Diario del proyecto CVC Butterfly Blitz 2022

29 de septiembre de 2022

Observation of the Week September 11th to 17th, 2022

Welcome to the 18th and last Observation of the Week (OOTW) for the 2022 Butterfly Blitz. This week, we’ve chosen a crescent as our OOTW, observed by Madison (@mgard1).

Crescents are difficult to tell apart, so we’re unsure if this crescent is a pearl or a northern crescent by this photo alone. While many butterflies are similar in colour and pattern, the northern and pearl crescent can sometimes be identical, especially so late in the season. So identical in fact, that these species were only recently declared separate species. Read more on these species in a 2021 OOTW journal post.

Our observer, Madison, is new to the butterfly blitz this year and was eager to meet likeminded people through our in-person wrap-up event. Our wrap-up event was held at Terra Cotta Conservation Area on the final day of the blitz (Saturday, September 17th).

Madison says: “… this was my first year participating in Butterfly Blitz and I got involved later in the season compared to some other participants but I love getting out into our local parks and outdoor spaces and figured this was a great opportunity to participate in citizen science, when I went out to the wrap up event I was unsure what to expect but it was great to meet some likeminded people that I only knew through iNaturalist prior to attending an in person event. Definitely looking forward to participating more actively next year.”

We are looking forward to seeing Madison out at our events and viewing more of her observations on iNaturalist next year. And of course, we also hope to see YOU out there too!

During the wrap-up event, we were also lucky to award some great prizes to our outstanding participants. These awards and award winners were:
Most species: Bev Lynn observed 45 species of butterfly
Most observations: Julie Power had over 230 observations from her wildflower garden
Rarest species: As observed by Don Scallen, there are only two previous records of the Dorcas Copper in the watershed, in 1998 and 2016
Lucky day: Kevin Kerr made 13 observations of 9 species on July 10th
Best photo: Christine Elliott captured a stellar photo of a Common Wood Nymph.

Each winner was awarded an Annual Conservation Park Membership for access to select CVC and TRCA Conservation Areas and a framed butterfly photo by Robert Noble.

If you missed the wrap-up event and would like to learn more about the 2022 Butterfly Blitz findings, be sure to watch the wrap-up presentation.

Until next year, thank you for your participation in this year’s project & happy hibernating!

Your Butterfly Blitz team,
Laura, Lindsey & Kristen

Publicado el septiembre 29, 2022 01:01 TARDE por kristenvalencia kristenvalencia | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

14 de septiembre de 2022

Observation of the week – September 4-10, 2022

The 2022 Butterfly Blitz may be almost over, but we are still seeing many wonderful observations come in. This includes our 17th Observation of the Week— this Common Buckeye seen by Nick (@nickuzhov).

Common Buckeye is one of the handful of breeding migrant species found in our area. These species can’t survive the winter here; some adults move north each summer from their permanent southern range. However, there is no guarantee that you will Common Buckeyes every year in the Credit River Watershed. They were last seen in the 2020 Butterfly Blitz and are generally observed in the area one out of every two to three years.

You might wonder why a species that is not commonly found is called the Common Buckeye. There are several other Buckeye species in North America, but you’d have to travel south and/or west to see them. Of these species, Common Buckeye is the most widespread—leading to its name. The next most abundant is the Gray Buckeye, which looks very similar to the Common Buckeye but is found in western North America.

When you do see a Common Buckeye, the distinctive colouration and giant eyespots make it hard to mistake it for anything else! Nick explains how he found this particular butterfly:

There is a small wooded park close to my home, I can say almost downtown Mississauga, next to the Cooksville creek.

Even though I know it quite well and for years, it doesn't stop surprising me with new species of birds, butterflies and other animals.

Just this summer, I saw my first European common blue and the buckeye there.

I have been mostly working from home for the last 2.5 years. It was a quiet and sunny Friday, so I spent my lunch hour going for a walk in that park.

There is a wide rectangular clearing, and there I saw a butterfly. I realized it was something unusual, unknown to me. I was lucky as it didn't shy away very much and after I took a picture of it with wings folded, in maybe 2 min I took one more with the wings wide open.

Some describe Common Buckeye as an easily approachable species that is less inclined to fly away quickly than other butterflies. This matches Nick’s experience, and might explain all the beautiful iNaturalist photos of this species where they are posing nicely for the camera!

