Long Point Butterfly Count 2025

Image, above: Appalacian Brown, by Len Grincevicius

Article by Adam Timpf, NFN Member and Organizer

Great Spangled Fritillary, photo by Bernie Solmar

The 34th annual Long Point Butterfly Count was held on Saturday July 5th, 2025. It was a beautifully sunny and calm day to be out hunting for butterflies, although it was a bit sweltering and staying hydrated and cool was a challenge. In total, we had 30 people spread amongst 11 parties, logging 53 party hours and 60 party kms.

Most groups commented on the lack of butterflies, but the data tells a different story. Collectively, we turned up an excellent 57 species which is above the 10-year average of 54, and just 2 below the all-time high of 59. As for individual butterflies, our total of 2742 is higher than the totals from the past 3 years, and above the all-time and 10-year averages (2611 and 2586 respectively).

I think our memories remember when we have had 4000+ butterfly count days and we expect similar results when the weather is so nice. Perhaps if we did a statistical analysis to account for variances in weather and effort over the years our comparisons would tell a different story, but regardless I think we can be confident we have healthy butterfly populations in the Long Point area.

We had some exciting finds this year including a new species for the all-time count list. As many of you will probably already know, Mottled Duskywings were reintroduced into Norfolk County in 2024 led by the Ontario Butterfly Species at Risk Recovery Team. Extirpated from Norfolk before this count began running, they are now successfully reproducing and one fresh individual was recorded on the count day, bringing the all-time species tally to 82 species.

In southern Ontario they can have 2 generations per year, and the freshness of this individual would indicate that it was from the 2nd generation in 2025. It’s exciting to have this butterfly back on the landscape, and it will be interesting to see how often they end up on the count day in the future.

Another major highlight for the count is that Two-spotted Skipper is finally back on the count with one photographed near the boat launch in Long Point Provincial Park. Having last been recorded on the count day in 2003, this skipper is fairly common out on the inaccessible parts of Long Point but is tricky to find near the base around the provincial park.

It’s possible that it has always been hiding in plain sight and gone undetected, or perhaps it had become scarcer with the spread of Phragmites and changing habitats. In any event, now we know where to look for this elusive skipper and hopefully we can find it again on future counts.

We set new count highs for:
Hickory Hairstreak – 25 (11 in 2008)
Silvery Blue – 3 (2 in 2024)
Silvery Checkerspot – 58 (53 in 2000)
Milbert’s Tortoiseshell – 4 (2 in 2015)
Mulberry Wing – 3 (ties 3 in 2020)

Other highlights and lowlights:
Harvester – 4 (last recorded in 2018, the high was 6 in 1999)
Eastern Comma – 0 (missed for the first time since 2002)
Monarch – 66 (higher than the last 3 counts and the all-time average of 52)

This Year’s Count Totals, By Species: