By Jeremy Hatt

I am excited to announce that ECFNC now has a Butterfly Committee! The Butterfly Committee is devoted to tracking, conserving, and educating on butterflies in Essex County.

Zabulon Skipper and Pearl Crescent

As a brand new Committee, there is still a lot of work to be done but we have completed a few primary tasks to get things up and running!

  • Created an eButterfly account for the Club to input noteworthy and historical records into the database (the Club has a similar eBird account for the same purpose).
  • Created an eButterfly Project titled “Butterflies of Essex County” to gather all eButterfly data across our region. The Butterflies of Essex County Project can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/yfurkfk5.
  • Created an iNaturalist Project titled “Butterflies of Essex County” to gather all butterfly sightings across our region. This is an excellent resource to browse sightings and photos of the butterflies in our area. The Butterflies of Essex County iNaturalist Project can be found here: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/butterflies-of-essex-county.

Longer-term goals:

  • Publishing an annual report of notable sightings in Essex County.
  • Partnering with Point Pelee National Park to help bring back an annual Point Pelee butterfly count starting in 2026.
  • Holding butterfly outings in Essex County or a “Big Butterfly Weekend” to gather more data county-wide.
  • Teaching members and the public about eButterfly to increase the amount of data available on butterflies in Essex County.
  • Educating members and the public on native gardening to attract butterflies including planting host plants for specific species and what flowers are beneficial for nectaring.

Summer Azures and Wild Indigo Duskywing

If you are interested in getting involved w/ the Committee or have any questions/suggestions regarding the Committee, please contact me at .

Here are a few online resources to learn more about butterflies in our area:

Butterflies of Ontario: https://www.ontariobutterflies.ca/home
Ontario Butterfly Atlas: https://www.ontarioinsects.org/atlas/