Which butterflies do you think are the best subjects for photos? Let us know in the comments.

Publicado el septiembre 14, 2022 07:07 TARDE por lltimms lltimms | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

08 de septiembre de 2022

Observation of the week – August 28 to September 3, 2022

Hello Butterfly Blitz enthusiasts! It’s hard to believe it, but there are only two weeks to go in the 2022 Butterfly Blitz. Even though the summer is coming to an end, we’re still enjoying seeing all your beautiful butterfly observations—keep them coming!

Our 16th OOTW is this Black Swallowtail seen by Terence (@tezster). Terence spotted this butterfly at the MacEwan terrace gardens at Riverwood , where he takes many lovely photos. About his picture-taking, Terence says: “Photography has always been a hobby of mine, but I only started dabbling in wildlife photography during the pandemic, as a way to get myself to spend more time outdoors, and learn more about the natural world”.

We’ve heard from several of you that the pandemic encouraged you to get outside and connect with nature. We also saw a jump in Butterfly Blitz observations in the past two years. It’s wonderful to see people appreciating the natural world around them, including small wildlife like butterflies and other insects.

The Black Swallowtail is part of a group of species that all look very similar, known as the Pipevine Swallowtail mimicry complex. Pipevine Swallowtail caterpillars eat plants with toxic chemicals, and by retaining those chemicals in their bodies, they make themselves unappealing to predators. This might sound familiar as its also what happens with Monarchs and Viceroys – Monarchs get chemicals from milkweed and Viceroys mimic Monarchs.

In addition to Black Swallowtails, the species that look very similar to Pipevine Swallowtail include Red-spotted Purple, the black form of Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, and Spicebush Swallowtail. Those species are seen above in that order, with photos by @tezster, @bevlynn99, @brendavr, and @samos16.

Spicebush Swallowtail used to be a species that was rarely seen in our area, but they are becoming more common as their range expands northward. They even seem to be breeding here – as shown by this caterpillar seen recently in Mississauga. Isn’t it beautiful?!

Don’t’ forget to register for the wrap up event if you’d like to hear more interesting facts about butterflies as well as summaries of what we’ve found throughout all four years of the Butterfly Blitz. We’ll be getting together at Terra Cotta CA on September 17th, and we’d love to see you there.

Publicado el septiembre 8, 2022 04:12 TARDE por lltimms lltimms | 7 comentarios | Deja un comentario

01 de septiembre de 2022

Observation of the week – August 21 to 27, 2022

Our 15th OOTW is this European Common Blue, seen by Fozia (@fozia).

There are a lot of interesting things about this newly introduced species, some of which we discussed in our post earlier this year. It has turned up at a few more locations in the watershed this summer, making me wonder if its range in Mississauga is expanding or if more people noticing it. What do you think?

Besides adding a new location for this species, the main reason I wanted to highlight this observation was to give me a chance to talk about blurry photos.

Fozia’s photo of this Common Blue is definitely fuzzy. No judgement here—I’ve taken many photos like this. Sometimes butterflies just don’t cooperate and sit still! If you’ve been to an in-person butterfly event with me, you’ve probably heard me say that photos don’t need to be perfect to identify a butterfly. For some species, even a blurry photo will do if the distinguishing features are visible.

Most blurry photos with good IDs that I see are Monarchs. But this European Common Blue observation is another great example. As noted in the comments on the observation from a helpful iNaturalist user, you can see the row of orange dots along the edge of wing as well as a middle white patch just inside those dots. There are no other butterflies in our area that look like this, so we can say that it is the European Common Blue.


Three blurry butterfly photos from our project. Can you identify the species?

Don’t get me wrong – I’m not recommending that you don’t try to get good photos when observing butterflies. It is always easier to identify a species from photos that are in focus and show all the relevant features. But if it comes down to a choice of letting your subject get away or snapping a less than perfect photo, I’d always recommend going for the less than perfect photo.

You may not need a wonderful photo to ID some butterfly species, but you’ve got to get an excellent shot if you want to win the best photo prize in the 2022 Butterfly Blitz! Don’t forget to register to join us at Terra Cotta CA on September 17th to find out who wins each of this year’s six prizes. See here for more details: https://cvc.ca/event/butterfly-blitz-wrap-up-event/

And if you’re the kind of person whose photos always turn out great, enter our photo contest—running until September 8th. Find out all the details here: https://cvc.ca/contest-rules/

Publicado el septiembre 1, 2022 01:12 TARDE por lltimms lltimms | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

25 de agosto de 2022

Observation of the week: August 7-13, 2022

This week we are featuring an observation made by Patrick (@patrick2008), who has been a participant of the Butterfly Blitz since our very first year. Patrick recently spotted this Peck’s Skipper in Mississauga.

