Early July Flora and Fauna

In the past couple of months, I've been able to complete virtual tours for all of the TKC preserves that are accessible by vehicle, including multiple tours for a couple of them. This week, I wasn't able to get out in a boat to explore our island-based preserves, so no virtual tour this week. Instead, I will be highlighting a collection of flora and fauna (fancy terminology for plants and wildlife) that I saw this week on a few of TKC's preserve that I did visit. 

I'll start with the big one. Andrews' Bog Orchid is a hybrid orchid that's been present on our Black Hole Preserve since at least 2017, when Rob Routledge, professor at Sault College, found it. I finally had the opportunity to see it myself this week. There are only a handful of other known records of this hybrid in North America, making this a pretty rare and significant plant to have on a TKC preserve. We are sure excited about it! There were actually four plants of this growing at this location, three of them were fairly small and one was fairly large in comparison. I hope that this hybrid will continue to thrive here for years to come! 

Andrews' Bog Orchid hybrid between Lesser Purple Fringed Orchid and Ragged Fringed Orchid, both of which are present on the Black Hole Preserve. We actually looked for the Ragged Fringed Orchid during the same visit, but could not find it. We're guessing we just missed it though! My virtual tour last week showed the Lesser Purple Fringed Orchid, although it wasn't in full bloom yet.

Here are two more species of orchid that I saw during this week's visit to the Black Hole Preserve. The photos aren't great, as it was hot (33 degrees Celsius!) and the bright sunlight made it hard to see how my photos we turning out. The first one is Rose Pogonia and the second one is Club-spur Orchid. 

Back on the Boyer Preserve, I was excited to get this photograph of a Tree Swallow returning to the nesting box to feed her young. This box was installed near the beginning of the hiking trails in memory of Sonya Barnett, a local nature lover who passed away this spring. so it has been great that's it's been used this spring. The young swallows in the nest were almost ready to fledge, and sure enough, two days later, the box was empty and all the birds were gone. 

The meadow on the Boyer Preserve, just behind The Kensington Conservation Centre, is full of blooming flowers right now, attracting a wide variety of insects. I recorded 11 species of butterflies this week here: Northern Crescent (photo to the left), European Skipper, Long Dash, Dun Skipper, Least Skipper, Eastern Comma, Silvery Blue, Common Ringlet, White Admiral, Monarch, and Cabbage White. There were also a number of drangonflies, moths, bumble bees and other insects, but they are not all easy to photograph! Below are some more photos, each one with a caption saying what they are.

If you're someone who enjoys statistics as much as I do, there has now been 706 species of flora and fauna that have been recorded on the approximately 900 acres of land that The Kensington Conservancy protects. If you're interested in exploring some sightings, check out this project on iNaturalist, The Kensington Conservancy's Nature Preserves. I also keep track of how many species have been recorded within The Kensington Conservancy's Focal Area, which is 933. Lastly, the 2020 TKC Nature Challenge has seen 424 species recorded with a photo so far this year within our focal area!

I highly recommend signing up for iNaturalist and submitting your own sightings. The data that is collected from the community this way is invaluable and really helps us know what is being seen in our area! If you ever have any questions about iNaturalist, feel free to get in touch with me, I'm happy to help.

I hope you enjoyed the photos!