Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: Order: Lepidoptera

Update on my daughter: I went to the hospital to visit her for a few hours yesterday (22 August) and was just so thankful to find her sitting up in bed, fully alert and looking well! The IV antibiotics seem to be working, as her pain is subsiding. Hopefully, the rest of her recovery will go smoothly. As you can imagine, I had a few flashbacks to January of this year, when our older daughter was taken off life-support in the same hospital. I am just so very thankful that this very scary situation looks like it will have a happy ending. Thank you to everyone for your very thoughtful well-wishes! One month ago, five of us spent the day botanizing the land belonging to Darryl Teskey, SW of Calgary and W of Millarville (maybe a 40-minute drive from Calgary). This was the first time I had been there and I'm so glad I was invited to go - I would have missed all sorts of things, including a family of Ruffed Grouse and several fungi. These Grouse were the rare rufous-morph, and we startled them when we were walking through the forest in their direction. Usually, you don't see Grouse because they are so well-hidden. When you get fairly close (sometimes very close) to them, they suddenly "explode" from the tangle of shrubs and plants of the forest floor, making ones heart beat fast! We were taken by surprise when we came across a nearby statue of Saint Francis of Assisi, who is known as the patron saint of animals and the environment. A nice idea, I thought. Our walk took us over grassland and through forest, many places treacherous with so many fallen logs which were often barely visible. I have never, ever seen so many tiny Skipper butterflies - there must have been hundreds or even thousands of these bright orange beauties that were flying or perched on flowers of every colour. Seeing the Wood Nymph butterfly in this photo made a change from all the Skippers. Fortunately, the rain stayed away until we started driving back to Calgary. Quite a lot of black clouds, reminding me of the tornado that passed through Calgary just the day before (22 July 2015). Our purpose, as always, was to find and list everything that we saw - wildflowers, trees, grasses, birds, insects, fungi, etc.. Our leader then compiles an extensive list of our finds and this is later sent to the landowner, along with any photos that we might take. Always a win/win situation, as the landowner then has a much better idea of just what is on his property, and we have a most enjoyable day. This summer, with quite a few botanizing outings like this, plus two 3-day trips to Waterton Lakes National Park, I am so far behind with the photos that I need to edit and e-mail! Most of my Waterton photos are still not posted.

A photo from my archives, taken on 10 May 2010 in the ENMAX Conservatory at the Calgary Zoo. The Common Sergeant (Athyma perius) is a species of nymphalid butterfly found in South Asia and Southeast Asia. As always, ID is not 100% certain. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athyma_perius ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Today, 29 November 2014, the sun is trying its best to come out. Everywhere looks so beautiful in the sunshine, after several more inches of snow fell yesterday and overnight. My car is still at the garage, having a set of winter tires put on. This was expected to be finished yesterday, but I haven't heard anything further. Even if my vehicle had been ready to pick up yesterday late afternoon/evening, I wouldn't have gone, as the weather was awful and the roads treacherous. The temperature is -22C (-8CF) with a windchill of -31C (-24F). Stay warm, everyone!

A couple of weeks ago, on 10 August 2014, I slept right through an hour of very loud music and then woke up nearly five hours later (around 11:30 a.m.)! As a result, I missed a trip with friends to a great place SW of the city, Brown-Lowery Provincial Park - one that I don't like going to on my own. Knowing that there would be other people in the area, I decided to still go, but not go very far into the forest on my own. Hopefully, the others would scare any Bears and Cougars out of the forest and not in my direction! To say that I could kick myself is to put it mildly! So much for hoping that there would be no bears. When I arrived at the not particularly well-known forest, I signed the "guest book" as I often do. Before I turned the page to sign on a nice fresh page, I happened to read one of the last comments that someone had written - a Black Bear had been seen that day, on the very trail I wanted to go on! I put the can of Bear Spray into my fanny-pack (can't use a backpack because of the rotator cuff inflammation in both my shoulders), but after a few steps, knew my fanny pack felt just too heavy. Put the can back in the car and instead, attached my bear bell to my camera strap and clutched a small air-horn in one hand. I only spent about an hour in the forest, but did not enjoy a single step of it, lol! I was determined to at least go a very tiny way in, having driven all the way there. Very thankfully, there was no sign of the bear - but also no sign of any mushrooms other than one tiny cluster of Pholiotas growing at the base of a tree stump. Absolutely nothing, despite recent rain. Maybe it's still too early, especially after such a late spring? August is supposedly the peak of the fungi season here. Found the beautiful Police Car Moth in my photo above, when I walked around the edge of the parking lot after my short walk. Saw very little on the drive home - a couple of Hawks (one on a hay bale), a few Ravens and a few Crows, one Cedar Waxwing, and several very distant ducks. No sign of any Red-winged or Yellow-headed Blackbirds and no Wilson's Snipe. "The Police Car Moth is a fairly large moth with a wingspan of up to 50 mm. The wings are jet black with large white patches between the black scaled veins. As well, there are two orange patches of hairs on either side of the thorax, right behind the head. It is this colour combination, that of an old style police car, that gives it its name. Larvae are hairy and black with yellow and blue markings. The Police Car Moth is found throughout the province in or near forested areas. Adults fly throughout July and early August." From Royal Alberta Museum. www.royalalbertamuseum.ca .

I'm not sure, but I think this is a Small Cabbage White, rather than a Large Cabbage White - the black marking on the wing tip is only pale. Also not sure, but I think this is a male. I found other photos on Google showing males with just a very faint second spot. If anyone knows for sure, please do let me know. This was spotted in Carburn Park yesterday morning, 17 August 2014. "The upperside of the wings are clear white with black wing tips, one black spot (two in the female) on the forewing, and a black patch on the leading edge of the hindwing. The underside of the hindwing is a pale mustard-yellow colour. Wingspan: 32 to 47 mm. An almost ubiquitous species of the northern hemisphere, the Cabbage White was first introduced into North America in Quebec in the 1860s. It dramatically spread across the continent in the next few decades. It now ranges in Canada from coast to coast." www.cbif.gc.ca/eng/species-bank/butterflies-of-canada/cab...