Peck’s Skippers are very common at this time of year, and they are also our most common native skipper butterfly. This is likely why they are currently the 7th most observed species in this year’s Butterfly Blitz. It seems like every other observation in the Butterfly Blitz these days is a Peck’s Skipper, so they may move up that list soon.

You can find this species in every province in Canada. The caterpillars eat several grass species, and Peck’s Skippers can be found in many habitats—even poolside, like this observation.

So, why is it called “Peck’s” Skipper? It was named by William Kirby, a well-known British entomologist. Kirby named it after William Dandridge Peck, who was the first professor of natural history at Harvard University, and an entomologist who described many insect species.

Some people also call it the yellow patch skipper, because of the big yellow patch on the underside of the hind wing. It is easy to confuse Peck’s with the Hobomok Skipper—one key difference is that the yellow patch on Peck’s extends further towards the body of the butterfly than on Hobomoks. Peck’s Skippers also have two generations per year, so any skippers that look like this that you see in late July or August are almost certainly Peck’s.

Often species descriptions in field guides will talk about the stigma on the wings of male butterflies – especially in skippers, but do you know what a stigma is? A stigma is a section of scent scales on the forewing that produces pheromones, which helps the males to attract female butterflies. Next time you see a Peck’s Skipper, look for the prominent dark line on the upper side of the forewing – that’s a stigma, full of pheromones!

We are getting close to the end of this year’s Butterfly Blitz and are planning our wrap-up event, taking place on September 17th at Terra Cotta Conservation Area. The event will include a guided hike through the conservation area, with one last chance to find and submit butterfly observations for this year’s project. We will also hand out prizes for the winners of six different categories, including rarest find, most species, and the best photo.

Do you think you have what it takes to be one of our winners? Patrick will be hard to beat for the most participation prize, as he and his family have been coming out to all our events this year. They even went out on their own when we had to cancel our July event. We love to see the butterfly enthusiasm!

Make sure to register for the event by September 13th and keep submitting your photos in the meantime. We hope to see you there!

Post written by Stephanie Donison (@stephd), Assistant, Natural Heritage Management

Publicado el agosto 25, 2022 02:48 TARDE por lltimms lltimms | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

23 de agosto de 2022

Photo contest!

Did you know that we're running a photo contest?

Between now and September 8, 2022, you can enter for a chance to win the Butterfly Blitz Photo Contest by submitting a photo that includes at least one of the following criteria:

A photo of a butterfly that includes a human element (e.g. butterfly landing on your hand or arm)
A photo of a butterfly in flight
A photo of a butterfly duo (capturing two butterflies together)
A photo of a butterfly with a flowering plant

Since you've all been taking such wonderful photos, consider entering some into our contest!

The contest is open to legal residents of Ontario and to all ages. Photo submissions must be taken from within the Credit River Watershed.

Send your submissions to Lindsey.Jennings@cvc.ca. Please include Butterfly Blitz Photo Contest in the subject line of your email.

See here for more info:
https://cvc.ca/contest-rules/

Publicado el agosto 23, 2022 12:18 TARDE por lltimms lltimms | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

18 de agosto de 2022

Observation of the week – August 7-13, 2022

Our 13th OOTW is this Orange Sulphur, observed by new Butterfly Blitz participant Jonathan (@jcbteach). Jonathan took this beautiful picture in southern Mississauga, near Rattray Marsh.

This is the first time that we have written about the Orange Sulphur in an OOTW – although the closely related Clouded Sulphur has been featured a few times ( here, here, and here,). Both species are common and widespread in southern Ontario, and you can find both in open fields, woodland clearings, roadsides, agricultural areas, and gardens.

If you see a yellow butterfly in our area, it’s almost certainly an Orange or Clouded Sulphur. But how do you tell them apart? Orange Sulphurs can be highly variable, and it can also be difficult to differentiate between the two species without a close inspection.

