CVC Butterfly Blitz 2023's Journal

For the final OOTW of the CVC Butterfly Blitz, how could we choose anything other than a photo of the most observed species made by the person with the most observations over time? You guessed it – we’ve got a Monarch seen by Julie (@sunrisegardener).

Julie has been a participant in the Butterfly Blitz since our first year in 2019, and over the five years of the project has made more than 1350 observations. Even more amazing than the sheer number of butterflies that she has observed – Julie has seen all these butterflies in her own yard.

Julie shares: “People are amazed at our numbers, with all our observations limited to our suburban property. 99% of our observations likely in the 50x50 foot front yard, with only a few in the back. Additionally impressed when we have come in first place ahead of people traveling all over the watershed. It causes people to realize that they can make a huge difference at home.”

In addition to being passionate about the difference she can make with native plants in her own yard, Julie has generously given away many plants to others who wish to add to their garden. She estimates that she has given away over 4,000 pollinator plants this year alone!

Efforts like this are truly valuable for helping support Monarchs and other native insects. Monarch butterflies are species at risk in Canada, largely because of threats to their overwintering habitat in Mexico but also because of pesticide and herbicide use.

Julie says: “Do you know, in 2019, we counted 610 Monarchs that visited our garden. Of course, during the summer, there were repeat visitors but, during migration, there were often about 30 going through a day. That was a banner year! Every year since has been hundreds less. The numbers we see give me an idea of what the numbers in Mexico will be like. I suspect, sadly, the numbers will be quite low this year.”

If you want to make a difference and support Monarchs in your area, consider following Julie’s lead and adding some native plants to your yard. Check out our website for options that may work for you: https://cvc.ca/ways-to-green-your-property/

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Images: Monarchs observed by Julie in 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022

Monarchs are the species that Julie has observed most frequently throughout the five years of Butterfly Blitz. Julie’s not alone – over 1720 Monarchs have been observed since 2019, almost 1000 more than the next most commonly seen species.

It’s hard not to love Monarchs, with their striking colours and graceful flight. Those who joined us at the wrap up event at Terra Cotta on Saturday enjoyed watching Flight of the Butterflies (link), a movie documenting Fred Urquhart’s search to find where the Monarchs fly to each winter. A great time was had by all at the event, where we had a beautiful Monarch cake, people showing off their Monarch fashion, and even a giant stuffed Monarch caterpillar!

Images: Our beautiful celebration cake, and me with the stuffed caterpillar

Our hearts are still full after the celebration on Saturday, even though we’re all feeling a bit sad the Butterfly Blitz has come to an end. We agree with Julie, who says: “I am really sad this is the final year, I wish it continued for years and years! One of my favourite parts of summer.”

Although the official five-year Butterfly Blitz is now done, we will still have some butterfly focused community science events next year – stay tuned!

Until then, happy butterflying,
Laura and the Butterfly Blitz team

The eighteenth OOTW is this Clouded Sulphur as observed by @christawise.

I chose the Clouded Sulphur as the OOTW as I have been seeing them everywhere when in the field and have been admiring their twirling and fluttering around me.

The Clouded Sulphur is found in open fields, woodland clearings, roadsides and gardens, which is likely why I have seen so many of them – they’re location generalists! You can spot them in these areas from mid-spring to the fall, so it’s not surprising that these butterflies are in our top 10 most observed in the watershed.

The butterfly species most similar in appearance to the Clouded Sulphur is the Orange Sulphur. Specifically, the females of these species are the trickiest to tell apart. The females of either species have more of a whiteish hue, while the males display bright lemon-yellow and orange-yellow colours, which are easier to distinguish, but still tricky if you ask me.

While we’ve seen butterfly populations of certain species fluctuate over the last 5 years of the Butterfly Blitz (e.g. the Red Admiral), the Clouded Sulphur populations stay at a general state. So, you can always count on finding these brightly coloured beauties!

