Night Life!

Bright Lights and white sheets can be used to attract moths at night. In the right conditions, hundreds of moths can be viewed....if you're willing to stay up late! The following is a selection of some of these late night critters.

Small-eyed Sphinx

Tulip Tree Beauty

Maple Callus Borer

Banded Tussock Moth

Common Lytrosis Moth

A UV Flashlight is handy to scan plants in the area. You never know what you may find including this well camouflaged Goldenrod Crab Spider. Over the course of a few days, they can change colour to match their environment or the flower they are sitting upon. They enjoy warm sunny days because the food they like to eat (insects) come to the flowers on which they patiently wait.

https://spideridentifications.com/goldenrod-crab-spider.html

Goldenrod Crab Spider, heavily cropped photo

Unidentified Moth Caterpillar

Common Eastern Firefly

Giant Leopard Moth

Walnut Sphinx

White-dotted Prominent

Waved Sphinx

Dark Fishing Spider

Walnut Caterpillar Moth

Io Moths, wings closed

Io Moth

At the end of a moth night at a friend's house in Middlesex County, a few moths needed to be carefully lifted from the white sheet. (They didn't fly away when the lights were turned off.) The top 2 are Io moths (pronounced eye-oh). The lower one is a Small-eyed Sphinx. The large eye spots help to protect the moths as predators may view it as a large creature, much too large to attempt to eat.

  Winged Things, (mostly)!

A Red-winged Blackbird Mom with hungry babies has her mouth full! I can see the tails of 2 adult Mayflies, and a green caterpillar in her beak!

Baltimore Checkerspot - one of my favourite butterflies!

Eastern Yellow-backed Laphria eating a Seven-spotted Lady Beetle. Although the Laphria resembles a Bumblebee, it is a actually a species of Robber Fly.

Foxtail Barley

Great-crested Flycatcher, actively catching butterflies in the Canatara Meadow. It was amazing to watch its aerial twisting and turning in pursuit of food!

Halloween Pennant

Monarchs and their caterpillars have been few and far between this year. I saw a Monarch in my backyard a few days ago. Hopefully she laid some eggs on the milkweed!

The spiky caterpillar of a Question Mark Butterfly!

A very Hungry Caterpillar took only a few seconds to chew a chunk off the leaf. Notice the smooth edge on the right side of the leaf in the top photo. Anchored by its hind feet on the twig, the caterpillar made 4 passes while chewing along the edge and quickly put another big dent in the leaf! I believe it is one of the Geometer Moths but haven't identified it to species yet.

Turkey Vulture in the morning light. He likely roosted on this branch overnight.

I was lucky to find a Wood Thrush nest this year! I was able to view it from a path and always took a quick look before moving on, so as not to disturb them or draw attention to it. The babies have now hatched and there were possibly 4 nestlings.

On my last day of seeing them, one of the youngsters was ready to "launch"! Looking closely at the photo, I could see the beak of one of its siblings on the right side, just behind this bird. There was another sibling on a branch about 2 feet from the nest. I was happy to see them successfully develop to the fledgling stage!

4 Eastern Phoebe's ready to leave the nest at any time. Phoebes make their nests under overhangs on buildings, and sometimes even bridges.

While rounding a corner on a path, I startled a family of Northern Flickers that was feeding on the ground. This one hung around to have it's picture taken, although it was likely just keeping an eye on me and his kids!

Ghost Pipe is a perennial herb that doesn't photosynthesize. Instead, it gets its nutrients by parasitizing a network of fungi in the soil. The fungus is engaged in a symbiotic relationship with nearby trees, exchanging nutrients for sugars. The delicate, triple-layered relationship between the plant, fungus and host tree requires intact forest conditions to survive. 

https://biologyinsights.com/what-is-ghost-pipe-tincture-and-how-is-it-used/

A Very Cool Fungus - Wrinkled Peach!

Rough Hermit Beetle

This photo of a Cooper's Hawk was taken through my living room window! I heard a squawking commotion from Blue Jays and Robins which made me look outside. I believe the hawk dined on Mourning Dove for breakfast that day.

Made me giggle!

 Sandy Lake Road & Turtle Rescues!

Some butterfly enthusiasts suggest that Sandy Lake Road could be the best butterfly road in Ontario! Pictured is a Canadian Tiger Swallowtail.

Two years ago, we visited Sandy Lake Road for the first time. Unfortunately a grader was improving the road surface when we arrived. This year, we also arrived on "grader" day. All we could do was laugh at the coincidence. The loose surface made it easy for butterflies to access salt and minerals on the dirt road, so it wasn't all bad.

Several butterfly species in the area are unlikely to be found in South-western Ontario, including this Harris's Checkerspot.

Beautiful patterns on the underwing of the same Harris's Checkerspot.

Upperwing and Underwing of a Silver-bordered Fritillary

Silvery Blue: This species has migrated to SW Ontario in the past few years.

Tricoloured Bumblebee - notice the orange, yellow and black bands on the abdomen.

The quick crawling movement of this large spider surprised me! Woodland Giant Wolf Spider: The tiny yellow dots on her abdomen are her babies that she is carrying!

 

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker snacking on an ant.

Dragonflies were often found during the week including a female Calico Pennant.

Crab Spider "hiding" on a daisy.

Diervilla Clearwing moth

Elfin Skimmer - Ontario's smallest dragonfly

Frosted Whiteface

Racquet-tailed Emerald

Taiga Bluet

It's egg laying season for turtles. Unfortunately many turtles are killed or injured when crossing roads to get to their nesting grounds. This Blanding's Turtle was at the edge of a busy road with speeding dump trucks. We were able to rescue this individual and 2 others during the week by safely carrying them across the road.

We learned that Blanding's Turtles and possibly all turtles, will hiss when picked up! It's important to carry a turtle to the side of the road in which it is pointing; otherwise it will just turn around and cross the road to where it was headed in the first place.