2024 April 24 evening

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  I mentioned on the April 23 posting that a young lady, who was passing when I released the Ceanothus Silk Moth, took a photograph of it in more natural surroundings.  I have added Talia’s photograph to the April 23 posting – viewers can scroll back to have a look at this spectacular moth.

Today, Aziza Cooper photographed a damselfly and an early-instar geometrid (but otherwise unidentified) caterpillar at Swan Lake:

Pacific Forktail  Ischnura cervula (Odo.: Coenagrionidae)  Aziza Cooper

Unidentified geometrid caterpillar  (Lep.: Geometridae)  Aziza Cooper

2024 April 24 morning

   On April 23, Gordon Hart saw at Panama Flats a Mourning Cloak, besides a Western Spring Azure and several Cabbage Whites.

Also on April 23, Marie O’Shaughnessy saw a California Tortoiseshell on Mount Tolmie, three Western Spring Azures in Outerbridge Park, six Western Spring Azures and two White-ribboned Carpet Moths along Munn Road past Francis/King Park.

 California Tortoiseshell  Nymphalis californica (Lep.: Nymphalidae)
Marie O’Shaughnessy

Western Spring Azure  Celastrina echo  (Lep.: Lycaenidae)
Marie O’Shaughnessy

Western Spring Azure  Celastrina echo  (Lep.: Lycaenidae)
Marie O’Shaughnessy

St George’s Day 2024

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  On Mount Douglas today at 4:30 pm I saw four Sara Orangetips, and, at the very top, hilltopping, were a California Tortoiseshell and a Painted Lady (the first reported to Invert Alert this year), chasing each other around the Teacup.  There was a California Tortoiseshell on the Mount Tolmie reservoir at 5:00 pm.  Did the tortoiseshell and the lady migrate here after spending the winter further south?  Or did they overwinter here?  Who knows?

At 5:30 pm I was filling my car up with gasoline at the gas station at the corner of Shelbourne and Pear Street.   My tank was half-full when I noticed, perched on the very pump that I was using, a male Ceanothus Silk Moth.  I took it home, where it allowed me only one brief photograph on the carpet of my living room.  I released it near the Famous Fence on Lochside Drive, where it was photographed in much more natural surroundings by Talia Northgrave.

Male Ceanothus Silk Moth  Hyalophora euryalus  (Lep.: Saturniidae)
Jeremy Tatum

Male Ceanothus Silk Moth  Hyalophora euryalus  (Lep.: Saturniidae)
Talia Northgrave

Aziza Cooper writes: Today, April 23, at Panama Flats there were four Cabbage Whites and one Western Spring Azure.

2024 April 22 evening

Marie O’Shaughnessy writes: I did always want to know where butterflies go when it clouds over, so finally I found a male Sara Orangetip hanging in an oak tree on Mount Douglas yesterday Sunday. April 21.  Only one male flying fleetingly around. The underside of a butterfly truly does help in camouflage . Just learning all these fascinating things about nature.  Can’t wait for the dragonflies to emerge and return later this month.

Male Sara Orangetip Anthocharis sara (Lep.: Pieridae)  Marie O’Shaughnessy

2024 April 22 morning

Marie O’Shaughnessy photographed a gravid female White-ribboned Carpet Mesoleuca gratulata in flight and looking to oviposit on blackberry leaves at the corner lot of Kerryview Drive and Petworth Drive, April 20.

Mesoleuca gratulata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Marie O’Shaughnessy

Mesoleuca gratulata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Marie O’Shaughnessy