Happy butterflying,
Kristen and the Butterfly Blitz team

Our seventeenth OOTW for 2023 is this Black Swallowtail as observed by Grace (@merganser5). Grace gave us some insight to her observation; here’s what she had to comment:

“The image was taken in my back yard, a Mississauga suburban yard 40' wide. I describe my garden as being on the wild side as my aim is to provide habitat for butterflies, pollinators and such. The garden (front and back) boasts butterfly bushes (with the big Buzz Magenta pictured being a favourite of butterflies year after year), Joe Pyeweed, regular and swamp milkweed, bee balm, rudbeckia, coneflowers, catmint, lavender, Rose of Sharon shrubs, sedums, hyssop, yarrow, wild asters, goldenrod and other insect friendly plants.
Like many other nature lovers, I am an ardent nature photographer both at home and in parks and conservation areas nearby. I have been a member of iNaturalist for a couple years, participating in the Blitzes when I can. For me, getting out in nature restores my soul.
Sometimes capturing a butterfly or other insect is just luck. A few are regular visitors and others are here for a moment and gone. I have seen a Swallowtail only a few times this summer.”

Keep a look out for these beautiful butterflies as they’re often found in meadows, gardens and alongside roads and open areas from the late spring through early fall.

You’ll notice differences between the male and female of the species as they display sexual dimorphism. The females are typically larger than the males and the males display larger and brighter yellow spots on their upper wings. The females generally also have an iridescent blue band, whereas the males’ band is more pale in colour.

All of the species in the Swallowtail family of butterflies have similarities, but the Spicebush Swallowtail is the most common that is misidentified with the Black Swallowtail. See this observation of a Black Swallowtail that was at first identified as a Spicebush Swallowtail. When comparing the species, the males are most similar in appearance when looking from above as they both have similar blue bands and yellow spots on their hind wings. The Black Swallowtail, however, displays more vibrant colours and a larger orange spot just under their abdomen.

Join us at the Butterfly Blitz Wrap-up and Celebration event!
Join Credit Valley Conservation’s Butterfly Blitz team to celebrate the end of the fifth and final year of the Butterfly Blitz! The evening will include an overview of all five years of the project, prizes, and a film screening of Flight of the Butterflies. Learn more and register to attend.

Contest Alert!
Don’t forget to submit your Butterfly Blitz Bingo Challenge entry!
If you’ve ever played Bingo, you already know what to do. Use your iNaturalist observations to complete one of the rows on the Bingo card below. You may already have all the observations you need for a row, or maybe you just need one more … check it out! This Peck’s Skipper observation would go well on squares B1 or N4 of the August BINGO sheet, what do you think?
The challenge will run from July 1 to September 13! Here is how to participate:

1. Enroll in the 2023 Butterfly Blitz.
2. Join the 2023 Butterfly Blitz project on iNaturalist.
3. Complete a Butterfly Blitz Bingo row, column, or diagonal line and fill out this form (https://www.cvc.ca/ButterflyBingoForm) to be entered into a draw to win an Individual Credit Valley Annual Parks Pass. Complete Contest Rules.

Our 16th OOTW comes from Dave (@dmreid) with this observation of a Red-spotted Purple! This particular specimen was found during our Butterfly ID walk at Riverwood on August 19. After admiring and photographing its beautiful orange and blue patterns, the butterfly was quickly released.

Often found in woodland areas, particularly near waterways, the Red-spotted Purple was initially thought to be its own species entirely. However, it has since been recognized as a more southern subspecies of the White Admiral butterfly.

This is an incredible example of butterfly evolution, as these subspecies look quite different. The White admiral has prominent white bands along its wings, and the Red-spotted Purple lacks those bands. The Red-spotted Purple has a drastically different pattern because of an evolutionary adaptation that allows it to mimic the far less palatable Pipevine Swallowtail butterfly. Predators have learned that the Pipevine Swallowtail is distasteful at best, and poisonous at worst. The Red-spotted Purple benefits by mimicking the look of this swallowtail, giving it a scary reputation that it hasn’t really earned.

That being said, we’re lucky enough to live in an area where both subspecies exist together, so while looking for butterflies in the Credit River watershed, you’ll definitely have the potential to find both Red-spotted Purples, AND White Admirals.

And to make matters slightly more confusing, these species are known to hybridize in this range! Their (very beautiful) offspring could definitely end up in your net, as one recently did for Christine (@birds-blooms-butterflies) in the picture below, showing the hybridized White Admiral x Red-spotted Purple (or Limenitis arthemis arthemis x astyanax).

