Tall Grass Prairie Complex

We made a trip to Windsor Tuesday and stopped for a walk at the Tall Grass Prairie Complex in hopes of finding some new butterfly species. The hot and humid weather helped us to find at least 12 species, two of them "Lifers".

Least Skippers were abundant. This is Ontario's smallest butterfly with a maximum wingspan of 26 mm. (ROM Field Guide, Butterflies of Ontario)

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The Northern Cloudywing was a "Life" Butterfly! It spends the winter as a mature 

caterpillar within a leaf nest. (ROM Field Guide, Butterflies of Ontario)

Silvery Checkerspot: Upperwing (top) and underwing (bottom). It is found 

in a variety of habitats including woodland edges, roadsides and marshes. 

This was only my second siting ever of the species.

I had forgotten there was a population of Rattlesnakes in the Windsor area. We found the section of the Tall Grass Prairie where they are being repatriated. We decided it was too hot for them to be sitting in the open so we ventured down the trail. I would have taken a photo of one if we saw one....but we didn't.

Deryl took this photo of a Banded Hairstreak, our first of the year for the species. The larva eats buds and leaves of oaks, hickories and walnuts, especially butternut. (ROM Field Guide, Butterflies of Ontario)

Prime Real Estate - Three butterflies on one Blackberry leaflet! I found these 3 soaking up the sun in Canatara Park this morning. 2 Northern Crescents and 1 Hobomok Skipper.