Tag Archives: Clearwing Hummingbird Moth

20170720 Hwy 529: Searching the Milkweeds for Skippers, Monarchs and other butterflies.

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Above Photo:   Fragrant White Water Lily in the Big Pond near Big Lake

Note:   I posted these photos at a smaller (240 x 300 px) medium size than the previous  (645 x 806 px) large size to save download delays and data costs.  This means that you need to enlarge photos of interest to see the details.  Click and enlarge a few photos below to see the difference.

We cruised the Common Milkweed patches on our way to and from Parry Sound on a warm summer day.  This is what we found:

A partially hidden Blanding’s Turtle in the Big Pond across the road from Big Lake….

This 5 petal, small (<1 cm) blossom on stems with alternate needle-like leaves has me stumped.  Found along 529, on a wet roadside near the road to Naiscoot Lodge…

EDIT:   Marsh Bellflower.

The seed head of the Pitcher Plants haven’t changed much, except where this Shield Beetle appears to be chewing….

This little beetle looks warily up at the spider.  Has the spider molted or has it just preyed on one of its brethern?

Yellow Goatsbeard (Salsify) ready to disperse its seeds via parachute … (a good one to expand fully)

I am often seeing Monarch Caterpillars at the blossoms.  Is that where they molt?

This is probably a second generation Red Admiral.

A pair of American Ladies have lunch at the Common Milkweed Cafe.

See the little white spots and the eyespots?

Only the shadow knows what kind of skipper this is!

Speaking of Skippers, here are three different Grass Skippers:

1:

2:   

And 3:

About 30 Grass Skippers are found in Ontario.  You really have to look carefully to ID the species reliably.  The above 3 are a good challenge using Rick Cavasin’s Butterflies of Ontario.   …. or the nice-to-use  iNaturalist.org site.

Maybe a Dot Tailed Whiteface  …

Pickerel Weed in bloom…

Aha!  A (poorly photographed) Clearwing Moth!   Snowberry (H diffinis) or Hummingbird (H thysbe)?  It is quite difficult to tell the difference.  In this case the near (port) legs appear to be quite pale.  The far (starboard) legs appear black (in shadow?).  I’ll go with the legs being pale  and ID this one as being a Hummingbird Clearwing Moth.  So I am still on the trail of its cousin.

I think that Hwy 529 is as good a place as any to monitor the changes happening to our flora and fauna this summer so its time for another trip.

What do you think of the reduced format?  Does it speed up your download of the blog?  Good, bad, pita?  Please let me know.  Many thanks.  brtthome@gmail.com

 

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20170614 Hwy 529, Cow Parsnip, Ox Eye Daisy, Brewer’s Blackbird, Painted Lady, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Clearwing Hummingbird Moth, Monarch, Blanding’s Turtle

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Hwy 529, Cow Parsnip, Ox Eye Daisy, Brewer’s Blackbird, Painted Lady, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Clearwing Hummingbird Moth, Monarch, Blanding’s Turtle

At 20170613  there is a photo of Cow Parsnip with this advice:

Near the Twin Rivers Bridge, at the confluence of Harris Creek and Naiscoot River, there are many Cow Parsnip plants growing along the roadside.  Although they are somewhat phototoxic they are not as deadly as their look-alike close cousin, Giant Hogweed.

A nice little explanation showing the difference is at this link.   It makes sense to avoid both plants.

This photo shows a slightly later stage of development, as the sheath unfolds to show the flower head emerging to eventually form an umbel, the characteristic inflorescence of the carrot family.

Roadside Ox Eye Daisies are in full bloom now, attracting and feeding many pollinators … and enhancing the roadside.

 

When I first saw this bird I thought that it was a Red Winged Blackbird.   But NO RED.   And it certainly wasn’t a female.  Too small for a Common Grackle.  I eventually decided that it was a Brewer’s Blackbird, an uncommon sight for me.  Here is some interesting background on that bird in this neck of the woods.

Note size, yellow eyes and iridescence as this birdie takes a load of protein to its nest….

Painted Lady on a yellow hawkweed.   Good news for Albertans this year!

 

Eastern Tiger Swallowtails are also feasting on newly flowering yellow hawkweed.

  This was a surprise.  My first sighting of a Clearwing Hummingbird Moth on orange hawkweed.  The flowers had just opened today.

Proboscis is starting to uncoil for arrival at the next feeding station.

First one of the season!  This year’s migration map indicates that they’ve been here for about a week.  This is a great site.

I had seen some Viceroy Butterflies earlier but couldn’t get a photo.  Here is a great exercise for telling the difference between Monarch, Viceroy and Queen Butterflies.

A large Blanding’s Turtle is checking the photog out from a safe distance.  It slipped into the water afterwards.

Here’s an interesting news report about new crops for BC agriculture.

20170612 Burwash, Tree swallow, Hawk, Dragonfly, Bee-fly, Damselfly, Dragonfly, Painted Lady, Clearwing Hummingbird Moth, Pussytoes, American Redstart, Lupin, Viburnum, Painted turtle, Eastern Meadowlark, Bobolink, Savannah Sparrow, Barn Swallow, Skipper, Crab Spider

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Burwash, Tree swallow, Hawk, Dragonfly, Bee-fly, Damselfly, Dragonfly, Painted Lady, Clearwing Hummingbird Moth, Pussytoes, American Redstart, Lupin, Viburnum, Painted turtle, Eastern Meadowlark, Bobolink, Savannah Sparrow, Barn Swallow, Skipper, Crab Spider

We made an afternoon trip to Burwash to see Clearwing Hummingbird Moths on the honeysuckle blossoms.  We saw a lot more than expected.

In the way into the site, a Tree Swallow welcomed us from a telephone cable…

A little further on this hawk eyed us.  I did not see it in flight or from any other angle and can’t ID it.

Dragonflies were munching on the flying insects along Neilly Lake.

This is the first Bee-fly I’ve seen since photographing one pollinating Coltsfoot blossoms on Harris Lake Road.

This might be a female Marsh Bluet…

Maybe a Dot-tailed Whiteface.   I didn’t see the rest of the body.

Painted Lady on Yellow Hawkweed…

Aha!  Here it is, as predicted:

Pussytoes … showing some sort of different flower structure … worth of further research!…

Unknown bee/wasp or fly on the newly blooming Ox eye daisy …

American Redstart serenading, showing rictal bristles…

Patches of multicoloured lupins are developing.

Nice shadow on the leaf of the V. trilobum…

Lots of painted turtles were on the move …

A first for me!   Eastern Meadowlark singing away.  The bird kept its distance from me.  It was foraging for food, perhaps with a nest nearby?

Another birdie that I rarely see, only at Burwash ….

While the bobolink and meadowlark were singing and going after insects, this lil Savannah Sparrow stood on the fence, seemingly unimpressed by all of the activity…

  On the way out of the old prison farm this other common swallow said goodbye.  Notice the difference in undercolouring of the Tree Swallow (above)  and this Barn Swallow …

This is about the size of a skipper.  Probably one of these.  EDIT:  Probably Columbine Duskywing.   It was nectaring on this roadside Birdsfoot trefoil near a rock outcrop which has a lot of blooming columbines.

It didn’t take long for this Crab Spider to find an Ox Eye Daisy to lie in ambush on.  The Daisies only opened up the previous day.

Click on the photo to see the eye structure….

While at Burwash I met a photographer who lives just north of Sudbury.  He gets great wildlife imagery at Burwash and Killarney.  He’s a very interesting man, a practitioner of some of the iceman and breathing techniques at Innerfire.