A Day in Quebec, Part I: Monty’s Bog

On June 18th, fellow OFNC members and butterfly enthusiasts Rick Cavasin and Larry Neily and I journeyed across the Ottawa River in search of butterflies and other wildlife around Luskville and the northwestern section of Gatineau Park. We had three specific destinations: a bog on private property (which we had permission to visit) known informally as “Monty’s Bog”, a marsh in Gatineau Park near Lac La Peche, and a meadow near the Luskville Falls parking lot at the base of the Gatineau hills. We were following in the footsteps of a group of fellow enthusiasts, including Peter Hall and Chris Lewis, who had made a similar trek a few days earlier. The goal of the outing was to find the rare and local Bog Fritillary. Monty’s Bog is the only known location in the Ottawa District where this butterfly can be found, and it has a short flight season of only a couple of weeks in mid-June. Larry and I also hoped to see the Elfin Skimmer, the smallest North American dragonfly, which Chris had described in her trip report as being the most common odonate on the bog.