The Butterfly Effect

It's a term from chaos theory, and in Toronto 'the butterfly effect' means you will never ever see any butterflies in the areas the city has created to attract butterflies. Where can you see them? Well, really, they could show up in most any park or backyard. And with their big colourful wings, you can get some great images without any specialized equipment, which isn't true of other insects.

Of course, you could go to the Toronto Zoo or the Humber Nurseries Butterfly Conservatory to get some shots, but that would be cheating. Realize that any images taken at those spots do not count as wildlife photography.
 

 

Pictured here, in order:  a Wood Satyr, a Female Cabbage White, a Skipper, a shy Acadian Hairstreak, and a pretty lame image of a Monarch. I apologize for that, however Monarchs are kind of like Canada Geese in that they're so common they get taken for granted, so when you need a good shot of one you never have it.

And be sure to check here and here if you think butterflies are always more attractive than their moth cousins.

Click, as we say, to enlarge.

 

The Short French Tyrant Bird

What's the rarest creature ever featured at Toronto Wildlife? Hm...difficult to say. Probably none of the wildllife in our index is actually endangered, so the question is maybe, what specimen are you least likely to see?

Possibly - though it is open to debate - this is your winner.

This is the Bonaparte's Gull. They aren't really named after Napolean, but rather his nephew, ornithologist Charles Lucien Bonaparte. They only have a black head during breeding season, while the rest of the year they look like most any other seagull at a quick glance. They are reasonably plentiful around the city, however you just don't catch them in black head configuration too often. At least I don't, and I was only able to snap a couple of quick shots of this customer before he was gone.

Be aware that these birds can be mistaken for the Common Tern, and vice versa.

Taken at Cranberry Marsh. Click to enlarge.

Baltimore Orioles

Another longtime quest of Toronto Wildlife has been to get a shot of a Baltimore Oriole and a (Toronto) Blue Jay side by side. Sadly, they don't seem to hang out that much, if ever. Spring is a good time to find these birds, because they love blossoms, apple blossoms especially. And, if you're wondering, the baseball team is named after the birds, not the other way around. The birds got the Baltimore moniker because their colours match Lord Baltimore's coat-of-arms.

In previous years I would also have thrown in some kind of dis of the baseball Orioles, except as of today they're leading the AL East. Grrr.

Click to enlarge.

Hawkeye

As we've briefly touched on before, identifying hawks in this part of the world can be tricky. This is especially true when trying to distinguish a Cooper's Hawk from a Sharp-shinned Hawk. In this case, the highly-credentialed Toronto Wildlife bird identification brain trust believes this to be a Sharp-shinned Hawk. Click to get a better look for yourself. A Red-tailed Hawk would only have the dark bars farther down on its belly.

There was also a debate as to whether this shot should be published at all since it was taken at the Kortright Conservation Centre in Woodbridge. But, really, if we've already decided that Whitby is in Toronto, then Woodbridge qualifies. If you've never been there, the Kortright is a great place to visit, though you should be prepared for lots of walking and you do have to pay for parking.