Next Hike.

The next hike will be on Saturday, 20th September.

We meet at the Ballpark in Gillies Bay at 10:00am.

Last week we hiked to the top of Mt. Davies in unusually warm sunny weather for mid September.  My photo this week is one I took earlier in the month when we hiked along Thompson Road and up to a small shallow lake not far north-east of Thompson Bluffs.  In my experience this fairly level stretch of Thompson Road in this area has just the right conditions in the warmer months to see and photograph butterflies.  Sure enough, although it's getting late to be seeing many of these lovely but quite fragile insects, I did get a few shots of a fresh looking Pine White.  This species is locally common on Texada and most often seen at higher elevations.  The eggs are usually laid on the needles on the top branches of pine trees and the adults are mainly seen in mid to late summer.  Males and females have different wing markings with the males having white wings with sharply contrasting black blotches and veins.  The fresh looking male specimen in my photo is missing part of one wing which may have been grabbed by a bird hoping for a tasty treat.  

JD.

 Male Pine White feeding on a flower on the side of Thompson Road.