Mississauga Butterflies & Odonates

[Reuven_M]

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

[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

[gary yankech]

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

[Reuven_M]

I know the guide books, its just spending the money on them! Right now I only have one butterfly guide and 1 ode guide.

[Reuven_M]

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

[Reuven_M]

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

[Reuven_M]

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

[Reuven_M]

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

[Reuven_M]

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!

[Reuven_M]

just realized all my violet dancers have been eastern forktails... mature female not illustrated in the algonquin park book  :oops:

[Brian Bailey]

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.  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

[Reuven_M]

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.