Today I posted a collection of butterfly photos from a trip I made to a field where Common Buckeyes have been consistently reported in recent weeks. This is a common garden butterfly south of Canada, but here in Canada it is only common in the southern parts of Ontario. This far north the Common Buckeye is considered a rare migrant and even the most ardent butterfly observers in my area would be lucky to spot them once every few years or so.
 
According to our local butterfly experts, Common Buckeyes have established small, very localized populations this far north in the past. These populations are likely established by females migrating into the area and laying eggs. These eggs then hatch, the locally born butterflies mate and lay more eggs, which then hatch and so on until winter when the population, unable to survive winter this far north, dies out. This last time this happened was 1981 and this year it appears to be happening again. Being a rare migrant, there is no place to go out and look for these butterflies. They are one of those "had to be there when it happened" type of sightings, but this locally established population presented an opportunity to seek them out with odds of actually seeing one similar to seeing any of our other established uncommon butterfly species.
 
When I visited the field, with luck, I spotted one Common Buckeye soon after I arrived, but it was a short encounter and once it was over I didn't see another in the 45 minutes or so I remained in the field. I managed to get two good photos before a second Common Buckeye came along to chase away the individual I was photographing. Both disappeared off into the distance and that was it. I still had a good 3-4 minutes with the first Common Buckeye and that was all I needed to get a good look and photos.
 
There was an abundance of other butterflies in the field too with impressive numbers of Meadow Fritillary and Eastern Tailed Blue. There were also good numbers of Silver-bordered Fritillary and Viceroys present and ones or twos of Orange Sulphur and Black Swallowtail. I had never seen so many Eastern Tailed Blues at once.