Best of Summer
Join the Flutter Nuts
Butterflies rule the gardens of the Humber Bay Habitat By Mark Pupo
Image credit: Stockbyte /
Maxximages.com (top), Natural History
Museum, London (bottom)
Butterflies have been accused of everything from causing hurricanes to taking all the glory after the caterpillar’s hard work—when in fact they’re mostly preoccupied with collecting tree sap, flower nectar and dung. The city’s biggest purpose-built park for the moth’s better-looking cousin is an anomaly of winding paths and greenery at the lake’s edge, south of Etobicoke’s industrial parks and post-war bungalows. Lepidopterists are no less fanatical than bird watchers (who prefer the Leslie Spit). They have associations and meetings, and share tips on the best binoculars (6x to 8x magnification). The devoted bunch congregates here to welcome the monarchs home from Mexico, and to spy on mourning cloaks, viceroys, red admirals, eastern tiger swallowtails and American painted ladies (sleazier names don’t necessarily mean more personality). Volunteers have sown the plot with butterfly-friendly fragrant sumac, pussy willows, lavender and such wildflowers as swamp milkweed and columbine. The flora also provides homes for blue jays, which consider the butterflies a delicacy. Even hardened insect-phobes won’t object to the blowsy garden view, the closest Lake Ontario’s shore comes to its pre-settlement self. Lake Shore Blvd. w. and Park Lawn Rd.
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