Orange Sulphurs gets their common name from the patches of orange on the upper side of their wings. These patches are also a great way to tell it apart from the Clouded Sulphur. The orange flashes are easy to see while the butterfly is flying, but not when they stop to rest. This is because Orange Sulphurs normally rest with their wings closed, like most other members of their subfamily. If you can get a photo – even a blurry one – of the butterfly in flight, you can usually see the orange well enough for an identification.


Left: A blurry photo of the upper side of an Orange Sulphur’s wings, by @lltimms
Right: An Orange Sulphur resting in the usual closed wing position, note the thick black border, by @bevlynn99

Some say that the easiest way to recognize Orange Sulphurs is by their flight pattern. Orange Sulphurs have an erratic, jerky flying style and usually stay low to the ground, whereas Clouded Sulphurs have more of a “wobbly” flying style. Be warned that both species can be very strong fliers and hard to catch up to!

One last clue is the thickness of the black border seen on the upper side of the wings. This border is thicker on Orange Sulphurs than Cloudeds.

Orange Sulphurs are also known as alfalfa butterflies, or alfalfa caterpillars in their larval stage. This is because one of its major food sources is alfalfa. Orange Sulphurs are commonly found near alfalfa fields in Ontario, but rarely cause significant damage here. However, in more southern parts of their range they can be a serious pest.

Interestingly, no one is sure whether Orange Sulphurs can survive the winter in Ontario. They are usually identified as one of our breeding migrant species - those are species that move back up north each spring after dying off in the fall.

Do you want to see this gorgeous butterfly on your property? Plant native pollinator-friendly plant species such as Black-Eyed Susan, Butterfly Milkweed, Asters, Goldenrod, and Purple Coneflower. These plants will provide nectar for sulphurs and other butterfly species throughout the growing season. And then don’t forget to submit all the beautiful observations of butterflies in your yard!

Post written by Stephanie Donison, Assistant, Natural Heritage Management and Laura Timms, Senior Specialist, Natural Heritage Management

Publicado el agosto 18, 2022 07:28 TARDE por lltimms lltimms | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

11 de agosto de 2022

Observation of the week: July 31 to August 6, 2022

Hello Butterfly Blitz enthusiasts! Have you completed our survey about the wrap-up event on September 17th? We’re excited about planning this event and need your input about how it should be held. If you’re not on our email list and want to be, please let us know. Comment below and we'll get in touch.

This week’s OOTW is a Fiery Skipper, observed at the Riverwood Conservancy in Mississauga by Steph (@stephkeeler).

Fiery Skippers are not a common species in our area. The last time one was spotted in the Credit River Watershed was 2020. Side note – that observation won the best photo award for the 2020 Butterfly Blitz!

Their rarity is because the Fiery Skipper is one of our occasional breeding migrant species. The bulk of its populations occur further south in the US, but sometimes those populations expand and move north into Ontario. These incursions are more common in southwestern Ontario than in the Greater Toronto Area.

Although they reproduce here, Fiery Skippers never establish a permanent population in Ontario because they can’t survive the winter. The descendants of those individuals that move north die off and don’t migrate back south.

While it might be a welcome rarity here, in more southern parts of their range, Fiery Skippers can pests. This is because Fiery Skipper caterpillars feed on grass, which can cause dead, brown patches. The caterpillars also live on grass blades that they roll lengthwise and web into a shelter.

Fiery Skippers are generally found in open areas, such as grassy fields, lawns, roadsides, and meadows. In Ontario, they are often seen in ornamental gardens – especially near the lakeshore.

Like many skippers, the Fiery Skipper can be mistaken for a moth because of its brownish colouring, large eyes, short and knobby antennae, hairy and chunky body, and the positioning of its wings when resting. Their wings fold into a triangle shape while sitting, which is unique to skippers among the butterflies and more characteristic of moths.


Left: male Fiery Skipper, by @betcrooks Right: female Fiery Skipper, by @jemredwood

The Fiery Skipper received its common name from the orange and brown patterning on their wings, which resemble flames. But they are a sexually dimorphic species, which means that the males look different than the females – as shown above. The males are light orange on the underside of their wings with dark brown spots. The females are larger than the males, and they are grey-brown with orange and brown spots. Which one do you think looks more fiery? Let us know!

