Summer Insects

I was down in the Chatham area the other day and had the chance to net some interesting insects!  Of particular interest were the damselflies, the smaller more delicate relatives of the dragonflies. Despite their small size, damselflies have patterns and colours every bit as beautiful as the dragons, the details are just much smaller!  Probably the same reason I liked micro-machines when I was little.

The first interesting species I encountered was Rainbow Bluets.  I photographed this male and you can sure see why they have such a name!  Beautiful orange, green, blue and yellow colours across their bodies.

Rainbow Bluet - Male

Here is a female Rainbow Bluet, not as stunning as the male, but the subtle green colour is still nice!

Rainbow Bluet - Female

Mating Rainbow Bluets

I also found this female Blue-tipped Dancer, a species ranked as S3 in Ontario (vulnerable).

Blue-tipped Dancer

There were also some nice butterflies including the equally tiny hairstreaks such as these Acadian and Striped Hairstreaks!

Acadian Hairstreak

Striped Hairstreak

We also saw this Question Mark butterfly (yes that is actually it's name) named after the question mark shaped markings on the underside of the wing.

Question Mark

I also had some time for birding and added two new species to my Ontario year list including Acadian Flycatcher (shown below) and Dickcissel!  I have hit 240 for year birds in Ontario, 30 more to get to my goal of 270, I think that is still well within reach!

Acadian Flycatcher

 Acadian Flycatcher is an Endangered species in Ontario and is one of those Carolinian species that barely reaches the country.  I heard this one in Rondeau Provincial Park while driving, its distinctive "Peet-sah" call is like no other species.