Butterfly Fallout

In Strathroy I started noticing a procession of Red Admirals at Clark Wright CA at about 4:15pm on April 15 proceeding the light afternoon showers. One every 30 seconds or so one flittered overhead. I was not at all alone in this observation. The bounty of butterflies continues today.   I have collected some of the online observations into this blog (I hope no one minds),  in an attempt to show how widespread the this event is.

Posts from April 16, 2012:

There is a post by Stuart Immonen on sitta canadenis: Admiral Invasion that includes beautiful pictures of buterflies amongst spring blossoms.

From the Michigan Birding List:

Subject: Re: Birders OT: irruption of red admiral butterflies
From: susan miller
 Date: Mon, 16 Apr 2012 07:59:55 -0400

yes! tons of red admirals in eastern Jackson County as well as Ann Arbor for 
the last 2 weeks 

Sue Miller
On Apr 15, 2012, at 10:37 PM, John C Farmer wrote:

Anyone else noticing a very strong irruption of Red Admiral butterflies 
(Vanessa atalanta) this spring? During a 3 1/2 mile walk today I counted 80 of 
them. Many were nectaring on dandelions and redbud blossoms when not flying 
fast toward the northeast, assisted by a fair tailwind. During the same walk I 
counted only 13 Cabbage Whites (Pieris rapae), typically the most plentiful 
butterfly in S.E. Michigan at this time of year. 

 
John Farmer
Milan 

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Subject: Re: Birders OT: irruption of red admiral butterflies


Date: Mon, 16 Apr 2012 13:35:15 +0000

they were everywhere at Magee Marsh yesterday. Feeding on the garlic mustard of 
all things. Had them in the evening when I got home (A2) too. 


Linda Ar
Ann Arbor
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Subject: Re: Birders OT: irruption of red admiral butterflies
From: Bruce McCulloch 
Date: Mon, 16 Apr 2012 07:35:24 -0400

Lots of them in all of the flowering trees in the neighborhood here in Canton.

Sent from my iPhone
 
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Subject: Re: Birders OT: irruption of red admiral butterflies
From: "Bond, Melody" 
Date: Mon, 16 Apr 2012 11:22:05 +0000

AHHH, I was just going to post about them when I saw this. My crabapple trees 
were LOADED with red admirals and questions marks!!! I estimated at least 100 
and maybe 20 QMs. It was a beautiful thing. The trees were also loaded with 
blooms. A beautiful day for me to begin my shade garden underneath. Gonna be 
camera ready tonite, just in case they are still around. 


From: Jan Berry [mailto:jeberry AT umich.edu]
Sent: Monday, April 16, 2012 6:13 AM
To: birders AT umich.edu
Subject: [birders] Re: Birders OT: irruption of red admiral butterflies

Yes! We noticed them especially yesterday. Even saw one on the orange I put out 
for any early arriving orioles. 


Jan B
Superior Township
Washtenaw County 
 
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The following are an assortment of comments cut and paste from April 15 posts to the Yahoo! Group Middlesex/Elgin/Oxford Natural History Observations:


Sunday we also had dozens of Red Admiral butterflies, they are still around today even with this wind. They were in dandelion and grape hyacinths blossoms.
Our house wren is back this morning, brown thrasher, field sparrow, rough winged swallow, chipping and song sparrows are also back. We also have a white throat sparrow still singing.
Our bluebird is nesting in the bluebird house along our laneway. We still have lots of junco's feeding. Also many gold finches feeding still.
We have at least 6 turkey vultures regularly. Wild turkeys are calling in the morning.
Ev and Brian Turnbull

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This afternoon I took a walk in Meadowlily ESA. I thought with the wind there would probably be no butterflies about, but there were dozens and dozens of Red Admirals. All the ones I saw nectaring were on Dandelions. I wonder if they felt more secure lower down in the strong wind.

