[NatureNS] Painted Ladies

References: <CAFVjxapdAirf-55CvJRs=gECRCGpeypi4OSEb5+kyicO8+triA@mail.gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2012 15:06:36 -0300
To: naturens@chebucto.ns.ca
From: Phil Schappert <philjs@eastlink.ca>
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At 2:19 PM -0300 8/21/12, Bob McDonald wrote:
>On walking the Salt Marsh Trail this morning, Painted Ladies were 
>the most common species encountered and there must have been a 100 
>of them - remarkable!!  I couldn't find an American Lady among them. 
>Almost equally numerous were Cabbage Whites.  These were the only 
>leps encountered except for a single Clouded Sulphur.  Certainly 
>more butterflies than shorebirds,

Bob,

I've run some surveys at Roach's Pond in Spryfield (west of the 
Northwest Arm in Halifax, NS, on Herring Cove Rd.) recently. 
Beginning Friday 18th, out of curiousity, I attempted to 
conservatively count (meaning that if a counted butterfly flew off in 
the direction of my travel then I did not count the next butterfly I 
saw) the Painted and American Ladies. The ratio was 27 Painteds to 3 
Americans on Friday morning (about 10:30am), 21 to 1 on Saturday 
afternoon (around 3 pm) and this morning (10:30 - noon) it had risen 
to an astounding 111 to 3. The week previous the American's had 
outnumbered the Painteds about 3 to 1...

There was lots of activity there today, but still only 3 species (the 
other was a wood nymph), not even a Cabbage White or either of the 
Sulphurs. Intriguingly, for all the Painted Lady activity, there was 
very little territorial squabbling and no mated pairs seen, though I 
did manage to scare a Painted off the path directly into the waiting 
forelegs of a Dragonhunter.

There has been a massive outbreak of Painted Ladies this year, noted 
especially in Ontario & Quebec...we're a bit later but the outbreak 
is definitely being seen here now too.

Phil

-- 

Phil Schappert, PhD

27 Clovis Ave.
Halifax, NS, B3P 1J3
902-404-5679 (home)
902-460-8343 (cell)

www.philschappert.com
www.papiliomusic.ca

"Just let imagination lead, reality will follow through..."
                                        (Michael Hedges)

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