Bugging Out In Northern Ontario, Part 6: One Final Run Up To Detour

I drove south towards Smooth Rock Falls and then east to Cochrane after a fantastic day of naturalizing in Fraserdale, the subject of the previous blog post. Originally, my plan had been as follows. 1: Drive part of the way back home in the evening, maybe reaching the New Liskeard area. 2: Find a good spot to set up the moth sheets. 3: Complete the drive home the next day with some birding and dragonflying stops along the way. But after missing out on my main dragonfly targets earlier in the trip along the Detour Mine Road, I wanted a chance at redemption. 

When I reached Cochrane, instead of turning right and following Highway 11 to the south, I instead meandered through Cochrane headed for the Detour Mine Road. My new plan was to drive most of the Detour Mine Road this evening, sleep in my car, have an earlier start and hike into the fen in the morning (targeting Quebec Emerald, Whitehouse's Emerald and Canada Whiteface), and complete the long 11 hour drive home afterwards. 

It is best to be vigilant when driving along the Detour Mine Road, especially at dawn or dusk. This is not necessarily because of other traffic (there is almost none) or difficult road conditions. But rather, it is because there is always the possibility of discovering mammals like Gray Wolf, Black Bear, Moose, or even Canada Lynx; species that seem to come out of the woodwork when light levels are dim, as day turns to night or vise versa. 

And this drive was a good one. Just before dusk a gangly teenager Black Bear loped across the road, my first one of the trip. And just a few minutes later, I noticed a smaller mammalian shape crouched on the shoulder. It was a Canada Lynx. I pulled the car to a stop just a few dozen meters from the cat. It stared at me, then returned its focus to something unseen in the ditch. Then, just like that, it exploded forward with front paws extended and disappeared into the vegetation. I exited the car and heard some rustling, but I never saw the lynx or its prey again. Hopefully, it had a successful hunt. To give you an idea, here is a photo of a Canada Lynx in a similar situation that I photographed in Thunder Bay District many years ago. That one cooperated for a memorable photoshoot. ​

Canada Lynx (Lynx canadensis) - White River area, Algoma District (October 2015)

For the first time all trip I refrained from setting up the moth sheets even though the conditions were decent. Six nights of mothing had tired me out and I wasn't exactly enthused to deal with the hundreds of mosquitoes once more. Also, I wanted a reasonable bedtime to facilitate an earlier start in the fen the next morning. I fell asleep as aurora borealis flickered with greens and whites to the north. Not a bad way to drift off to sleep. 

I awoke to a clear, cool and sunny morning. Arriving at the fen, the first dragonfly of the day was an emerald cruising around which I managed to net. Another Lake Emerald. 

Lake Emerald (Somatochlora cingulata) - Detour Lake peatlands, Cochrane District

Lake Emerald (Somatochlora cingulata) - Detour Lake peatlands, Cochrane District

I made my way down the overgrown track, through the Black Spruce forest, and into the open peatlands in record time. I did not stop for any of the Arctic Fritillaries, nor did I photograph any plants. I wanted to maximize the hours spent in the patterned fen. The day was warming quickly and a few darners and emeralds were cruising around. It was a nice change from the breezy and hazy conditions from a few days earlier. 

Bogbean-lined creek - Detour Lake peatlands, Cochrane District

I focused on the smaller bogbean-choked pools away from the main channel as these are apparently the preferred microhabitats for Quebec and Whitehouse's Emeralds. I noted a couple of different emeralds patrolling these pools and positioned myself along the route of one. Perhaps it was nerves or excitement but I missed with my first few swings. It disappeared, and I moved on. 

Eventually, I managed to take a few distant record photos of one of the cruising emeralds. The set of photos seemed to point to this being a Quebec Emerald. But I wanted a much better look, of course!

Quebec Emerald (Somatochlora brevicincta) - Detour Lake peatlands, Cochrane District

After a few more misses, I finally connected with one of my swings and I had an emerald in the hand. Upon close inspection it appeared to a male Quebec Emerald!

Quebec Emerald (Somatochlora brevicincta) - Detour Lake peatlands, Cochrane District

Emerald identification is challenging, but some of the field marks that point to this being a Quebec Emerald include: "pincer" type male appendage (not really visible in this photo), the shape of the single anterior thoracic spot, faint whitish marks along the edge of each abdominal segment (but not usually complete whitish rings), and the details of the coloration at the base of the wings. All very subtle stuff that is best appreciated when the dragon is in hand. Habitat and behaviour is a big clue as well. Quebec Emeralds patrol these very specific bogbean pools (flarks) located within patterned fens, though several other emerald species also use these habitats. 

Quebec Emerald (Somatochlora brevicincta) - Detour Lake peatlands, Cochrane District

I spent another hour or so in this area and was unable to catch any other emeralds. At times they would disappear for 20 minutes or more so it was a game of patience. But it was a beautiful day and I savoured my time in the fen knowing that soon I would be traveling on a highway back to civilization and it may be another year until I can explore a similar remote wetland again. 

I slogged my way further north for a few hundred meters to an area I had never explored. I flushed a family of Sharp-tailed Grouse from a raised section within the fen and managed some nice recordings of them afterwards. Shortly after, a small whiteface caught my attention. I was on alert for whitefaces, since the localized Canada Whiteface has been recorded here in the past. However, I worried that I was a little late in the year for them. This is by far the rarest of our six species of whitefaces and the only one that I had never seen before. Unfortunately, it flew away before I could get a swing off or take an identifiable photo. But I soon found a second one. I made sure to photograph it extensively as I approached. 

Canada Whiteface (Leucorrhinia patricia) - Detour Lake peatlands, Cochrane District

It also flew before I could catch it. But the photos portray a female Canada Whiteface. This is another species that is best identified by the specific wing venation. The off-white, creamy face and small overall size are also good clues as to its identification. 

Canada Whiteface (Leucorrhinia patricia) - Detour Lake peatlands, Cochrane District

And with that, it was time to slog my way back out of the wetland and back to the car. I took my time on the walk, pausing a few times along the bogbean-lined creek in hopes for a last-minute Whitehouse's Emerald but it was not to be. The only other odonates I noted were several Canada Darners, a Zigzag Darner, a Brush-tipped Emerald, a Black Meadowhawk and some Sedge Sprites. 

Canada Darner (Aeshna canadensis) - Detour Lake peatlands, Cochrane District

I flushed several Eastern Gartersnakes on the walk along the track back to where I had parked, the first (and only) snakes of the trip. And a few minutes later I was back in my car, motoring south to civilization. Other than a couple of gas and food stops I drove straight home, arriving through the door just before 1 AM. It had been a very long day but I was satisfied with my decision to have one final run up the Detour Mine Road. 

Eastern Gartersnake (Thamnophis sirtalis) - Detour Lake peatlands, Cochrane District

Here are a few numbers about the trip, for those of you interested in these things.
​ 
- 53 species of Odonata (48 photographed) of which 17 were new for me
- 31 species of butterflies (29 photographed) of which 2 were new for me
-811 total species photographed, including 272 plants, 468 total insects, 239 moths, 31 vertebrates, and 29 fungi

Everything I documented on the trip can be found in this iNaturalist project: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/josh-vandermeulen-northern-trip-2025?tab=species