2015 October 1

Monthly Butterfly Walk
(Jeremy Tatum)

Aziza unfortunately won’t be able to make the October walk, and she has asked me to lead it. We meet at the top of Mount Tolmie at 1:00 pm, Sunday October 4. There are no huge numbers of butterflies around at this time of year, so we’ll think of the October Butterfly Walk as a challenge to find the last few butterflies before the onset of S.A.D. There are still a few Cabbage Whites around, and one or two Red Admirals, Mourning Cloaks and Painted Ladies have been reported in the last couple of weeks.

We usually decide where we are going to go by mutual discussion on Mount Tolmie. I have two suggestions. One is the cabbage fields at Island View Road, where there is a fairly good chance of seeing a few Cabbage Whites. There might also be a chance of finding a late Purplish Copper there or along nearby Island View Beach. And in past years, very rarely, there have been a few October Orange Sulphurs there, though maybe that’s being a bit optimistic. My second suggestion would be Panama Flats to see how many Banded Woolly Bear caterpillars we can count. A couple of years ago there were dozens, perhaps even hundreds, there. This is the caterpillar of the Isabella Moth. But these are just a couple of suggestions. Other suggestions would be welcome when we meet.

Bud Logan sends a photograph of a caterpillar of the Peppered Moth Biston betularia. It has turned brown and assumed a rather dumpy appearance just prior to pupation.