Thought this topic may be of interest to some members. Different species have been discussed at length on threads here over past years - migration, hatching and with photos illustrating color variations between males and females as well as regional differences of subspecies.

Where I live on the south shore of Lake Ontario, the Painted Lady butterflies have arrived in my yard briefly over the past several years. They are fast moving flyers and extremely difficult to catch on camera. This spring I was able to get photos of a few on 23 April and again on 17 May (the day 5 were fluttering around). I saw two yesterday and one today.

Jonathan

April 2019







May 2019



Video

https://flic.kr/p/2exkA1t

My brother has been collecting for 30 years and I got him to donate then to a Museum collection; link below
http://news.umanitoba.ca/a-valuable-gift-of-butterflies/?utm_source=waag&utm_medium=email

good capture of a butterfly that gets blown in here every spring.
Got to see a very small Clear wings moth feeding on some flowering Nanking Cherries yesterday,

Really Nice Jonathan!!!

I remember the summer of 1975. In Colorado there were literally millions of painted lady butterflies, all going northeast across the state. Didn't matter if you were on top of Loveland Pass or on the plains. Butterflies were every where and no one knew where they all came from or where they were going, but all headied to the northeast. Could not drive more then five or ten miles without stopping to clean the windshield. One day they were there and in a week to ten days, they were all gone.

I saw a couple of them when it first started to warm up, it was nice

Saw my first monarch just now

Beautiful!
American Lady and the Painted Lady are all very similar. I have seen a few butterflies already but didn't pay a lot of attention to them. I do recall seeing a Morning Cloak, though.

I think those might be Red Admirals? Always enjoy your photographs, thanks for taking the time to post them.

Second vote for Red Admiral with all these south wind it has blown in to your area from a southern population that has gone through a cycle this spring.

Are all four Red Admirals, or the last one?

Jonathan

Great pics. I tried taking a pic of one today it was a challenge because I only had my phone, but did manage to get a pic . Thankfully for some reason there's an abundance of butterflies this year. I don't remember ever seeing so many as I've been seeing.

I think it's a Painted Lady

Here is a link to the butterflies of Canada ;
https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwinw7K65LXiAhUHc98KHZglDLIQFjAAegQIAhAB&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cbif.gc.ca%2Feng%2Fspecies-bank%2Fbutterflies-of-canada%2Fred-admiral%2F%3Fid%3D1370403265746&usg=AOvVaw2PiQf-7blFUz3ckqF6wAn6

the one stripe Red Admiral = red
white stripe = White Admiral

link source;
https://www.google.ca/search?source...43.0.0.2.209514...........0.CZlempXDAqA#

NT50, Thank you for the correction. I overlooked my own photo of the species taken in 2012.

How is this for a match?

Jonathan

Thank you for the post. I remember so many more butterfly's in my youth than now. I live on a 100 acre piece of farmland now. in my youth i lived along the entire east coast at some point. My dad blames lack of milk weeds. ? maybe

A bad winter in Mexico killed a lot of monarch butterfly's a few years back