Date: 06/28/2007

Number: 1

This may be off topic, but since many birders also have an interest in butterflies, I want to alert you to their apparent invasion of Alberta. Perhaps this is another sign of Global Warming. These are the first that I have seen in Calgary in my 14 years here.

Monarchs are showing up in small numbers. I have now seen four of them in the last six days. Dr. Ted Pike, Calgary's authority on Butterflies, saw two at Morleyville last Sat. and said that they had also been reported at Edmonton. Normally, they only enter into Alberta in the Lethbridge-Medicine Hat zone, the natural limit of the Showy Milkweed.
Monarch Butterfly larvae feed on the leaves of Milkweed, which are laced with toxins. A young, inexperienced bird will attack and eat a Monarch, but then gets ill and vomits, and will never again attempt to eat this species, or its similar look-alike, the Viceroy.

Contributed by Don Davis

Calgary, AB

Latitude: 51 Longitude: -114.1

Observed by: Donald A.
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