2015 July 23

   Jeff Gaskin writes:  What I’m about to tell you is not a rarity sighting but on July 18 Linda Dowling, who runs the Happy Valley Lavender and Herb farm on her property on Happy Valley Road, tells me she had around 1200 Woodland Skippers at her place. This was a rough estimate but judging that she has 2400 lavender plants and there were around five skippers on each plant you can see how she arrives at a huge number like 1200.  Also, there were eight Lorquin’s Admirals which I feel is a good number considering how dry the woods are, and she also had two Western Tiger Swallowtails.

   On July 20th, I saw a Painted Lady on Logan Avenue in the Gorge neighbourhood.

   [Jeremy Tatum remarks:  Well, I make that 12,000 skippers! (Or maybe 240 lavenders?).]