We have two recent butterfly sightings! If you see and can identify a butterfly, please record the date, time, location and any pertinent information you observed, i.e. the plants it was nectaring or laying eggs on. A photograph or two for identification confirmation is very helpful. It is also necessary for rare species.

Our recent butterfly sightings:

Western Spring Azure (Celastrina echo), reported by Gary Fast, in Peter Police Homestead, Carrington Bay Lagoon, May 7, 2020. 1:00 p.m. This is our cover photo.

Milbert's Tortoishell (Aglais milberti), sighted by 7-year-old Daleia, Jodi Peters's daughter. Daleia thinks it should be called the "cat-face butterfly," for the appearance of cat eyes on its wings. The butterfly was sighted on Siskin Lane in early May 2020. Daleia found it on the road and picked it up to move it gently to the soft grass (otherwise butterflies should not be handled).

If you photograph a butterfly but cannot positively identify it, we will help with the identification; so send us your record. You can use the form available on our website page https://cortesmuseum.com/museum/butterfly-sightings/, or just send an email to cimastwincomm.ca with your pictures and observations.

In 2019, Mike Yip gave a presentation for the Cortes Island Museum’s Speaker Series on the distribution of butterflies on Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands. At the end of his talk, Mike challenged the audience and all Cortes Islanders to create a list of butterfly sightings for Cortes Island. And now, we have a response from Quadra Island, from Lunabelle, who is very interested in what we are doing, here on Cortes, as she is recording butterfly sightings on Quadra.

So, keep looking.... and send us your observations to cimastwincomm.ca.

Check our website for the most recent sightings:

https://cortesmuseum.com/museum/butterfly-sightings/