Bugging Out In Northern Ontario, Part 3: Tilden Lake To The Detour Road

8/14/2025

One of the first birds I observed this morning as I ate my scrambled eggs and sipped my coffee was an adult American Goshawk that blasted past my makeshift campsite. It had been several years since I had been graced by the presence of an American Goshawk. It was going to be a good day!

I packed up my one-burner stove and camp chair and hit the open road. Today would include a lot of driving as I made my way up to Cochrane and beyond. But I love driving in northern Ontario, passing millions of Black Spruces and keeping an eye out for Black Bears or Moose.

I didn't linger too long in Timiskaming District. Typically, I make a number of birding stops - the New Liskeard Lagoons, Thornloe Lagoons, Hilliardton Marsh and Englehart Lagoons are some of my usual haunts - but today I wanted to save time so I could look for insects at a site further afield.

Compton Tortoiseshell (Nymphalis l-album) - Berlinghoff Rd, Iroquois Falls, Cochrane District

The driving took up the entire morning and I rolled into Iroquois Falls in the early afternoon. I visited a little know track west of town called Berlinghoff Road. I first stopped here last year on a car-camping trip in late August and was happy to return, as some of my target insects had been reported here in the past.

Emerald Spreadwing (Lestes dryas) - Berlinghoff Rd, Iroquois Falls, Cochrane District

The deep puddles necessitated rubber boots but I came prepared. I grabbed my net and set off down the track, passing through boggy Black Spruce-dominated habitats. The cool morning had given way to a warm and sunny afternoon, though large fluffy clouds periodically paused the insect activity for a few minutes until they passed.

Berlinghoff Rd - Iroquois Falls, Cochrane District

Butterflies were quite active here and included quite a few new ones for my trip list: Tawny-edged, Long Dash and Dun Skippers, Compton Tortoiseshell, White Admiral and Pink-edged Sulphur to name a few. I kept an eye out for Arctic Fritillary, my main butterfly target for this trip, but I could only turn up a few of the larger Atlantis Fritillary.

Green Comma (Polygonia faunus) - Berlinghoff Rd, Iroquois Falls, Cochrane District

Long Dash (Polites mystic) - Berlinghoff Rd, Iroquois Falls, Cochrane District

Alongside the dirt track were many flowering plants - Spotted Joe-Pye Weed, Sweet-clover, Lindley's Aster, Pearly Everlasting, several goldenrods and Ox-eye Daisy. The Joe Pye Weed and various goldenrods in particular were buzzing with innumerable bees, wasps, flies and more. I photographed as many of them as I could; quite a few were species I had never identified before.

Cylindromyia intermedia - Berlinghoff Rd, Iroquois Falls, Cochrane District

Yellow-banded Bumble Bee (Bombus terricola) - Berlinghoff Rd, Iroquois Falls, Cochrane District

Golden-tailed Leafcutter Bee (Megachile relativa) - Berlinghoff Rd, Iroquois Falls, Cochrane District

Shamrock Orbweaver (Araneus trifolium) - Berlinghoff Rd, Iroquois Falls, Cochrane District

I find I am often overwhelmed when in nature, especially if I am visiting a site for the first time or a place where I rarely travel. It was like that here. Ostensively I was here to look for dragonflies, but I kept getting distracted by all the different wasps and flies. And there were small roving bands of birds in the trees, demanding a glance with the binoculars. Dozens of skippers were flitting along the path - I have a soft spot for them and love the challenges of their identification. Meanwhile, the sedge diversity appeared to be quite high, and so I had to stop and identify a few of them, too (sedges have become an interest of mine this summer). And while crouched down, looking at a sedge, I noticed an unusual moss that I have never seen before, which diverts my attention once again. And so it goes! If I'm not careful, an entire afternoon will fly by while I cover scarcely a few hundred meters of road...

