Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: explore2009July26

I'd never seen a Viceroy butterfly before, so was thrilled to spot this one today, when we were on a day walk at Nodwell Sanctuary (now called the Western Sky Land Trust Wheatland #1 Property), southeast of Calgary, near Carseland. It looks very much like the Monarch butterfly (which at first I thought it might be, as I didn't know about the Viceroy), but smaller, and both are relatively UNCOMMON in Alberta - this is the northern edge of their range. LOL, not quite the shot I would have liked to get, but still a record of an exciting sighting!

On an all-day hike along the Gunnery Pass Trail, off Highway 40 (Kananaskis) on Saturday, we saw several of these attractive (most likely Northern) Checkerspot butterflies towards the end of the hike. I don't know which kind of Checkerspot it is - would welcome any ID help : ) Holy smokes - what a slow day at Flickr today!! Later: thanks, Doug, for the info!