All this to say that the Red-spotted Purple has evolved over time to fake it in order to make it. And make it they have, as a beautiful addition to the 2023 Butterfly Blitz!

Contest Alert!
Don’t miss the Butterfly Blitz Bingo Challenge!
If you’ve ever played Bingo, you already know what to do. Use your iNaturalist observations to complete one of the rows on the Bingo card below. You may already have all the observations you need for a row, or maybe you just need one more … check it out! This red-spotted purple observation would go well on squares O2 or O3 of the August BINGO sheet, what do you think?

The challenge will run from July 1 to September 13! Here is how to participate:

1. Enroll in the 2023 Butterfly Blitz.
2. Join the 2023 Butterfly Blitz project on iNaturalist.
3. Complete a Butterfly Blitz Bingo row, column, or diagonal line and fill out this form (https://www.cvc.ca/ButterflyBingoForm) to be entered into a draw to win an Individual Credit Valley Annual Parks Pass. Complete Contest Rules.

Happy butterflying,
Derek and the Butterfly Blitz team
This week’s OOTW was written by Derek Stone, Program Director at The Riverwood Conservancy.

For the 15th OOTW, we have chosen this Peck’s Skipper as our OOTW!

Here’s what Kevin (@solartempest), the observer, commented about this observation:
“I found the Peck's Skipper at the Riverwood Conservancy, which is a lovely set of gardens and woodlands in Mississauga. Very cute butterfly.
I really love photography and combining that with my love for butterflies and insects has become a favourite pastime! It's been a real adventure on iNaturalist in being able to keep track of the diversity of local creatures that I am now finding throughout the year. Capturing them beautifully in natural habitats is my overall goal.”

We can certainly tell that Kevin has a keen eye for photography. I love when a photo is crisp like this one, so much detail, you can see the hairs on the butterfly’s legs.

We’re likely to see the Peck’s Skipper move up in our most observed list soon, as this is one of the best months of the year to spot them. These skippers are not only the most abundant native skippers we see in Ontario, but they also have two generations in this part of Ontario, one in April and the other in August.
The reason Peck’s Skippers are so abundant is also due in part to their habitats. They mainly live in urban areas with open grassy spaces like meadows, lawns, gardens, marshes, woodland edges and less traditionally beautiful habitats like landfills, roadsides, vacant lots and power line right of ways.

This skipper isn’t too similar in appearance to many other skippers seen in the watershed, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to distinguish. The Tawny-edged Skipper is similar from above but lacks a band of spots on the hindwing. Earlier in the season, you may also confuse the Peck’s Skipper with the Hobomok Skipper due to the yellow patch on the back of the butterfly’s body – the Peck’s extends further than the one on the Hobomoks.

Photos: Peck’s Skipper with band on hindwing (left) and Tawny-edged Skipper missing the band on hindwing (right).

Contest Alert!
Don’t forget to submit your Butterfly Blitz Bingo Challenge entry!
If you’ve ever played Bingo, you already know what to do. Use your iNaturalist observations to complete one of the rows on the Bingo card below. You may already have all the observations you need for a row, or maybe you just need one more … check it out! This Peck’s Skipper observation would go well on squares B1 or N4 of the August BINGO sheet, what do you think?
The challenge will run from July 1 to September 13! Here is how to participate:

1. Enroll in the 2023 Butterfly Blitz.
2. Join the 2023 Butterfly Blitz project on iNaturalist.
3. Complete a Butterfly Blitz Bingo row, column, or diagonal line and fill out this form (https://www.cvc.ca/ButterflyBingoForm) to be entered into a draw to win an Individual Credit Valley Annual Parks Pass. Complete Contest Rules.

Happy butterflying,
Kristen and the Butterfly Blitz team

What do you call a butterfly with no wings? A caterpillar! 😊

For our 14th OOTW, we have a butterfly with fewer wings than normal. The intriguing observation made by Ashley (@ladyluckunexposed) caught our attention - a Monarch butterfly with most of its left forewing missing. This butterfly serves as a living example of the resilience and adaptability of these remarkable insects.

It is not uncommon for butterflies to encounter challenges that result in damaged or missing wings. This can include predation, injuries, or deformities that occur during development. Some amount of wing damage occurs over the life span of all butterflies – you can tell that a worn and faded butterfly has probably been around for a while.

