Bruce Pit is under-valued as a great spot to see a variety of insects at the peak of summer. Though I’ve spent a lot of time looking for dragonflies there, it can be quite good for tiger beetles and butterflies as well, including Wild Indigo Duskywing, Gray Comma, Painted Lady, Compton Tortoiseshell, and migrating Monarchs. A visit anytime during the summer can usually turn up a few interesting species, and this year I started visiting on June 17th this year, hoping to find a few different insect species for my life list.
I found a couple of interesting bugs that day, including two different tiger beetles: the first was the ubiquitous Six-spotted Tiger Beetle, while the second was a Festive Tiger Beetle! I hadn’t expected it to be so easy to find, but it was scurrying along the same sandy path where I’d had one last fall. A Fragile Forktail along the creek was also good to see. Although they are not as abundant or widespread as the Eastern Forktail, I have had good luck finding them this year.
My best find, however, was an insect that I didn’t manage to get a photo of: a Black Saddlebags flying over the field at the top of the toboggan hill. I had clear views of this southern dragonfly through my binoculars as it was low enough to see the shape of the “saddlebags” at the base of each hindwing. It disappeared over the trees toward Cedarview Road, so I walked down to the pond where I saw another flying over the water near the marshy area. At that point I continued my walk around the pond, running into a fellow birder who told me that she had seen a Black Saddlebags flying above a grassy field near the creek. She doubted what she had seen – she recognized the species from Point Pelee but didn’t think we had them here. Although I didn’t see any in that area, I found another Black Saddlebags out over the water much further out and another one over the parking lot. There appeared to be at least four or five around, and I did not find any perching. I had seen this species here once many years ago but not last year, so seeing more than one was quite amazing!
I returned on June 20th for a quick check of the pond after an appointment and brought my net this time, wading into the water at the northwestern corner in the hopes of catching a Black Saddlebags to photograph. I had no luck – they never even came close – though it appeared there were at least two individuals still flying.
On June 22nd I spent some more time in the same corner of the pond with my net trying to catch one over the water. Again I had no luck, but on my walk around the pond I finally found one patrolling the grassy area near the bridge, too high up to catch. A little further along I found one patrolling the path along the north side and finally it perched in a bare tree about 15 feet up!
I was able to walk right beneath it and get a photograph to put it into iNaturalist. There were probably still three or four individuals around, though I never saw more than two at one time. I looked for but didn’t see any signs of breeding (pairs in tandem or in wheel formation, or any females ovipositing). They have been here nearly a week now, and while it seems most likely that this small population emerged here it remains a mystery as to when they arrived and whether they will successfully colonize the area.
It was thrilling to see so many and get some photographs after not seeing any since my last trip to Presqu’ile Provincial Park!
On my most recent visit on July 7th I didn’t see any Black Saddlebags. My first stop was the base of the toboggan hill to look for the colony of Acadian Hairstreaks I’ve seen there regularly for the last six or seven years. To my disappointment the tall grass had been mowed all the way from the top of the hill to the marsh at the bottom – right to the water, destroying the verge of wildflowers where the Acadian Hairstreaks used to nectar. It was a big disappointment to see the lack of flowers here as this is has been the most reliable spot for seeing Acadian Hairstreaks in my area for several years now.
From there I headed to the field at the back to look for Gray Treefrogs, butterflies and dragonflies, and came across a Northern Cloudywing sitting in the middle of the path leading to the eastern field. This was interesting to me because I had scared one up from the same location on two of my previous visits; clearly it was very territorial about that spot. The best insect of that outing was not a dragonfly or tiger beetle, however, but a Striped Hairstreak perching out in the open! These are one of the most difficult hairstreaks for me to see, as they don’t seem to have any reliable territories around me.
It’s been a lot of fun seeing so many neat critters at Bruce Pit. I’ll be keeping an eye out for more Black Saddlebags here in the future, as it would be wonderful if they started breeding in the Ottawa region. Who knows what other unusual or uncommon insect will show up next!
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