Pale Sedge (Carex pallescens) - Berlinghoff Rd, Iroquois Falls, Cochrane District

Tawny-edged Skipper (Polites themistocles) - Berlinghoff Rd, Iroquois Falls, Cochrane District

But really, I was here for the dragonflies and damselflies. In the past, odonate enthusiasts had turned up several species of Somatochlora emeralds at this site. These tricky dragonflies were one of the main reasons why I embarked on this trip in the first place, and so I kept an eye out for emeralds as I walked.

White-faced Meadowhawk (Sympetrum obtrusum) - Berlinghoff Rd, Iroquois Falls, Cochrane District

Several different types of spreadwing damselfly were resting in the sedges along some of the deeper pools along the dirt track. With some careful study both in hand and with photos, I was satisfied that some of them were my lifer Sweetflag Spreadwing! This is not a particularly rare species, nor is it one that is confined to the north. But it had eluded me up to this point.

Sweetflag Spreadwing (Lestes forcipatus) - Berlinghoff Road, Iroquois Falls, Cochrane District

Emerald and Northern Spreadwings were also present along the dirt track.

Emerald Spreadwing (Lestes dryas) - Berlinghoff Road, Iroquois Falls, Cochrane District

While the damselflies were fun (and easy to catch), I aimed to change my admittedly poor luck with emeralds. Unfortunately, despite spending over two hours here, I did not see a single one. Would this be the theme for the whole trip? I sure hope not...

I did have some success with netting dragonflies, as I caught a Canada Darner and a Variable Darner. The Variable was nice since it is a species that I have only seen on a couple of prior occasions.

Variable Darner (Aeshna interrupta) - Berlinghoff Road, Iroquois Falls, Cochrane District

By the late afternoon it was time to hit the road. I stopped briefly in the town of Cochrane to refuel, and then it was time to drive up the Detour Mine Road. This has become one of my favourite roads to explore in Ontario in recent years. It is paved with only a few potholes, and it travels east and then north from Cochrane towards the Detour gold mine. By the time that you approach the mine, you are about as close to James Bay as you are to Cochrane. The road passes through immensely beautiful northern forests and peatlands. It is not uncommon to spot species like Northern Hawk-Owl, Sharp-tailed Grouse, Gray Wolf or Canada Lynx from the roadside; I've seen all of these species here in the past. In recent years, cell towers have been added and so those who have a Rogers plan can have full cell service along the entire road. Pretty remarkable for an area that appears so remote on the surface.

There wasn't any time for me to stop and naturalize in any of these beautiful habitats as I hoped to make it as far up the road as possible, though a brief roadside stop at the Floodwood River produced a new thistle species for me, the Marsh Thistle (Cirsium palustre).

Marsh Thistle (Cirsium palustre) - Floodwood River, Cochrane District

As sunset neared, I turned off the main road and drove up to an old gravel pit. The eerie cries of Common Loons were only drowned out by the buzz of mosquitoes as I set up my moth lights. The bug jacket came in handy tonight.

This particular location for my moth escapades was a site where fellow moth-ers Dave Beadle and Mike King have set up in the past. I chose an area where my lights would shine across the open gravel pit to wetlands and forests on the other side. There were several strategically located trees between which I could string up my sheets with lots of space to walk around. As dusk fell, there was not a hint of a breeze. Perfect.

The only problem was the air temperature. As the sun set, my thermometer read 16 degrees, and it would be dropping to 9 or 10 degrees overnight. In general, warmer is better for mothing. But my hope was that these northern moths are used to cooler temperatures and it wouldn't impact diversity too poorly. While waiting for the waning light in the western sky to diminish, I had a nice chat with Laura on the phone. Now dark out, I approached the two sheets. I couldn't believe my eyes. They were popping off!

Red-washed Prominent (Oedemasia semirufescens)) - Detour Mine Road, Cochrane District

Rusty Pine Cone Moth (Dioryctria disclusa) - Detour Mine Road, Cochrane District

Blueberry Sallow (Sympistis dentata) - Detour Mine Road, Cochrane District

Back home in southern Ontario where I have mothed many dozens or even hundreds of times, I can pretty much predict which species will be the most common ones at the sheet. If 100 moth species show up in an evening, probably 98-99 of them are ones that I am familiar with, and many evenings pass where I don't find a single lifer. Here, close to 1/3 of all of the moths appeared to be new ones for me. I was in heaven.

