August 2012

Walking my dog through the sanctuary this morning the birds were generally scarce and quiet. However by pishing out a few small flocks I managed to find eight warbler species

On August 17th, Jane and I searched five patches of Prickly Ash on a ten acre property near Belmont Lake, and saw a combined total of more than 80 larvae of Giant Swallowtail, (representing all five instars), plus an additional five eggs at one of the sites. I would expect Read more…

We had a particularly rich insect chorus in our backyard last night. Among the voices – sounding almost like an insect version of an American Toad – was a Narrow-winged Tree Cricket (Oecanthus niveus). Its 2 to 10 second trill is separated by several seconds of silence. Location: Maple Crescent, Read more…

I had a Great Spangled Fritillary laying eggs near our violets. Since I let areas of our yard go wild, I have had many different types of violets fill in which has brought in other fritillaries as well. This one is as big as a monarch. These caterpillars will over Read more…

Monarchs continue to be quite common this summer. We usually have two or three in our garden at any one time (often on pink phlox). I saw three on a patch of Joe-Pye Weed in Algonquin Park this week. Driving between Buckhorn and Selwyn today, at least eight flew across Read more…

I just had a Giant Swallowtail on my new hop tree [less than a week after planting].The tip of her her abdomen was going onto the leaves and layed 7 – 10 eggs. Lets hope the eggs hatch! Location: The Glen, Pigeon Lake Observer: Blair Hamilton

This evening at 6:20 pm, I saw four Common Nighthawks “hawking” over the village of Keene Location: Keene Observer: Pauline Gillespie

A Giant Swallowtail nectared briefly in our yard this morning. Location: Maple Crescent, Peterborough Observer: Drew Monkman

While golfing at Bellemere Winds Tuesday on the north shore of Rice Lake there were about a dozen Caspian Terns on the course. Location: Bellemere Winds, Rice Lake Observer: Jane Philpott

We had Giant Swallowtail hanging around our yard the past week. This one comes and goes. I’ve heard there were more sightings near Ottawa. The wings are so big they actually seem to roll like a wave when she flaps them. Later today, we had another one come by and Read more…

While birding the southern part of the county today I encountered nine Giant Swallowtails at four locations: 3rd Line east of Bensfort Bridge (2-worn); Hiawatha Line south of Herkimer Pt Rd (1-fairly fresh); just east of Villiers on Peterborough Rd 2 (1-fairly fresh); and east of Birdsalls on River Rd Read more…

So pleased and excited as for the past 3 nights at dusk ,, bats have been flying around our property on Buckhorn Lake. We have not seen bats for 2 summers, since the white nose was diagnosed. I do not know what kind but look larger than the little brown Read more…

Jerry Ball and I have been doing our usual butterfly searches throughout the summer and have noted Giant Swallowtails as early as May through to the present. The earliest was noted at his farm at Base Line and Heritage Line by Robert Difruscia where he was seeing them regularly. I Read more…

I saw a Giant Swallowtail today just off of Birchview Road, about three kilometres east of McCracken’s Landing on Stony Lake. The butterfly looked rather ragged with a large part of its left hindwing missing. According to the NatureList Google Group for eastern Ontario, the first Giant Swallowtail caterpillar ever Read more…

This morning between 0600 and 0740 while scanning the exposed mud at the Briar Hill Bird Sanctuary pond for the Short-billed Dowitcher that has been reported by various observers, I found an adult Baird’s Sandpiper foraging with four Least Sandpipers (1 adult and 3 juveniles). Though over 200m distant, through Read more…

We recently had an American Bittern on our property on Chemong Lake off the 12th Line of Smith. We were surprised at the sighting as we have never seen any bird like this before. We checked our bird books and looked it up on the web before we identified it, Read more…

The Peregrine Falcon was seen again today on the OMNR building on Water Street. Location: OMNR Building at Water and Charlotte streets (perches usually on west side of building) Observer: Bill Crins

Snowy Tree Crickets (“thermometer crickets”) have been calling for at least a week now in our neighbourhood. Location: Maple Crescent Observer: Peterborough

If you’re down at the Silver Bean Cafe at Millenium Park, watch for Caspian Terns sitting on the rock island with the Ring-billed Gulls. Location: Millenium Park, Water Street, Peterborough Observer: Colin Jones