly turned into a search for butterflies). A short while ago, the first record of Broad-winged Skipper for the Pelee Birding Area was seen along Concession E north of the park. No matter the time of year, whenever I am home, Marianne and I make it a point to go out birding at least once. This weekend was no exception and although we only had 3 hours, we still had a fun time (minus missing the aforementioned Broad-winged Skipper).

We decided to start our search for butterflies (and possibly shorebirds) at Hillman Marsh. After poisening ourselves with bug spray (I had already applied sunscreen earlier in the morning so I felt like I had just waded through toxic sludge at this point), we set off. It was a typical July day with no shorebirds found but some highlights in the birding department included a few Willow Flycatchers, both species of Cuckoo, 2 Belted Kingfishers, a ton of Common Yellowthroats and Yellow Warblers, as well as the usual summer suspects (a huge flock of swallows over the Pelee Marsh was a highlight for me). Note to self: even the strongest bug sprays do not deter Deerflies...ouch!

We ended up with 14 species of butterfly in total:

Black Swallowtail
Eastern Tiger-Swallowtail (black and yellow forms)
Summer Azure
Cabbage White
Orange Sulphur
Bronze Copper
Eyed Brown
Painted Lady
Eastern Comma
Pearl Crescent
Orange Crescent
Monarch
Viceroy
Least Skipper

I also learned this weekend of a butterfly listserv that I need to find and become a member of. If I had been on it, I may have heard about the Marine Blues that were featured in the Toronto Star!

I wish I had had more time to stay out today but only having 2 vehicles on a farm where 4 busy people live causes obvious scheduling conflicts. In other news, it's been made official! I am the membership secretary of the Toronto Ornithological Club! *Currently floating on a cloud*

Lifer! White Admiral

On June 28, the day I went on a retreat with the Toronto Ornithological Club to Barrie (more on this soon), Hugh Currie and I decided to take a short birding trip after the retreat. We took a detour to a marshy area where there was rumoured to be a pair of Wilson's Phalaropes but didn't have much luck in the birding department. However, I did get to see a new butterfly for my list: White Admiral. It's one heck of a beautiful insect and reminded me that summer can be good for birds, but it's great for butterflies. I hope to get over to High Park a few more times to check out some of the areas that are good for butterflies there. Last summer, I found a couple new species and tallied a good list for the park.

Butterflies of Panama City Beach and other Wildlife

Although I thought the Red-cockaded Woodpecker post would be my last Panama City Beach Trip discussion, here comes another aspect of my trip that I forgot to mention before: other wildlife! Although birds always come first when I'm in the field, I also study butterflies and dragonflies, and pay attention to any other wildlife like mammals, reptiles, and amphibians. Unfortunately, I do not have a comprehensive dragonfly guide so I skipped trying to identify new species. However, I did get 4 new butterfly species.

My list of butterflies is short and this is no doubt due to the time of year as well as me mostly paying attention to birds. However, here are the species I recorded (those with stars were new species):

Monarch - I saw Monarchs everywhere but always in small numbers.

*Gulf Fritillary - by far the most common species, this butterfly was most abundant right in Panama City Beach. There were hundreds along the beach, along the road, in marshes, and next to woodlots.

Buckeye - quite common

*Cloudless Sulphur - common and found in all of the same locations as Gulf Fritillary but in far fewer numbers (usually 1 or 2 per location)

*Long-tailed Skipper - this attractive skipper was fairly common in open areas and along roadsides

Least Skipper - found in similar locations as Long-tailed Skipper but more abundant in marshy locations

*Little Yellow - a single individual at Apalachicola National Forest

In the mammal category, I saw White-tailed Deer, a Coyote at roadside, Raccoon (roadkill), and numerous wild Dogs and Domestic Cats. I wasn't lucky enough to see any dolphins on this trip.

Reptiles: Five-lined Skink, which was numerous in St. Andrew's State Park and a single, large Alligator at St. Andrew's as well (basking in the sun).