White Cutworm Moth (Euxoa scandens) - Detour Mine Road, Cochrane District

Sallow Argent (Argyresthia pygmaeella) - Detour Mine Road, Cochrane District

In Ontario, we have four species of ghost moths (Sthenopis sp.), and up to this point I had seen just one of those species. These moths are rather large and attractive and generally not very common, so they are highly sought after by moth-ers. I knew that the odds were good that I would add a new ghost moth to my life list as the Four-spotted Ghost Moth is commonly reported in the north. It was one of the first moths that I photographed this evening. Each of my two sheets hosted a single individual. These two had quite different patterns and colours, showcasing the variability of the species.

Four-spotted Ghost Moth (Sthenopis purpurascens) - Detour Mine Road, Cochrane District

The Williams' Tiger Moth was a species near the top of my target list. Ontario has 14 species of Apantesis tiger moths on its checklist of which I had seen half of. These are also highly sought-after as they are large and beautiful with strikingly colourful hindwings. Early on, a worn Williams' Tiger Moth appeared at the sheet. I did not know this at the time, but this would be the only one I would see for the duration of my northern trip.

Williams' Tiger Moth (Apantesis williamsii) - Detour Mine Road, Cochrane District

This species of Virbia is currently un-named, but it is in the process of getting described as a new species.

Virbia sp. - Detour Mine Road, Cochrane District

Some of the moths I was most looking forward to on this trip were some of the northern loopers in the family Noctuidae. A nice variety of them appeared over the course of the evening; they were all new to me!

Syngrapha epigaea - Detour Mine Road, Cochrane District

Syngrapha octoscripta - Detour Mine Road, Cochrane District

This is either Syngrapha viridisigma or S. selecta, two species that probably can't be told apart by their wing patterns.

Syngrapha viridisigma complex - Detour Mine Road, Cochrane District

Unfortunately, this Putnam's Looper vanished after I managed this one poor photo. It is still the only individual that I have seen.

Putnam's Looper (Plusia putnami) - Detour Miner Road, Cochrane District

This is another somewhat rare noctuid moth called Euxoa quebecensis. There are only a couple of previous Ontario records on iNaturalist so I was pleased with this one.

Euxoa quebecensis - Detour Mine Road, Cochrane District

As is usually the case, some of the rarest moths were on the smaller side. This next one, the Sandhill Knot-horn, is a type of pyralid moth that is widespread but quite rare.

Sandhill Knot-horn (Anerastia lotella) - Detour Mine Road, Cochrane District

Another scarce northern species was this one, Lozotaenia costinotana with just a couple of known records from the province. I found this species on two different occasions during my trip. Often, these species may be perceived as rare simply because there is no one looking for them when they are likely widespread species in the north.

Lozotaenia costinotana - Detour Mine Road, Cochrane District

The next two species were probably the rarest to appear on the sheets. The first, a tortricid moth called Phtheochroa fulviplicana, has two iNaturalist records from Ontario while the second, a grass-veneer called Agriphila biarmicus, has just one previous record. Again, more extensive sampling in the far north would surely boost these numbers.

Phtheochroa fulviplicana - Detour Mine Road, Cochrane District

Agriphila biarmicus - Detour Mine Road, Cochrane District

And here are some photos of some other odds and ends from the evening. When it was all said and done I photographed around 86 different species of moth, of which 23 were completely new for me. What a night! I begrudgingly took the sheets down at 1:30 AM even though new moths were still arriving by the minute. It was already shaping up to be a late start to the next day, and I had plans on doing some extensive bog-slogging in search of dragonflies. Before heading to bed that night, I killed about 20 mosquitoes that were buzzing around the interior of my car. Such is life in the north.