Scientists have studied the location and effects of wing damage on butterflies with eyespots to test the false head hypothesis. This is the idea that some butterflies use wing spots to trick predators into thinking that their wings are actually their heads. Because losing a piece of your wing is much less serious than losing your head!

This Monarch butterfly will be likely be able to lead a normal life even with so much of its wing missing. Butterflies use their wings for flying but rely on other adaptations such as their antennae and legs for survival. With its remaining wings intact, this butterfly will still be able to navigate, visit flowers to feed, and even reproduce.

This encounter of a Monarch with a missing patch reminds me to appreciate the resilience of these delicate creatures that grace our lives and inspire my admiration for butterflies!

Have you ever encountered a butterfly that is missing a part of its wing? Let us know in the comments.

Contest Alert!

Don’t miss the Butterfly Blitz Bingo Challenge! If you’ve ever played Bingo, you already know what to do. Use your iNaturalist observations to complete one row on the Bingo card below. You may already have all the observations you need for a row, or maybe you just need one more … check it out!

The challenge will run from July 1 to September 13! Here is how to participate:

1. Enroll in the 2023 Butterfly Blitz.
2. Join the 2023 Butterfly Blitz project on iNaturalist.
3. Complete a Butterfly Blitz Bingo row, column, or diagonal line and fill out this form (https://www.cvc.ca/ButterflyBingoForm) to be entered into a draw to win an Individual Credit Valley Annual Parks Pass. Complete Contest Rules.

Happy butterflying,
Brittany and the Butterfly Blitz team

This week’s OOTW was written by Brittany Stoneman (@b_stoneman), Program Assistant, Community Outreach at Credit Valley Conservation.

Have you ever heard of the Three Witches? They’re a group of three butterfly species that are all flying around now and can be very hard to tell apart from each other: the Little Glassywing, Northern Broken Dash, and Dun Skipper. I always think of them as the Three Whiches, like “Which one of those species is it?!”. 😊

Anyhow, it’s fitting that our lucky 13th OOTW is one of the witches. Vi (@vcbull) saw this Northern Broken Dash in the MacEwan Terrace Gardens at Riverwood. Vi notes that “the gardens are in full bloom and are an excellent location for butterfly, and hummingbird, sightings”.

Although she wasn’t sure at first which witch it was, Vi followed the iNaturalist suggestion and identified it as a Little Glassywing. Once it was posted, Rick Cavasin identified it as a Northern Broken Dash instead, adding some helpful notes to the observation on how to tell the species apart.

Take a good look at the photos below. Can you see the difference between the three witches?

Images: Little Glassywing on the left, by @line2; Dun Skipper in the middle, by @uofgtwitcher; Northern Broken Dash on the right, by @vcbull;

The key in these photos is the number, size, and colour of the pale spots on the upper side of the wings. Little Glassywing has the most spots; some of the spots are large and squarish, and they are all very light in colour, almost clear or glassy. Dun Skipper has the fewest and smallest spots; they are also whitish instead of clear. Northern Broken Dash is in between the two; personally, I also think the spots on NBD are longer and thinner.

Note that these photos are all female butterflies; males can be a bit easier to tell apart. It’s also easier to tell the Three Witches apart if you can get a view of the under side of their wings in addition to the upper side.

If all of this has you feeling confused, don’t feel bad! I still often get these species mixed up, for example with this butterfly last week. And in the field guide Butterflies through Binoculars, author Jeffrey Glassberg notes that the Three Witches occasionally all feed together on the same flowers in large numbers, “creating an unparalleled opportunity to misidentify thousands of butterflies in a single day”. 😊

Programming note: We’ve recently finalized the plan for our 2023 Butterfly Blitz wrap-up event, and I’m excited to share it with you! This year we’re doing something completely different – we’re hosting the event in the evening and will end it by watching a movie together under the stars.

On September 16th at Terra Cotta Conservation Area, we’ll provide an overview of what we’ve achieved over five years of Butterfly Blitz, hand out awards for this year’s participants, and eat some tasty snacks and share butterfly stories. Finally, we’ll watch the short film Flight of the Butterflies in the Terra Cotta CA outdoor theatre. The movie is an entertaining and beautiful telling of the story of the Ontario scientist who made it his life’s work to discover the secrets of the Monarch’s migration. Details on how to register will be posted here soon.

