Outdoor Ontario
Wildlife Reports => Toronto Wildlife => Topic started by: Craig McL on August 22, 2008, 10:56:32 PM
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this afternoon in to our back yard I found a fresh GIANT SWALLOWTAIL nickering on our buddleia !!!
Bev and I have spent 8 years building a butterfly garden and it has
moved once but in both homes we wear lucky anoff to see Giant
Swallowtail !!! so its true if you bild it thay will come.
I think ill go get a lotto for tonight hahahaa
what a day !
Craig
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Saw one last week at Rosetta McClain Gardens in Scarborough. Also Question Mark,American Lady,Red Admiral,Black Swallowtail,Eastern Comma,Summer Azure, and Silver Spotted Skipper. (Im reduced to bugs while waiting for the onslaught of Raptors)
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Yet again today Aug 23 08 we had another GIANT SWALLOWTAIL slight worn
female hear in our back yard, laying eggs on our rue plants!!
We have just bin given a hop tree so we hope to it comes back for
that!!
Craig & Bev
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Really nice to see reports of giant swallowtail sightings in the Toronto area! Keep those reports coming Big Frank 'cause I'm looking for an excuse to visit Rosetta MG for a butterfly shoot before the fall bird migration starts. It's been a really strange year; Edward gardens, that was teeming with red admirals, painted ladies, etc. this time last year, is really dead - a few monarchs but not much else (where have they gone??). We drove to the Niagara area last Tuesday and I spent about a hour in the outdoor butterfly garden at the Butterfly Conservatory; again, only a few monarchs but I managed to photograph several swallowtails (including my first Giant!) and a zebra longwing that must have escaped from the indoor garden!
I should probably start a separate thread for this, but since I'm lazy...a couple of weeks ago I spotted a pair of mourning doves hanging around the tree in front of my house. I checked the tree and it looks like the female(?) is sitting on a nest right above the sidewalk but I haven't seen the male for over a week. Do they normally nest so late in the summer and what is likely to happen if the male is gone for good? I know she's 'alive' since she changes her position a few times a day but I've haven't seen her leave the nest since last week!!
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Saw a somewhat warn Giant Swallowtailed Butterfly today at Rosetta McClain Gardens. It was very co-operative,though barely stopped moving flower to flower,it was in the same set of purple flowers for at least 20min while Walter and I snapped photos. A great long sighting...matching Howie's laziness,Sunday we saw 32 raptors 7 Broadwings,a Merlin and 3 Osprey among them. Sat and Sun look like they could be very good days. We also see a few Air Show planes each year.
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Hope to see you there Sat or Sun (depending on the weather?). We're heading up to Rama tomorrow for the Pointer Sisters show and on the way we'll stop at the Wildflower Farm for some butterfly shooting - neat place, google "wildflower farm" for more info; there's usually a few raptors circling above the farm and last year a bear was spotted close by - could be a pretty interesting visit!! We went to High Park today; a few monarchs in the gardens but Hawk Hill was dead, no butterflies or birds (what a change from last year at this time!).