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/
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