May
During the month of May, there is no other place I would rather be than at some migration hotspot or natural area in my home province of Ontario. I am biased, of course, having grown up here, and places like Point Pelee and Pelee Island were instrumental locales for my "coming of age" as a naturalist. This year, I was fortunate to be able to combine my work and my pleasure during this most glorious time of the year. I led a number of birdwatching tours for my own company, ONshore Birding, as well as for Quest Nature Tours. Pelee Island occupied much of my time, though I also led a tour in Prince Edward County and spent time at Point Pelee when time allowed.
Staying on Pelee Island allowed me to completely immerse myself in bird migration, while also providing an opportunity to recconnect with several herps that I hadn't seen in years like the Lake Erie Watersnake and Smallmouth Salamander. I ran into a few rare species on the island; a self-found Mississippi Kite at the tip of Fish Point was probably the most memorable, though the Gray Fox kits were also way up there. I also chased two mega-rarities elsewhere in the province, a Marsh Sandpiper in Thedford, and a Hepatic Tanager in Oakville. Both were first records for Ontario. As always the month absolutely flew by. Why can't we have around four months of May each year?
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| Great Blue Heron |
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| Marsh Sandpiper |
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| White-eyed Vireo |
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| Smallmouth Salamander |
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| White-faced Ibis |
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| Blue-gray Gnatcatcher |
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| American White Pelican |
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| Lake Erie Watersnake |
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| Fox Squirrels |
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| Blackburnian Warbler |
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| Kirtland's Warbler |
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| Mississippi Kite |
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| Acadian Flycatcher |
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| Red-headed Woodpecker |
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| Eastern Foxsnake |
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| Gray Fox |
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| Hepatic Tanager |
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| Pine False Looper Moth (Zale duplicata) |
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| Night-wandering Dagger (Acronicta noctivaga) |
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| Cedar Waxwing |
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| Philadelphia Vireo |
June and July
June and early July is always one of the busiest times of the year for me, and 2022 was no exception. To help finance the travels that Laura and I have been on, I took on work conducting breeding bird surveys and other biological inventories for two different companies throughout the field season. Though none of my work sites were in northern Ontario, this work still brought me to some interesting sites in the Bruce Peninsula and elsewhere in the south.
Late-night mothing and early-morning bird surveys don't exactly mesh very well. However, when time allowed, I set up my sheet in whatever natural area I could find, especially at a few select sites near home in Cambridge.
By the middle of July, Laura were off again, this time to Peru for a few months. That will be the subject of the next summary post.
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| Blue-winged Warbler |
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| Comstock's Sallow (Feralia comstocki) |
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| One-eyed Sphinx (Smerinthus cerisyi) |
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| Eastern Milksnake |
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| Pickerelweed Borer Moth (Bellura densa) |
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| Bruce County, Ontario |
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| Bog Glyph (Deltote bellicula) |
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| White Triangle Tortrix (Clepsis persicana) |
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| Pawpaw Sphinx (Dolba hyloeus) |
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| Tufted Bird-dropping Moth (Cerma cerintha) |
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| Polyphemus Moth (Antheraea polyphemus) |
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| Glorious Habrosyne Moth (Habrosyne gloriosa) |
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| Beautiful Eutelia Moth (Eutelia pulcherrimus) |
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| Leconte's Haploa Moth (Haploa lecontei) |
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| Girard's Grass-Veneer (Crambus girardellus) |
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| Eastern Calligrapher (Toxomerus geminatus) |
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| Blue-gray Gnatcatcher |
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| Sparganothis flavibasana |
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| Small Magpie (Anania hortulata) |
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| Juniper Conch (Aethes rutilana) |
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| Straight-lined Plagodis Moth (Plagodis phlogosaria) |
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| Unidentified Plant Bug (Miridae sp.) |
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| Orange-barred Carpet Moth (Dysstroma hersiliata) |
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| Hawthorn Underwing (Catocala crataegi) |
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