A stop by the KBS in Port Franks

This past Thursday I started work early to sneak in a late afternoon hike, I had a few spots in mind and settled on a visit to the Karner Blue Sanctuary.  I made another post about this spot back in January.  Quiet as ever (save for the Towhees, Titmice and a vocal Gnatcatcher) I enjoyed exploring high and low for about an hour before heading home to pack for Pelee Island.

Blooming plants are scarce in this dune-savannah habitat at this time of year and limited largely to Pennsylvania Sedge (Carex pensylvanica) and a few species of the mustard family including Lyre-leaved Rockcress (Arabidopsis lyrata) which attracted most of the insect interest that day.

I saw a couple of stout (maybe 20 cm high) grasses along a trail which turned out to be Slender ountain-rice (Pipthatheropsis pungens) - previously of the genus Oryzopsis.  THis is a species of dry forests and dunes and is rare in Lambton County.

Growing smack dab in the middle of the path, a handful of Prairie Buttercup (Ranunculus rhomboideus).   Williams (1984) considered the species to be a "winter annual" whereby plants often die during summer droughts with seeds germinating during autumn rains which then overwinter then flower and fruit the following spring.

Things got interesting when I started chasing butterflies without my trusty HX-50 point and shoot.  There was much holding of my cellphone to my binoculars, followed by cropping to get this shot of an Olympia Marble (Euchloe olympia).  In southern Ontario this species is essentially restricted to the Port Franks/Pinery area, preferring very dry habitats and utilizing a variety of mustard species as foodplants.

The highlight was finding a pair of Sleepy Duskywing (Erynnis brizo), a lifer species for me.  Sleepy Duskywing (S1) is restricted in Ontario to oak woods in the vicinity of the Pinery, St. Williams and Hamilton. 'brizo' comes from the Greek to nod or to sleep...which after a couple of 5:15am wake ups on Pelee I am about to do myself!

Williams, H. 1984. The status of Ranunculus rhomboideus Goldie (Prairie Buttercup) in Ontario. The Plant Press 2(1): 11-12