I have been checking back records. There was a big migration in 1997 and in 2001 there were hundreds about later in the year. I should imagine that there will be lots again for butterfly counts when all these produce offspring. In 2001 there was also a big migration of American Ladies  and in 2002 there was an influx of Painted Ladies. As Hugh mentioned these three species are in the same family, Vanessa, and migrate here, although it is possible in warm winters that the American Lady and Red Admiral, which hibernate as adults, could perhaps overwinter here.  

Also flying were Cabbage White, Spring Azure and Mourning Cloak in small numbers.

White Trilliums, Violets, (purple, white and Yellow),Wood Anemone , Marsh Marigolds and Trout Lily all in flower.

Ann [White]

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This is an amazing event.  None of the long-time insect watchers can remember these sorts of numbers.  Too bad Dr. Judd has died.   The three species of the Vanessa species that we get here (Red Admiral, Painted Lady, American Lady) breed in Central America and Mexico.  In most years they recolonize most of North America.  Some go as far north as the Arctic circle.  That is why seeing the species is a hit and miss affair.  But this year, ....  Most of North America had a milder than usual winter.  Perhaps overwintering chrysalises survived more than usual.  A few adults can survive too but all the individuals I checked look to be very fresh.  I have not found any good answers for this yet.  BTW - I'm not the best person to know what is actually going on.  James Holdsworth, for one, is more up on insects than I.  Perhaps working on The Cardinal gives me a little more bravado.

To post to the Middlesex Elgin listserv just send an email to

midd_elgi_observations@yahoogroups.com

At least I assume that is where you wanted to post to.

There are a number of Question Marks mixed in with the Admirals.  I have had 3 in the yard today.

Hi to Candy

Hugh [Casbourn]

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 Hi Hugh:

I saw all the buzz about the Red Admirals, but I can't seem to post.  Not important anyway but not knowing anything about butterflies I was wondering last evening when dozens at a time were swarming past me whether this was some sort of a mass early spring emergence or a migration aided by the brisk south wind.  By the sounds of it they were migrating and if so it is quite amazing to me, something I've never witnessed before like this.  They were like locusts for awhile!  So I just wanted to ask someone who knows what was actually going on.

Best - Paul [Prevett]

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Red Admirals were less numerous in our yard this afternoon with dozens, not hundreds. Question Marks increased in numbers though. My high count at our Wild Plum was 6 but they were moving around and there could have been more.
Dave and Linda [Martin]

Select posts from Twitter (April 16):
Al Sinclair ‏ @ajssinc

Mass migration of Red Admiral butterflies arrived in #Muskoka today, large numbers as far north as Ottawa #butterflies http://pic.twitter.com/G7wxBVN5

Conservation Halton ‏ @CH_Comm
Anyone else see the waves of Red Admiral butterflies migrating thru the GTA? Spotted about 70 ourselves http://ow.ly/i/zlvy

Posts from April 15, 2012:

Blake Mann's report from Blog Burg Birder (http://burgbirder.blogspot.ca/):

 "On this 100th Anniversary of the sinking of the RMS Titanic highlight of the day was the migration of Red Admiral butterflies.  Although it rained most of the morning (birding was a bust today), by early afternoon it was evident that a mass migration of Red Admirals was underway.  I notice quite a few yesterday, but today they were absolutely everywhere.  The first spot I really noticed was when I walked the Marsh Trail (aka R/R) at Erieau.  I decided to walk the entire trail since there were many sparrows, etc. to look at.

All afternoon where-ever I went there was a constant easterly movement.  I birded Blenheim Lagoons with Mike Nelson and we noted the number there as well.  I noticed what I believe was a Question Mark as well.

I did not get home until 7 p.m. but noticed the Red Admirals all the way home.  About 50 were flying about my yard here when I arrived home.
I am not sure one can even begin to estimate the number in southern Ontario right now!"


The following are an assortment of comments cut and paste from April 15 posts to the Yahoo! Group Middlesex/Elgin/Oxford Natural History Observations:

We had dozens of Red Admirals at any given time and we could see that there was a constant turn over on our big clump of Wild Plum which is at peak bloom at the moment. We live in southeast Middlesex.
Ross Snider who lives just east of Ingersoll in Oxford County sent the following email. "Today the  property was alive with Red Admirals throughout the day, several hundred at least here." 

