This year everyone has been asked to “stay close to home and stay far apart.” Consequently, I haven’t been going to most of my usual parks and haunts. When I can find the time, though, I still try to get in some walks in the “wilds” of Mississauga nearby. Although it has been an exceptionally hot, and fairly dry, summer, there have been some nice butterflies sharing the path for my strolls. Here are some butterflies I found nearby this past week.
Eastern-tailed Blue
An Unexpected Visit from a Butterfly That Is Usually Uncommon Here
My best encounter of the week (so far!) has been with a Compton’s Tortoiseshell. I think of these as “spring” butterflies becase I usually see them when the Mourning Cloaks and Eastern Commas emerge in early spring. I never see them frequently, though.
This year, reports have flooded in from around Ontario of Compton’s being seen often and sometimes even in large (for them) numbers. Something about 2020 must appeal to them: whether it was the cool long spring or the excessively hot summer.
Compton’s Tortoiseshells, like Mourning Cloaks and Eastern Commas, often perch on the ground, on logs or on tree trunks.
This one appeared at the edge of a meadow and wood lot. I looked up what the caterpillars prefer to see if it had flown in from far away. According to the ROM Guide to Ontario Butterflies, the caterpillars eat willow, birch and trembling aspen. So it could find host plants easily nearby.
The Usual Suspects of Summer
Eastern-tailed Blues are the size of my thumbnail. The shimmer of blue when the sun hits their wings at the right angle is perfect. They are “assertive” little scamps and chase each other around the vetches and clovers and patrol busily a few inches above the vegetation looking for a fight or a love.
The plain dark Wild Indigo Duskywings are larger but also patrol the legumes patch. They deserve a new common name of Crown Vetch Duskywing as that is what they eat in most of Ontario. As you can see, some of them are getting pretty worn–but they are still feisty!
Some Crescents mostly would pop into view and then disappear again in the tall dry grasses beside the trail. There are two types of Crescents common in this field: Pearl and Northern. The one above briefly, and kindly, posed. Possibly it’s a Pearl. Or not!
Cabbage Whites may strike terror, or annoyance, in the hearts of backyard gardeners, but they do look nice dancing over a meadow of purple loosestrife: though neither one is native to Canada.I’ve been seeing 25-35 of these butterflies, in a variety of sizes, each walk. I check each one I can, hoping to find a Mustard White or a white-form of a Sulphur, but so far no luck.
This shot is fuzzy because I didn’t set my camera fast enough to compensate for the flapping of the wings–but it does show “no orange” to help id this as a Clouded, not Orange, Sulphur.
Clouded Sulphurs have been pretty common. I haven’t seen as many Orange Sulphurs yet. The Orange Sulphurs have a noticeable orange splash on the top side of the upper wings. (Quel surpris!) Clouded Sulphurs are a paler yellow on both sides of their wings.
Peck’s Skippers like my back yard. I have two “flights” a summer at home. The second flight is when the caterpillars that munched their way through my untreated lawn hatch out in mid-August. There are lots of Peck’s along the trail near me, too. This is one of the few times I have seen a butterfly taking nectar from Chicory: It doesn’t seem to be a popular flower.
Less common are the Tawny-edged Skippers. These are a second “flight” too. I don’t get Tawny’s in my yard regularly.
Showy big Monarchs have been floating around as they work their way south slowly around past Hamilton.
Black Swallowtails, though, will wait out winter right here in the meadow beside my trail, ready to re-appear in the spring. They have had a bumper year with dozens being seen in the spring. This summer, I enjoyed daily back yard visits of a Black Swallowtail inspecting my parsley and carrot patch as it dotted eggs around the neighbourhood.
An Uncommon Butterfly for This Year that Can Be Super Common Other Years
A few years back, every where we went, we met Lady butterflies. This year, I’ve only seen a couple.
This Painted Lady was frantically nectaring on the Purple Loosestrife.
So this was a year where the uncommon Compton’s Tortoiseshell’s became commonplace and the common Painted and American Lady’s became noteworthy. 2020 has been a mixed up year in more ways than one.
No matter if they are as common as a Cabbage White or as unusual as a Pipevine Swallowtail, though, I like to see any of these colourful butterflies of summer. I hope to see some more later this week!
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Have you been trying to stay close to home this year? Have you found any interesting nature spots nearby? Please share your experience with a comment.