Observation of the week – June 8-15, 2020

Happy Monday Butterfly Blitzers! We jumped from 17 to 29 species observed over the past week. It is so nice to see many of you have been out observing butterflies and taking pictures. The wonderful weather this weekend was helpful, too!

Our second observation of the week is this Arctic Skipper from user @sassarella1979.

Kristie (aka @sassarella1979) and her daughter Taya, 6, went for a hike on the Elora Cataract Trail on Friday. “It was Friday afternoon and it had been cold in the morning and warmed up by the afternoon. Wow, I felt like we were in a secret garden! The butterflies, dragonflies, damselflies were everywhere! The Arctic Skipper was relaxed.”

Kristie and Taya were not the only ones observing Arctic Skippers in the watershed this weekend. There were six observations of this species added to the Blitz over the past few days. This is a noticeable increase to the two observations submitted during the 2019 CVC Butterfly Blitz.

Arctic Skipper is a widespread species in North America, Europe and Asia, associated with the boreal and mixed deciduous forest ecozones that stretch across these areas. Despite its common name, Arctic Skipper is not actually found in the Arctic. It is known as the Chequered Skipper in Europe, a name which is both nicely descriptive of this butterfly’s appearance and less confusing geographically.

We often hear about species that are common in the U.S. and rare in Canada because they are at the edge of their range here. Arctic Skipper is one of the species where the opposite is true. Arctic Skipper is not found often south of the Waterloo area in Ontario, and it is considered a vulnerable species in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. Arctic Skipper became more common in the northeastern U.S. in recent decades as it expanded its range to the south. However, it has recently become less common again in those areas, likely due to climate change.

Taya may be our youngest Butterfly Blitz participant ever. According to her mom, “Taya is at her best in nature. She is quiet, patient and engaged.”. The two of them have been enjoying their outings to find and take pictures of butterflies: “Butterflying has given us a chance to slow down and be present in nature. I’m even aware of the little things in nature I NEVER would’ve noticed before!”.

I hope that you all get a chance to slow down this week and spend some time with butterflies.

Publicado el lunes, 15 de junio de 2020 a las 02:49 PM por lltimms lltimms

Comentarios

No hay comentarios aún.

Añade un comentario

Entra o Regístrate para añadir comentarios