Observation of the week – August 10 to 16

Our 11th OOTW is this Clouded Sulphur seen by Bob (aka @bob15noble).

Bob’s beautiful photos will be familiar to those that participated in last year’s Butterfly Blitz. The composition of this photo and the amount of detail you can see on the butterfly are wonderful. Look at those green eyes!

Clouded Sulphurs are present all summer in our area but become particularly plentiful later in the season. At this time of year, it is common to see dozens of Clouded Sulphurs flitting around when out for a walk in a meadow or along the side of a road. Bob saw this Clouded Sulphur in a meadow next to the Caledon Trailway, drinking nectar from a Viper’s Bugloss flower.

If you look at your butterfly field guide, you’ll see several Sulphur species that look very similar. Some of these are southern butterflies that occasionally move up into Ontario (e.g. Cloudless Sulphur) and some are northern butterflies that occasionally move south (e.g. Pink-edged Sulphur).

In our area, the two most frequently seen Sulphurs are the Clouded and Orange, with Clouded Sulphur being the most common. The easiest way to tell Clouded and Orange Sulphurs apart is by getting a view of the upper side of their wings. The Orange Sulphur is orange coloured on the upper side, while the Clouded Sulphur is yellow with only a small orange dot on the upper side of the hind wing.

Unfortunately, Sulphurs rarely rest with their wings open, so you may need to catch them in flight to see the upper sides. If you are only able to see the under side, you can base your identification on whether you can see any orange on the fore wing. If not, like in Bob’s photo, it’s probably a Clouded Sulphur.

Besides having some of the most beautiful photos in the 2019 Butterfly Blitz, Bob won the prize for most observations. This year, Bob has generously donated some of his photos to serve as prizes for the 2020 Blitz.

We have six beautiful photos of butterflies in the Credit River Watershed ready to go for the participants that come first in the categories of most observations, most species observed, rarest species observed, best photo, most participation, and a lucky day prize. These prizes will be presented at our wrap up event in September – more details on that event will be coming soon.

In the mean time, you can check out more of Bob’s photography on his website.

Posted on August 17, 2020 04:02 PM by lltimms