My wife and I recently returned from a two week vacation in the Canadian Maritimes. We visited Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick go to various scenic sights, cultural locations and partaking of local eateries (which was excellent with fresh seafood in most cases). Prince Edward Island’s provincial capital is Charlottetown while Fredericton is the capital of New Brunswick. PEI is the home of many Potato farms and Pottery artisans. It is surrounded by the Northumberland Strait and the Gulf of St. Lawerence. Access is by plane, boat or the 8 mile long Confederation Bridge via New Brunswick. Most residents of PEI are of Scottish and Irish ancestry. It contains many beautiful churches, some in the old Gothic style.
We did manage to walk a bit in one of the few remaining “old growth” forests on the island and found a rare Satyr Comma. In addition Cabbage Whites, Northern Crescents, Clouded Sulphurs, a Monarch and one European Skipper was found. On New Brunswick we saw two endemic species which are only found in Salt Marsh habitats; the Salt Marsh Copper and Maritime Ringlet, the later only being found in about 10 colonies around the Chaleur Bay region. Other notables were Pink-edged Sulphur and Common Branded Skipper. I’ll throw in one non-lep photo here as we visited Hartland, NB one day which has the longest covered bridge in the world at 1,282 feet across the St. John river. We dipped on two other target species; Dorcas Copper and Short-tailed Swallowtail so perhaps there is another trip in our future. I hope so. Butterflies aside it was a very enjoyable, beautiful and relaxing time.
Click on any image below to enlarge
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |