{"id":2703,"date":"2025-07-30T16:59:50","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T16:59:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.e-butterfly.org\/wordpress\/?p=2703"},"modified":"2025-07-30T16:59:50","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T16:59:50","slug":"newfoundland-butterflies-in-the-fog-and-a-surprise-bird","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.e-butterfly.org\/wordpress\/newfoundland-butterflies-in-the-fog-and-a-surprise-bird\/","title":{"rendered":"Newfoundland \u2013 butterflies in the fog and a surprise bird"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Peter Hall<\/p>\n

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The island of Newfoundland in eastern Canada is called The Rock by locals. Most of this sea-bound province is dominated by rocky coastline and boreal interior. It is subject to a foggy, cool climate but, despite that, it has some intriguing butterfly inhabitants.<\/p>\n

In a one-week visit in early July to the Avalon Peninsula (the easternmost point of North America) my wife Judy and I encountered mostly days of rain and fog, but when the sun shone, the butterflies came out. Highest on my list of target species was the maritime Canadian endemic Short-tailed Swallowtail. This black and yellow\/orange species is usually found on rocky headlands and that is where we found it in three locations despite high temperatures of only 15 degrees Celsius. One tough butterfly!<\/p>\n

Other desired species were mostly northern ones with ranges extending across the Canadian arctic and boreal forests reaching their most eastern distribution in Newfoundland. On the few sunny days, we found some of these along the coasts, including Canadian Tiger Swallowtails, Arctic Blues, Northern Blues and Pink-edged Sulphurs.<\/p>\n

While butterflies were few, some of the other wildlife kept us entertained. On many days, we saw three species of whales close to shore hunting the shoals of small fish called capelin. They were joined by seals and dolphins and many species of sea birds. Along the rugged coastline, large colonies of gannets, murres, razorbills, puffins and kittiwakes were joined by several species of storm-petrels and shearwaters.<\/p>\n

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The ultimate bird prize, however, was the surprise encounter of a bird way out of its normal Siberian range. Unbeknownst to me when I booked a cabin on Trinity Bay in the north Avalon, the famous Stellar\u2019s Sea Eagle that had spent the last four years making its way from Alaska to Texas to maritime eastern Canada had taken up residence one-half hour drive away. On our second attempt to see it, we found it interacting with a pair of Bald Eagles with an active nest in a river valley. All views were distant through a scope from the other side of the river, but amazing to observe.<\/p>\n

Newfoundland may be a \u2018foggy rock\u2019 but fascinating to visit for its butterflies and other wildlife. All my butterfly sightings are now on eButterfly.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite Newfoundland’s reputation as a foggy, cool maritime province, this rugged island offers surprising delights for nature enthusiasts. During a week-long July expedition to the Avalon Peninsula, persistent rain and fog couldn’t dampen the excitement of discovering the region’s remarkable wildlife. When fleeting moments of sunshine broke through the mist, hardy butterflies emerged\u2014including the prized Short-tailed Swallowtail, a maritime Canadian endemic that thrives on rocky headlands even in chilly 15-degree temperatures. But the ultimate surprise came in the form of a legendary vagrant: a Stellar’s Sea Eagle, thousands of miles from its Siberian home, sharing river valley territory with nesting Bald Eagles in one of nature’s most extraordinary cross-continental encounters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8,7,9,6,20],"tags":[],"better_featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.e-butterfly.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2703"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.e-butterfly.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.e-butterfly.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.e-butterfly.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.e-butterfly.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2703"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.e-butterfly.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2707,"href":"https:\/\/www.e-butterfly.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2703\/revisions\/2707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.e-butterfly.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.e-butterfly.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.e-butterfly.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}