Outdoor Ontario

Wildlife Reports => Toronto Wildlife => Topic started by: Reuven_M on May 30, 2011, 05:09:41 PM

Title: Mississauga Butterflies & Odonates
Post by: Reuven_M on May 30, 2011, 05:09:41 PM: Today at Erindale Park:

loads of cabbage whites
loads of blues, the 4 that I got reasonable looks at appeared to be silvery blues, but there were a couple that seemed different, and there was only one spot that I got okay looks at any
4-5 clouded sulphurs
2 american lady
1 black swallowtail
Title:
Post by: Reuven_M on June 02, 2011, 05:41:28 PM: At erindale park today:

1 juvenal's duskywing
3 wild indigo duskywing
20+ silvery blue
2 clouded sulphur
10+ cabbage white
2 mourning cloak
6 question mark
2 eastern tiger swallowtail

4 green darner
4 boreal/northern/vernal bluet (apparently not identifiable except in hand)

Almost everything is new for me, this is is the first time I'm really going out to look for insects
Title:
Post by: gary yankech on June 03, 2011, 10:00:07 PM: Quote from: "Reuven_M"
At erindale park today:

1 juvenal's duskywing
3 wild indigo duskywing
20+ silvery blue
2 clouded sulphur
10+ cabbage white
2 mourning cloak
6 question mark
2 eastern tiger swallowtail

4 green darner
4 boreal/northern/vernal bluet (apparently not identifiable except in hand)

Almost everything is new for me, this is is the first time I'm really going out to look for insects

cool! I split my time outdoors looking for birds and insects, particularly odonates. You are right, you need to catch and release the bluets and other damselflies and use a hand lens to properly ID them. Even then, you also need decent net, a guide book (only a handful Odonate books out there) and some experience. It is a lot of fun, my favorite is the Violet Dancer; under the hand lens, the colors are so vivd! Butterflies are somewhat easier to ID and catch (except the skippers are tricky) but you can not handle them like dragonflies. I can recommend some good guide books if you wish.

Gary Yankech
Title:
Post by: Reuven_M on June 03, 2011, 10:11:34 PM: I know the guide books, its just spending the money on them! Right now I only have one butterfly guide and 1 ode guide.
Title:
Post by: Reuven_M on June 05, 2011, 12:44:41 PM: Today I found the following:

3 eastern tiger swallowtail
1 black swallowtail
20 cabbage white
7 clouded sulphur
25 silvery blue
1 common ringlet
1 mourning cloak
12 wild indigo duskywing
1 hobomok skipper (confident on this id as he allowed me to hold the book right up to him and compare!)

4 green darner
1 four-spotted skimmer
2 common whitetail
1 predominantly yellow whiteface that I'm fairly confident is dot-tailed whiteface
Title:
Post by: Reuven_M on June 06, 2011, 04:57:06 PM: Repairing my flat bike tire allowed me to go to some actual ode spots with water:

100+ bluets (and undoubtedly many times more I couldn't see) The best ID I could come up with was Marsh/Hagen's bluet, but not confident even on that. All seemed to be the same species.
3 violet dancer
6 eastern forktail
3 four-spotted skimmer
40 common whitetail
60 dot-tailed whiteface

5 eastern tiger swallowtail
4 silvery blue
1 clouded sulphur
10 cabbage white
4 question mark
10 wild indigo duskywing
2 skippers I couldn't get good looks at
Title:
Post by: Reuven_M on June 08, 2011, 03:49:13 PM: Much of the same today, but some interesting new stuff too:

50 bluets
1 violet dancer
20 eastern forktail
10 green darner
40 dot-tailed whiteface
1 black saddlebags
1 twelve-spotted skimmer
2 four-spotted skimmer
70 common whitetail

3 eastern tiger swallowtail
5 cabbage white
1 silver blue
1 common ringlet
1 red admiral
10 wild indigo duskywing (a few everywhere there's crown vetch)
10 hobomok skipper
Title:
Post by: Reuven_M on June 10, 2011, 04:47:05 PM: Sightings from the past couple days:

slender spreadwing
violet dancer
eastern forktail
taiga bluet
stream bluet
more bluets, of the marsh/boreal/familiar bluet type

green darner
dot-tailed whiteface
common whitetail
twelve-spotted skimmer

eastern tiger swallowtail
black swallowtail
cabbage white
clouded sulphur
silvery blue
question mark
mourning cloak
red admiral
common ringlet
monarch
wild indigo duskywing
least skipper
hobomok skipper
Title:
Post by: Reuven_M on June 11, 2011, 03:48:24 PM: new sightings today:
sedge sprite, spreadwing sp., eastern pondhawk

The odes were very sluggish today, I could catch the wings of many by hand: violet dancer, eastern forktail, taiga bluet, sedge sprite, and even a dot-tailed whiteface!
Title:
Post by: Reuven_M on June 11, 2011, 05:16:40 PM: just realized all my violet dancers have been eastern forktails... mature female not illustrated in the algonquin park book :oops:
Title:
Post by: Brian Bailey on June 11, 2011, 10:10:12 PM: Odes can be very tricky. The Algonquin Park book is highly recommended and provides good regional information. I don't know why it doesn't have a full body illustration of the mature female. It would be helpful. Another excellent and inexpensive guide is the Beginners Guide to Dragonflies (http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/Stokes-Beginners-Guide-To-Dragonflies-Blair-Nikula-Donald-Stokes/9780316816793-item.html?ikwid=beginners+guide+to+dragonflies&ikwsec=Home). Don't be put off by the title. It is a simplified field guide, but it includes most of the damselflies and dragonflies you are likely to encounter in a small, concise, easy to use format.

BB
Title:
Post by: Reuven_M on June 11, 2011, 10:33:27 PM: thanks, i had that out of the library last year and wasn't too impressed, but I'll look again! There's too much to look at out there!, I spent 1.5 hours today walking just about 40 metres looking at insects, spiders, frogs, birds, mammals etc.