More Mochas

[Bill Lamond]

Hello,

I beg your indulgence but Mocha Emerald is considered rare in the province so I think all new locations are worthy of note. Yesterday (30 July) while naturalizing, I saw at least six Mocha Emeralds at Fairchild Creek at Foxden Rd, just S of Troy, Hamilton-Wentworth. This is on the same creek that I reported the presence of Mochas on Friday. This location is 2.8 km to the NNE of Friday's observations but between those two locations the creek courses 11.4 km. It is one crazy creek. There is a bridge on this closed road allowance where you can get down to the creek. I saw four males at one time and eventually caught two of them although I could have caught more. They were very easy to catch as they slowly hovered by at knee height. I've included the photos of both of them and two habitat shots to show how stagnant the creek is. There is a scum on the creek here of unknown origin, possibly quite natural. In one of the "scenery" shots I accidentally caught a hovering emerald. I saw two other emeralds hawking insects very close by in a field which were uncaught that I assumed were Mochas, likely females.

Looking at the satellite view of this creek, there are dozens and dozens of locations here where there seems suitable habitat for breeding. There must be hundreds of adults on the wing currently in places along this creek. As I said the other day, there is currently no flow, it is a series of small pools, longish pools and many sections of mud, which seems to be ideal for Mocha Emeralds. I've included a screen shot of the meandering nature of the creek. This meandering continues, and gets more pronounced, all the way south to the mouth at the Grand River just west of the village of Onondaga

It is interesting to speculate how long this population has been here along Fairchild Creek, undetected until Stephanie Allen caught one in 2019. These are areas that are not visited very often by naturalists, including me, until lately.

While leaving the site yesterday and walking back to my car along the road allowance I encountered a small darner swarm, mostly Lance-tipped I presume. I saw an emerald in the swarm and caught it. I assumed it would be Mocha but I was surprised to see it was a female Williamson's. I was about 1 km away from the creek at this point and I have to think that this emerald was utilizing habitat for breeding other than the creek.

Bill