Alberta Butterflies 1 – Canadian Tiger Swallowtail
by Dusty ~ August 14th, 2010. Filed under: On The Road, Other Ramblings.A number of pictures of Tiger Swallowtails have been doing the rounds on Twitter this week. This stimulated me to do a bit of research on which of the three North American species I had seen hawking over clover at Beaverhill Lake Bird Observatory, near Tofield, Alberta.
Put simply the Tiger Swallowtails were split into three distinct species. The Eastern, Western and the Canadian. All over Alberta I encountered this wonderful butterfly, drinking at ponds, feeding on various plants and generally hanging out in groups of anything up to ten individuals.
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A small meadow amongst the aspen woods that surround the Beaverhill Bird Observatory was full of blooming clovers and other prairie plants. And amongst the bees and a couple of other butterflies were at least ten Canadian Tiger Swallowtails. Wonderful. Beautiful. Delicate.