We wanted to get a better feel of how many admirals were passing through / over our yard and so watched for a while from different locations and angles. We noticed that the 10 metre gap in our spruce hedgerow was a good place to count the admirals because we could tell at this location whether any of them were backtracking. We made five one-minute counts at the gap and got a range of 3 to 6 admirals per minute with an average of 4.5 per minute which translates to 180 to 360 per hour with an average of 270 per hour.

If we extrapolate our findings at just our place of 270 admirals per hour over a 10 metre wide space to a front of say 50 km long [Lake Erie inland to London] - the number of Red Admirals passing by would be 1.35 million per hour. Ross Snider says that they were active throughout the day at his place. If this was happening throughout Elgin and Middlesex then the number of Red Admirals for the day may have  exceeded 10 million.

Estimates of hundreds of 1000s of Admirals in Ontario may actually be quite low and probably not indicative of what was really happening. A more likely scenario is that millions of Red Admirals entered Ontario today.

Apparently, this is not unheard of. Red Admirals and the two Lady species are known to irrupt out of Mexico and the southern states in immense numbers. The strong south and southwest winds yesterday and today likely brought them up this far.

Dave and Linda and Ross
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I started seeing them about 7 pm, and [unusually] all were headed south, through my yard. I only counted 16 but they were averaging about one a minute.

There have been reports of huge numbers of READ just south of the great lakes, waiting for suitable warm winds.......like today.

James H.
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I, too, have experienced a fallout here in Old South this evening. I was outside around 4 pm and things started to really pick up by 5:30 when something akin to what else has been described by others happened here right up until dark. It is interesting to get a grasp of just how widespread this phenomenal event is - surely there are hundreds of thousands of butterflies involved. Did other folks in the other parts of the reporting region experience anything like this today, and at what time?

Peter [Burke]

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Yes, about 6pm on an early leafing maple behind our condo on Cadeau Terrace in Byron. I am not a butterfly namer but did definitely notice a great many.

sharon jorgensen

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We had dozens of them in our backyard this evening, in NE London, near Fanshawe CA. Some of these were in groups of up to 10 at a time. I even had a couple land on me. Never seen anything like this before! Quite a show!

Paul
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I had a few (5 - 10) through my yard at Wonderland/ Sarnia probably around 18 hr. Didn't get a good look, but looked like a mixture of Vanessa spp.

Mhairi McFarlane

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I was at Pelee last Saturday and there were hundreds of red admirals in Tildens and the Nature Trail. Also lots of Mourning cloak, comma, and some small blue ones that I wasn't sure what they were.

Ellen Smout
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At least 50 at my place near cherry hill mall. Mostly on a tree with white flowers that I'm unfamiliar with. Started around 4, peaked at around 6:30-7

John Luke Wheatley
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Tonight at 7.00 P.M. my backyard was invaded by swarms of Red Admirals.

They were swarming/buzzing all over the yard, trees and bushes. Hard to count but there were 50+ at least.

I reside in the East end of St. Thomas near Canadian Tire Store.
Regards
Jim Dunn
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I too have had my yard full of Red Admiral butterflies. They especially like the Flowering Almond tree right by my kitchen window. I feel like I am in a butterfly garden.

Wonderful,
Gail McNeil
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With the passing of the warm front there has been an impressive number of Red Admiral butterflies moving through our yard.  At 16:45 I counted 5 individuals in 3 minutes.  Along with the Painted and American lady butterflies (all three are of the same genus, Vanessa), the butterflies we see overwinter further south and migrate into our area each year. 

Hugh

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Indeed! I noticed the first Red Admiral around 5:30 PM when leaving a friend's home in Pond Mills. When I arrived home in Byron shortly after 6 PM they were all over the backyard. There were a couple of instances where a "swirl" of five or more ascended in an spiral and flew over the house.

Chris Baldcock

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