{"id":8619,"date":"2021-09-16T10:32:45","date_gmt":"2021-09-16T14:32:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/?p=8619"},"modified":"2021-09-14T21:33:00","modified_gmt":"2021-09-15T01:33:00","slug":"september-sightings-in-mississauga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/september-sightings-in-mississauga\/","title":{"rendered":"An Early September Ramble Along the Trail"},"content":{"rendered":"

On a warm September afternoon, I like to inch my way along an unpaved bike and dog-walking trail near home. Each time I walk the same trail, I see something new. Butterflies are here one day, gone the next, back again a week later. Resident birds are singing steadily one week and silent the next. A variety of migrants, both birds and insects, appear unexpectedly presenting new ids to puzzle over. Here are some things I noticed on a recent early September ramble.<\/p>\n

Late Summer Butterflies I Spotted<\/h2>\n

Summer doesn’t officially end till the autumn equinox and I refuse to call it over after Labour Day. So these early September butterflies are still Summer ones!<\/p>\n

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Monarchs appear in waves, common one day, almost missing the next, always working steadily towards Hamilton in the south west. This one is on a Broad-winged Thistle, a non-native plant, which provides welcome nectar to many butterflies.<\/p>\n

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This territorial Peck’s Skipper is always ready to zip up and chase any butterfly that passes by, even if it’s a Monarch or Cabbage White.<\/p>\n

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Cabbage Whites are not native but the New England Aster it is perching on is a native flower popular with many butterflies–and its seeds were a magnet for last year’s Common Redpolls<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

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I will have to work at identifying which type of Crescent this is, but I suspect it is a Northern Crescent. They have been flying really rapidly this week making it hard to get a photo.<\/p>\n

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Ok, yes, this is a moth not a butterfly. At this time of year, though, every time I brush a plant, one type or another of grass moth will fly away and hide in a new spot. This one was unusually cooperative and perched where I could get a photo.<\/p>\n

Birds Make Any Walk Better<\/h2>\n

There’s something about watching birds chasing each other, hunting for food, and singing or calling that makes them improve any afternoon. Here are a few that I saw this one particular day.<\/p>\n

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Three Northern Flickers were in a tree making a series of strange calls. There are usually Flickers nesting in the local park but this time of year migrants also appear along the trail.<\/p>\n

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This Cedar Waxwing, or one of its clan, has been sitting in this dead Ash “mewing” at me each time I pass by this week. It’s a surprisingly small and delicate call for a reasonably large bird.<\/p>\n

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On this particular afternoon, this was my “prize.” This small hawk was perched over the path and let me take lots of photos. My mind was stuck on “Coopers” and “Sharp-shinned” but I couldn’t force the bird to fit my past experience with either. The white near the “eyebrow” also seemed different. And the white near the start of the tail. It wasn’t till several days later that I realized this was a juvenile Broad-winged Hawk<\/strong><\/a>–a migrant visiting the wood lot, not one of my resident birds.<\/p>\n

Plants Are Also Puzzling<\/h2>\n

I’ve also been trying to figure out some of the plants along the trail. It’s quite a varied area with introduced trees like Black Locusts and Russian Olives but also native trees like Shagbark Hickories and Northern Red Oaks.<\/p>\n

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\nThe hickory nuts are vanishing quickly as the squirrels eat and bury them.<\/p>\n

While dodging the spiny Teasel and annoying Burdock burs, I decided I should look up whether the Bur Marigolds were Beggar Ticks or Swamp Beggar Ticks and whether they were native. So today I counted sepals (those little leaves around the base of a flower) to decide they were Bidens frondosa, Sticktights.<\/p>\n

Sometimes I remember to take a photo of the appealing look of plants.<\/p>\n

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Soon the birds will strip the lovely white berries from these Grey Dogwood shrubs but for now they are simply beautiful.<\/p>\n

A Final Mystery<\/h2>\n

I also saw a nice Darner dragonfly on this afternoon ramble. I haven’t figured out which kind it is yet, though, so that is another mystery to investigate.<\/p>\n

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\nSome dragonflies perch as if lying flat on a table, others prefer to hang down. It’s much harder to notice the “hangers” before they startle and fly away. This one I noticed landing on a dried Teasel stalk so I could get a photo before it zipped off again.<\/p>\n

All in all, I have greatly enjoyed the late summer sunshine! I hope to sneak in another couple of walks before the official start of autumn.<\/p>\n

Related Reading<\/strong><\/p>\n