Friday Flowers: Collecting Butterflies

Canadian Tiger Swallowtail on Sweet Clover- Waterloo Region

Sandland brother was a collector of snakes, rocks, especially the fossils from our gravel driveway, bugs and butterflies. We lived in the north part of Metropolitan Toronto in the mid to late 1960's just as suburban sprawl was creeping northward from the city core. From our home one could see farmers' fields which have since been paved over as the city has spread many miles north, east and west. A couple of blocks from our house a large hydro right-of-way provided a place where we played and picnicked during our endless summer holidays. Nathan had a butterfly net and would pursue flying insects, catching them and killing them in a jar before mounting them for his collection.

Great Spangled Fritillary near Bird's Foot Trefoil- Manitoulin Island

Last summer I re-read Gene Stratton-Porter's book A Girl of the Limberlost. Elnora Comstock pays for her education by collecting rare moths in Indiana's Limberlost Swamp and selling their mounted bodies to collectors. Somehow the killing of butterflies and moths for collections has lost its appeal in this day of increased environmental awareness. But our society has depleted the habitat of many butterflies and instead of killing them, we have killed their food source with pesticides and pavement.

Cabbage White on Bird Vetch in Waterloo Region

In this digital age we can collect butterflies with our cameras. Our city has implemented a partial ban on pesticides and city parks and schoolyards are no longer sprayed for weeds. I am once again seeing butterflies as I remember seeing them as a child in North York's hydro fields.

White Admiral on Joe Pye Weed- Manitoulin Island

I have been trying to capture some butterfly pictures and have found them even more flitting than warblers who at least tend to flit in one tree, not all over a meadow. I have some lovely mental images that passed faster than the shutter of the camera. Last week I watched a Swallowtail butterfly and a Ruby Throated Hummingbird feeding at the same group of flowers.
Our wildflowers have had a great growing season this year. Sweet Clover, Bird Vetch and Common Milkweed flowers are favoured by many insects including butterflies. And several garden flowers including Purple Coneflower attract them near our homes.

Monarch Butterfly on Milkweed- Manitoulin Island

I took a number of butterfly pictures and then struggled to identify them. I find most butterfly guides confusing with plates of similar looking wings. Someone recommended a field guide called The Butterflies of Canada so I ordered one that I received this week. I am very pleased with it and it is organized by region and habitat which is very helpful.

Monarch Butterfly Caterpillar on Milkweed- Manitoulin Island

The images in this post are of butterflies I have seen this month near flowers. Wet gravel also attracts them, but I will save those pictures for another time. We have a lot of wet gravel around lately with almost daily rains so it pays to look on the path for butterflies as you walk along.

Sandland Brother arrived in Canada yesterday from the United Arab Emirates. I see him on average about every other year or so. I wonder what he is collecting now?