Post written by Stephanie Donison, Assistant, Natural Heritage Management and Laura Timms, Senior Specialist, Natural Heritage Management

Publicado el agosto 11, 2022 07:36 TARDE por lltimms lltimms | 4 comentarios | Deja un comentario

05 de agosto de 2022

Observation(s) of the Week: July 24th - 30th, 2022

A few updates before we get into our 11th OOTW:

  1. We’re having a Butterfly Blitz Photo Contest (all ages): Contest runs August 8th to September 8th, 2022. See details here.
  2. Don’t forget to register for the Butterfly Blitz hike at Rattray Marsh.
  3. Our project is up to 63 species and 1,100+ observations . Thank you for the time and effort you’ve put towards observing butterflies in the watershed!

A butterfly species has officially overtaken the Cabbage White as the most observed species in the Butterfly Blitz project. So, we thought it was time to feature one of the most recognizable species in Canada., the Monarch!

For this week’s OOTW, we have chosen two of Peeter’s (@peeterinclarkson) observations as we couldn’t decide on just one.
Monarch butterfly in mid-flight and Monarch and bumblebee species facing off on purple coneflower.

When asked about his beautiful butterfly photography, Peeter commented, “Last year, thanks to the Butterfly Blitz, I began my effort to recognize and photograph more butterfly species. I use a telephoto lens to optimize my chances of capturing an image without disturbing the butterfly. These two images were taken at Jack Darling Park which has a wonderful selection of native plants.”

We’re seeing so many Monarchs this time of year because they’re preparing to make their migration south. The Monarch migration is fascinating, and we’ve only touched on this journey in earlier OOTW journals from 2019, 2020, and 2021. One aspect of this journey that has always turned my curiosity, is how they find their way. Experts believe that monarchs likely use a variety of environmental queues to find their way. They rely on the sun's positioning and the earth's magnetic pull to find their overwintering location. With the help of air currents and thermals, they can fly as far as 3,000 miles to reach their destination! Read more here and here .

Next time you see a Monarch in late summer, be sure to wish them well on their journey south.
Thanks for reading and happy butterflying!

Written by @kristenvalencia, Program Assistant in Community Outreach, CVC.

Publicado el agosto 5, 2022 03:45 TARDE por kristenvalencia kristenvalencia | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

28 de julio de 2022

Observation of the week – July 17-23, 2022

It’s time to highlight one of my favourite groups of butterflies – the hairstreaks. Last week in the Butterfly Blitz we saw two observations of Striped Hairstreaks, by Lorysa (@lorysa) and Kevin (@kkerr). We couldn’t choose just one, so we featured both: here and here.

At first glance, it may seem difficult to tell the Striped Hairstreak apart from similar species like the Banded and Hickory Hairstreaks. When you look closer, there are key differences in wing patterns – including the width of their bands and the size and arrangement of the grey/blue and orange spots. Striped Hairstreak has very wide wing bands, and an orange ‘cap’ on the blue/grey spot in the far corner of the hind wing.

Both Lorysa and Kevin found the input of others on iNaturalist to be helpful in their hairstreak identification. Lorysa says: “I don't know enough to narrow down to specific Hairstreak it was, but comments from other members of the iNaturalist society helped me learn how to tell this was a Striped Hairstreak.” And Kevin agrees: “I'm still relatively new to butterflies but I remembered reading your comments on how to distinguish species of hairstreaks from someone else's earlier submission, so the blitz has definitely helped advance my ID skills.

Hairstreaks in Ontario all have a little tail sticking out of the end of their hind wings. The combination of these tails, their hindwing spot patterns, and the way the butterflies rub them together, are used to fool predators into thinking there is a head on the butterfly’s wings. This trick seems to work, as it is common to see hairstreaks with a bit of their hind wing missing where a bird has taken a bite!

Striped Hairstreaks are usually seen in woodland openings and on forest edges. Like all hairstreaks, they spend a lot of time in the trees and shrubs where their caterpillars eat and only come out to nectar on favourite plants like milkweed and dogbane. Once they’ve landed to feed, it’s easy to get photos of them as they are not as skittish as other butterflies.

Both of these hairstreaks were observed while our Butterfly Blitz participants were out doing something else: Lorysa was doing a favour for a neighbour and Kevin was out for a walk with his kid. I love this kind of observation, as I’m also likely to notice butterflies at any time – my family knows that I’ve seen a butterfly if I randomly run away with my phone out. Once you start butterflying, it’s hard to stop. As Lorysa says: “Now I carry my phone at all times because you just never know when you'll see something.

Publicado el julio 28, 2022 06:56 TARDE por lltimms lltimms | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

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