Eastern Comma at Point Pelee

[Steve Pike]

Spring has definitely sprung at Point Pelee as Jeremy Bensette called us and just came across a butterfly in the marsh boardwalk parking lot!  

Jeff Skevington and I raced back and sure enough an Eastern Comma made a very early first appearance which is potentially record early for Canada for this species and also possibly record early for ANY butterfly species in eastern Canada...will confirm these facts shortly but I'm pretty sure the previous record early was Feb 22nd, hopefully someone on this list can confirm.

With the unseasonably warm temps undoubtedly other record early butterfly dates could be broken...I guess it's time to start lepping!

Steve

[rick cavasin]

Great stuff!  Congratulations!

I forwarded these two recent observations to Ross Layberry, who is not on the list.  This is the response I got from him:

  Perhaps you can put this information on the list: The TEA has a record of February 22, 1998, an Eastern Comma at Point Pelee by Fred. J. Urey, in the TEA 1998 Summary, I presume that this is the one they are talking about.

  But we also have two earlier records: a sight record of a Compton Tortoiseshell on January 8, 2001 at the Morningglory Farm, by Ethan Anderman. This record came from a download of the Pembroke Field-Naturalists database of Renfrew County data, into the TEA 2013 Summary. Probably a hibernating butterfly but I will check. 

And a record of a Mourning Cloak on January 14, 2001, at Point Pelee, by Remi Buisse, in the TEA 2001 Summary. But this was listed as a record late date for Point Pelee. Does anybody know Remi Buisse?

And we will need to know the time of the two records, to see which is the earliest! 

As an aside, I wasn't planning to make my annual plea for clarity quite yet, but folks should take note that both of these observations clearly state the name of the observer, the location, the date, and the species.  They tick all the boxes for what we need to see so that we can include the observations in the Atlas database.  I would expect no less from either of these posters, but I'm just taking the opportunity to point out best practices so that folks can keep them in mind when posting their own observations in near future.

Cheers, Rick

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[rick cavasin]

Ha!  

I guess I spoke too soon.  Ross pointed out that that Steve's post doesn't actually state the date - we just assumed it was yesterday because of the weather.

Steve, could you please you please confirm the date, and if possible, the approximate time of your observation?  We're trying to see if Jeff beat you, he has already provided the time ( he took a GPS reading ). 

If you are unsure of the exact time, perhaps it might be in the EXIF data attached to the photo.

Cheers, Rick

[rick cavasin]

Thanks Jeff!

So now if somebody can read the timestamp on the text, we are all set!

On 20 February 2017 at 10:56, Jeff Skevington <jhskev...@gmail.com> wrote:

We were together. The Eastern Comma was discovered yesterday at the Marsh Boardwalk by Jeremy Bensette. He texted us and Steve Pike and I went and saw it and photographed it.

[Steve Pike]

Hey Rick, yes you're absolutely correct, I should've put the date which was Feb 19th and I checked the time I actually recieved the phone call from Jeremy Bensette (the original observer) and that was 12:56pm but I'll confirm with Jeremy tomorrow as there's obviously a delay between when he called and when he actually saw it.

Thanks and here's looking forward to another exciting season!

Steve

[rick cavasin]

No worries.  Like I said, I think the date was obvious to most everyone who looked out the window that day, but this does highlight how it could become less obvious with the passage of time.  Someone looking at that post 6 months from now might not be so sure.

The first observations of the year are a good time to remind people of the importance of clarity.  I usually wait until the end of the year to blitz through all the year's postings and enter them into a spreadsheet which I pass on to the Atlas compilers.

Over the years, we have gleaned somewhere north of 5000 observations from this list for inclusion in the Ontario Butterfly Atlas Online. That contribution to the Atlas is small, but not insignificant.

If you want to see the numbers, there's a link on the Advanced Atlas page that will bring up a table. Note that it takes a few seconds for the number crunching.  You can also just click this link:

http://www.butterfly.ontarioinsects.org/ontbutterflyatlas/CountyRecords.php?type=TEA_Source

There are still a number of years ( everything prior to 2011 I think ) that I have yet to look through.

Data from eButterfly and iNaturalist is also going into the Atlas, and people are always welcome to submit their data directly to the Atlas compilers ( instructions provided on the TEA website ).

As to who has the record for the earliest observation, the Larson family appear to have the record by almost 1 hour.

Cheers, Rick

[Steve Pike]

Excellent account and info Rick and congratulations to Jeff and Karin and for the record Jeff and I started out lepping together at least 20 years ago and a hats off to Jeff for getting me started as it's been nothing but pleasure since!

Rick or someone can you please clarify that the two previous earlier butterfly sightings are infact documneted and accepted as fact.

Also I haven't had a chance to check this if it's listed in tye butterfly atlas and is incorrect but I noticed a typo in Fred's last name which should be Urie.

Cheers,
Steve

[rick cavasin]

Hi Steve,

On 21 February 2017 at 10:11, Steve Pike <stevep...@gmail.com> wrote:

Rick or someone can you please clarify that the two previous earlier butterfly sightings are infact documneted and accepted as fact.

Ross and I have both met Ethan and he is a keen and conscientious observer.  I have no doubt that he saw a Compton Tortoiseshell on that date - the only question is, was it active, or did he just see it hibernating ( for example, in an unheated barn or shed ).  Ross is following up on that.

I'm not sure of the origin of the Mourning Cloak report from Remi Buisse, but if Ross is asking if anybody knows who it is, that must mean that he didn't get the report directly from Remi.  He says it appears in the 2001 Summary.  Maybe that's all the info that Ross has.  I looked up the Seasonal Summary in question ( all the old summaries are on the TEA website - if you're bored, there's some fun stuff in there ).   It looks like this was before Ross was writing up the summaries, so unfortunately, it's literally a summary of observations, without much detail ( unlike what Ross writes ).

The entry in the summary reads as follows:  "January 14 (1 - record late for Point Pelee)(Remi Buisse)"

If the date is correct, then "record late" would be a typo.  But maybe the month is wrong.  Maybe it should be December.   Since this is before Ross' time, my guess is that there is no paper trail to follow.

The date could be correct and it's possible that somebody found a dormant Mourning Cloak.

Unless someone can track down Mr. Buisse, we may never know.

 

Also I haven't had a chance to check this if it's listed in tye butterfly atlas and is incorrect but I noticed a typo in Fred's last name which should be Urie.

It appears to be spelled correctly in the Atlas.

Cheers, Rick

[Bob & Glenda Curry & Slessor]

The record late date for Compton's Tortoiseshell at Point Pelee is not necessarily a typo.  If the fall and early winter was mild with occurrences of this species then, probably on advice from Alan Wormington, this was deemed to be record late.

Bob

[rick cavasin]

It was a Mourning Cloak, but you make a valid point.  Late/early doesn't mean the same thing when we're talking about a hibernating species.

Does anyone remember what the winter of 2001 was like at PPNP ?

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[Steve Pike]

Hi Rick and Bob, I just returned from South Africa (wow amazing leps there!) and on my way to Spain and Morocco now and will be back in three weeks...hopefully I'll get to see that European Peacock finally.

When I return I plan on following up on this as I think I can get to the bottom of it with Bill Lamond and will let you know!

Best,
Steve