Canada Day with the Bug People
July 9, 2010So, this balmy Canada Day I headed out again with the TEA to the Rouge Valley. The leader of the count, Tom Mason, told us that he had just been told he needed a permit to do what we were doing. (He had obtained said permit.) But it did all leave us wondering- why should one need permission to count butterflies?
Our counts were generally low, and we really felt the impact of interference with habitat. The first field, normally chock-a-block with skippers, who love grasses, had been mowed for some inexplicable reason, and yielded precious little. The remaining fields had also been overrun by that viney weed that is choking everything to death these days- no, not loose strife. I can’t recall the name of it now, but you’d recognize it. It’s everywhere, and deeply invasive.
I was determined to learn the difference between the “three witches,” a trio of brown-ish skippers, so called because “they’re very difficult to tell apart.” Ah, I replied. Unlike the other skippers. “Nah, skippers are easy” said Tom. Ahem.
So, the three witches are as follows: The Northern Broken Dash, The Little Glassywing, and the Dun. Based on the photos from THIS website, I would guess that this: is a Little Glassywing:
and I think that THIS is a Dun skipper:
I’m sticking to that.
We also saw a fair number of checkerspots, lovely things. I’m still getting the hang of this camera, so the great shot I got of them ain’t so good. But here tis:
