Some forgotten shots from this summer

I was going through some of my photos today and realized there were quite a few that I had taken but hadn't taken the time to edit. Since I never made it out to Pelee as planned (work got in the way), this will be my only contribution of the day.

An awesome little bug that I tried to be "artsy" with.

This is one of my radioed females. She was implanted in early June, moved almost 1/2 a km to give birth (the farthest movement I've seen so far out of this species), gave birth in mid July, and then traveled the entire distance back back to her home range. Quite an accomplishment for a little snake that weighs just 50 grams!

Butler's Gartersnake - Windsor, ON

In early summer, I took some time to photograph some of the metamorph frogs. In some areas it was possible to have at least 10 of these little Northern Leopard Frogs hop away with every step one takes.

Northern Leopard Frog - Windsor, ON

One afternoon, a few of us went on an Eastern Prairie-Fringed Orchid hunt in Ojibway. This plant is Endangered in Ontario with only a handful of populations left. On our way to the orchids, I stopped to take some (very poor) photos of some metamorph Western Chorus Frogs.

Western Chorus Frog - Ojibway

And the star attraction of the day...

Eastern Prairie Fringed-orchid - Ojibway

July 2 was the Ojibway butterfly count. I met up with Tom Preney and we spent the morning scouring our area for whatever butterflies we could find. We didn't see much and I didn't photograph too many things, but here is a small sample of some of the insect life... Not photographed (but seen) was the endangered Rapids Clubtail near the Ojibway Nature Centre.

Robber fly sp. - Ojibway

Mourning Cloak - Ojibway

Leps from work

This afternoon I took a bit of time to try out my new lens. I have owned it for a more than a week and used it a few times, but that was mostly for documentation purposes. Today was fairly overcast and I noticed quite a bit of activity with the butterflies, so I dragged the lens out into the field. 

Some of the first butterflies I noticed were some skippers low in the sedges of the tallgrass prairie. Here is a Least: 

Least Skipper - Windsor, Ontario

 and presumably, a Little Glassywing.

Little Glassywing - Windsor, ON

This was the only American Lady seen -it was frequenting a patch of Ironweed.

American Lady - Windsor, Ontario

It didn't take me long before I decided to chase after some of the swallowtails, working a bunch of Ironweed and Dense Blazingstar. I was happy to get close to a pair of Giant Swallowtails and grab my first shots of this species.

Giant Swallowtail - Windsor, Ontario

 This Black Swallowtail was an easy photo subject. The clouds had lifted at this point, making the light slightly harsher.

Black Swallowtail - Windsor, Ontario

Black Swallowtail - Windsor, Ontario

Also observed were Eastern Tiger and Spicebush Swallowtails. It was easy to miss a lot of the skippers with the big, gaudy species vying for attention. I did snap a few photos.

Silver-spotted Skippers were seen from far away as they patrolled many of the flowering plants.

Silver-spotted Skipper - Windsor, Ontario

There were a few small, whitish butterflies down low in the grasses. I managed to get a good look at an Acadian Hairstreak as well as photograph Eastern Tailed-Blue and Summer Azure.

Eastern Tailed-Blue - Windsor, Ontario

Summer Azure - Windsor, Ontario

A few Hummingbird Clearwings were see and I was happy to get a photo I was quite happy with, even though I didn't freeze the wings.

Hummingbird Clearwing - Windsor, ON

Monarch - Windsor, ON