Cool Canatara Finds!

3 Viceroy were having a party on a Buttonbush Flower in Canatara! A single black line crosses the parallel lines on the hind wings of the Viceroy. Monarchs do not have the cross line.

Video of the Viceroy butterflies.

Monarch butterfly for comparison.

Many butterflies have been finding nectar on the invasive Purple Loosestrife. It is one of the plants blooming in the mostly very dry conditions we have been experiencing. A Peck's Skipper is shown above.

Silver-spotted Skipper

A Slaty Skimmer has a rest stop on Purple Loosestrife.

Green Darner: If I hadn’t watched her fly and land, I likely would not have noticed her.

Eastern Amberwing 

American Pelecinid Wasp: Although the long abdomen appears threatening, it is not a stinger. Females use the curled abdomen (ovipositor) to locate grubs in the soil, and lay an egg on the grub. When the egg hatches, the young burrows into the grub and eats it! Adults are pollinators that feed on nectar.

https://fmr.org/updates/conservation/dont-worry-i-come-peace-meet-one-kind-pelecinid-wasp

Four-banded Stink Bug Wasp: The female builds a nest in sandy soil. She places a bug in the nest, deposits an egg, then seals the chamber...Another wasp providing food for its unhatched offspring!

http://www.minnesotaseasons.com/Insects/four-banded_stink_bug_hunter_wasp.html

 Backyard August Life!

Great Golden Digger Wasp: Although these creatures look menacing, they are non-aggressive to humans. They paralyze their prey and feed it to the developing young. They are regular visitors to my garden.

The Oleander Aphid is bright yellow with black legs and antennae. It is sometimes called the Milkweed Aphid (I found it on my Swamp Milkweed). The Oleander aphid is remarkable in that reproduces parthenogentically; meaning there is no male or egg stage. Females produce only nymphs that moult five times as they grow and mature. Each generation also only produces female nymphs! 

https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/oleander-aphid

A tiny, Raspberry Pyrausta Moth

Bicoloured Pyrausta Moth

A Summer Azure almost opened it's wings wide! They usually perch with their wings closed. I rarely get to see the open forewing except when it is in flight.

Young American Robin after a bath in the water fall.

Hologram Moth from the overnight moth trap.

Orange-headed Callima Moth - only a few mm long.

Pennsylvania Ambush Bug: Many predators have learned to be patient and wait for their food to come to them. Countless insects drink nectar so predators wait for prey to land on the flower so they can grab their next meal.

Harvestman lurking under Wild Bergamot flower, waiting for his next meal to land.

Oblong Woolcarder Bee - scrapes tiny hairs off stems and leaves to form a ball of fibre which is used in the nest for egg laying. The white ball of fiber is visible under the abdomen. This is the second year that I have found the species on the Pearly Everlasting.

Thick-legged Hover Flies can be found across Eurasia and North America. They are critical pollinators for a variety of flowering plants and can serve as bio-indicators in which their abundance can reflect the health of the environment.

https://www.inaturalist.org/guide_taxa/1897731

 An Osprey and Toy Turtle!!

I was able to locate an Osprey nest with a toy animal in the nest structure in Dundas. It would be interesting to know the sequence of events that led to the stuffed toy turtle ending up in the nest!! The smiling turtle and Osprey nest are visible from roadside near Cootes Paradise.

"Treasures can often be found in the neighbouring Desjardins Canal. The only Black-crowned Night Heron that I have seen this year was in the canal. The canal was originally dug to connect Dundas to Lake Ontario but the advance of the railway system, ended in the demise of the canal as a transportation system because farmers began to use the railway to move their wheat and other raw materials.

Interpretive Sign on the Desjardins Canal.

Restoration work in the canal included the construction of floating islands where the Double-crested Cormorants like to rest and dry their wings.

Female Hooded Merganser shaking off excess water on a constructed island.

The Urquhart Butterfly Garden at the west end of the Canal provides lots of food for visiting butterflies. Several Viceroy have been spotted in recent weeks.

Hummingbird Clearwing Moth 

Monarch on Butterfly Bush

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

Western Honeybee on Zinnia. - Not all plants growing at the garden are native but they do provide a nectar source.

While lurking on the flowerhead, a Crab Spider was able to catch an unsuspecting Western Honey Bee for its next meal!

American Goldfinch eating Canada Thistle seeds.

Primrose Moth (pink) resting on an Evening Primrose Flowerhead.

 Recent Summer Finds!

A Giant Swallowtail stopped for a drink along a very busy flight path. It looks like it is leading a parade!

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

Chicken of the Woods: This wide-spread fungus gets its name from the texture of its flesh, which is said to resemble cooked chicken.

https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/fungi/chicken-woods

Dog Vomit Slime Mould - Love the name!

Feather-legged Scoliid Wasps are ground-nesting wasps that eat white grub larvae of June Beetles and Japanese Beetles. The grubs are found in the soil. The wasp will dig into the soil, paralyze the beetle larva and attach her egg to it. When the egg hatches, a food source is readily available to the larva. Unlike social wasps, they don't form colonies or aggressively defend nests. They are harmless to humans but incredibly valuable to the ecosystem.

https://canningcrafts.com/blogs/news/wasps-the-unsung-heroes-of-the-garden

Great Blue Heron viewing the surroundings.

Northeastern Hammertail adults are active from May through September. They are typically found in Grasslands, Sandy and Dry areas. They often land on moving objects, including cattle and humans but apparently don’t bite unless mishandled.

http://minnesotaseasons.com/Insects/northeastern_hammertail.html

Monarch in a cultivated Canatara garden.

Insect Mating Season is here!

The non-native Cabbage White Butterfly was accidentally released in Quebec in 1850, probably from imported cabbages, and spread rapidly across eastern North America. It is the most abundant butterfly species that I find locally.

https://mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/field-guide/cabbage-white

A large weevil known by its Latin name: Lixus Macer

Silver-spotted Skipper adults nectar on a wide variety of flowers. They show a clear preference for blue, pink and purple flowers and rarely visit yellow flowers.

https://hort.extension.wisc.edu/articles/silver-spotted-skipper-epargyreus-clarus/

Stripe-legged Robber Fly

 Canatara Wildlife!

The nervous chattering of birds made me pause long enough to notice an American Mink running along the shoreline of an island in Lake Chipican.

First time I recall ever seeing a Red Squirrel in Sarnia.

A Great Blue Heron picked up and dropped a stick several times. Perhaps it was using the stick as a tool to stir up the muddy bottom and catch its next meal. Green Herons are known to use tools for “fishing” and maybe it learned from one of its cousins??

This large Grapevine Beetle caught my attention when it flew erratically towards me down a trail. Luckily it landed nearby so I could identify it. I've seen them before, but never in flight!

Hummingbird Clearwing and a Bumblebee on the left.

Common Checkered Skipper on Canada Thistle

Common Buckeye on Canada Thistle

Four-toothed Mason Wasp, on Canada Thistle

Leconte's Haploa Moth, hiding in the shadows.

Giant Swallowtail on Swamp Milkweed.

I watched the final stages of a Praying Mantis shedding its skin! After the exoskeleton dropped, I was able to put it on a leaf for a photo.

Praying Mantis Exoskeleton