Happy butterflying,
Laura and the Butterfly Blitz team

Our annual North American Butterfly Association Butterfly Count took place on July 22. While we were sad to cancel our original event date because of the bad weather, it worked out well in the end. The weather on the 22nd was perfect for a day of looking for butterflies!

Image: A beautiful butterfly day at Warwick Conservation Centre

A large crowd joined for the count, including: @annm403, @ashley2190, @bette-ann, @bob15noble, @charlotte_adamson, @ginnihang, @ladyluckunexposed, @lbissegger, @melmac, @patrick2008, @photobiophilia, @sam10turner, and @santhoshdt plus many more not on iNaturalist.

Image: 31 people took part in our count

Together we observed 206 individual butterflies of 25 species over the course of the 4-hour event. This is an increase compared to last year’s event, where we saw 161 individuals of 21 species.

There were too many great finds to select just one OOTW. I love seeing the smile on people’s faces when they get their first butterfly of the day, or first butterfly ever!

One of my goals for the day was to see a Harvester, a somewhat hard to find species with an unusual lifestyle–they have carnivorous caterpillars! You can read more about their biology in our OOTW post from 2021. When a small group of us went to trudge through a wetland, @sam10turner managed to net a Harvester to much excitement. Shortly after that, Ellodee casually caught one in her net at the edge of the nursery. Both finds made me super happy.

Another notable find was this American Copper, noticed and netted by @santhoshdt. We all assumed it was a Bronze Copper at first, which had been seen in around the same spot last year. I was thrilled when it turned out to be an American Copper, which hasn’t been seen in the Credit River Watershed since 1970! 😊

Finally, we also saw a few European Common Blues, like this one. This introduced species was first seen in the Credit River Watershed in 2021 and has been spreading since then. This is the furthest north in the watershed that it has been documented, and it was a surprise to me to find it at the count.

Our 2023 butterfly count was a success, and I’m so grateful to everyone who came out that day and helped add to our observations. If you missed out on this event but would like to join another one, check out our project page: https://cvc.ca/butterfly-blitz/.

Happy butterflying,
Laura and the Butterfly Blitz team

Hello butterfly fans – welcome to peak butterfly season! To me, the hot July weather means I’ve got a good chance of seeing lots of different species if I go out butterflying. It can be a sweaty business looking for butterflies at this time of year, but also rewarding when you find a species you’ve never seen before.

Our 11th Observation of the Week comes to us from Jane (@jpilsky), who observed this Silver-spotted Skipper at Riverwood with some help from her daughter.

Jane says: “Last week at the Riverwood Conservancy summer campers had the opportunity to use butterfly nets to discover and learn more about insects. This butterfly was caught (and released) by my 4-year-old daughter at a place she now calls "the magic butterfly meadow." It was photographed with my phone and identified by using iNaturalist. Children from 4 to 11 years old worked together to catch and identify several species that day. It was a truly magical experience.”

I love to hear about this kind of butterfly magic! It’s wonderful to see how butterflies can help connect some of our littlest people with nature. Jane couldn’t agree more – she is the founder of Wild Bright Play, an organization with the mission to support children’s healthy development through outdoor learning and play.

If you’d like to visit the magic butterfly meadow, be sure to sign up for the next Butterfly Blitz event, taking place at Riverwood on August 19. More details here: https://cvc.ca/event/butterfly-blitz-butterfly-identification-walk/

I’ve got a soft spot for Silver-spotted Skippers. While many skippers are small and frustratingly difficult to identify, Silver-spotted Skippers are relatively large and distinctive. I think their brown, orange, and silver wings are beautiful, and being easy to identify helps me like them even more.

Silver-spotted Skippers are also a symbol to me of how much the CVC Butterfly Blitz has achieved in the last five years. At the start of the project in 2019, I wrote a blog post about this species. Although they are a common and easy to ID butterfly, there were only six iNaturalist records of them from the Credit River watershed. The lack of data on butterflies in our area was one of the main reasons we started the Butterfly Blitz, and the Silver-spotted Skipper was a great example of that.

We may have started with 6 records, but now we’re up to 165! This amazing growth in data hasn’t been just for the Silver-spotted Skipper, but for all butterflies in our watershed. I’m confident that we now have a good dataset for CVC and others to use to better understand butterflies in our area. Stay tuned for more posts as the Butterfly Blitz winds up to hear more about our plans.

Contest Alert!
Don’t miss the Butterfly Blitz Bingo Challenge!
If you’ve ever played Bingo, you already know what to do. Use your iNaturalist observations to complete one of the rows on the Bingo card below. You may already have all the observations you need for a row, or maybe you just need one more … check it out!

Note that since July is almost over, we’ll be launching the August card soon. Don’t worry - you’ll still be able to submit your July observations as well. The challenge runs from July 1 to September 13! Here is how to participate:

1. Enroll in the 2023 Butterfly Blitz.
2. Join the 2023 Butterfly Blitz project on iNaturalist.
3. Complete a Butterfly Blitz BINGO row, column, or diagonal line and fill out this form (cvc.ca/ButterflyBingoForm) to be entered into a draw to win an Individual Credit Valley Annual Parks Pass. Complete Contest Rules.

Happy butterflying,
Laura and the Butterfly Blitz team

The tenth OOTW for 2023 is this Compton Tortoiseshell, seen by Erin (@erinpilling) and Sage (@sagehandler). Erin and Sage are CVC staff on the Education team. They were out at Belfountain Conservation Area when they spotted this butterfly.
Sage shared these thoughts about the observation:

“Butterflies always seem to elude Erin and fly away just before she can get a photo. We had set up a Conservation Interpreter booth just beside the main map kiosk at the parking lot [in Belfountain Conservation Area]. This butterfly was hanging around a lot on the back of the kiosk beside us and finally Erin decided to try to get a photo of it and it was a good model. After she managed to get a photo it flew away but returned again at least twice to hang out on the kiosk again!”

I appreciate the patience Erin had for this butterfly! As we know through Butterfly Blitz training, patience is key when making observations. Luckily, butterflies will often come back to their previous location – just like this one did.

You can find our CVC Conservation Interpreters at different parks throughout the summer. They will have booths set up at various parks and would love to engage with you!

Last week we featured the Gray Comma as the OOTW. Did you know that the Compton Tortoiseshell is also known as a false comma? They look very similar to species in the comma group and are closely related to them. Do you see the small, silvery mark on the Compton Tortoiseshells hindwing? Very familiar… almost looks like a comma! See the photos below for comparison.

Underside of Compton Tortoiseshell (left). Photo by Christine (@birds-blooms-butterflies).
Underside of Gray Comma (right). Photo by Harleen (@hark0x0).

It’s easy to confuse a Compton Tortoiseshell with a Comma. Use these guidelines to help tell them apart:

• The Compton Tortoiseshell is larger than comma species
• The Tortoiseshell's hindwing has a more subtle and thin silvery mark when compared to a comma’s hindwing mark
• Tortoiseshells have bolder black spots and white spots on the leading edge of all the wings

If you’re looking to observe a Compton Tortoiseshell, you will likely find them along deciduous forest edges and openings from July to November.

Join us at the next event!
Join us for CVC’s annual one-day butterfly count this Saturday, July 22! During this event we will identify and count all the butterfly species found at Warwick Conservation Centre. The data we collect is an official butterfly census and will be submitted to the North American Butterfly Association for publication in their annual report. Learn more and register to attend.

Contest Alert!
Don’t miss the Butterfly Blitz Bingo Challenge! The challenge runs from July 1 to September 13! Here is how to participate:

1. Enroll in the 2023 Butterfly Blitz.
2. Join the 2023 Butterfly Blitz project on iNaturalist.
3. Complete a Butterfly Blitz Bingo row, column, or diagonal line and fill out this form (https://www.cvc.ca/ButterflyBingoForm) to be entered into a draw to win an Individual Credit Valley Annual Parks Pass. Complete Contest Rules.

Today’s OOTW could qualify for either square B1 or I2 on the July Bingo card. What do you think fits better?

Happy butterflying,
Kristen and the Butterfly Blitz team