With National Volunteer Week now underway, it’s an ideal time to reflect on the role people play in protecting Ontario’s biodiversity. Community science is one meaningful way to get involved. And as spring returns to Ontario, pollinators begin to reappear in fields, forests, wetlands, and gardens making them a natural group of species to observe for community science programs.

While these sightings may feel routine, they are becoming less predictable for many species. Pollinator populations are declining due to habitat loss, pesticide exposure (especially neonicotinoids), disease, invasive species, and climate change. These threats are reshaping where species can survive and fragmenting habitats that once supported stable populations. Getting involved as a volunteer observer is one of the most direct ways to support pollinator conservation in Ontario.

Why Pollinator Sightings Matter

Pollinators — such as bees, butterflies, moths, and even birds — are important indicators of ecosystem health. They support plant reproduction and help sustain food webs across the province and country. Because many species depend on specific plants or habitats, even small environmental changes can have significant impacts.

This also makes pollinators especially valuable for community science. Each observation helps researchers track biodiversity changes across Ontario over time.

Pollinators at Risk in Ontario

Under the Endangered Species Act, 2007, many species at risk received legal protection. However, Ontario’s new Species Conservation Act, 2025, introduced through Bill 5, changes how species are protected and may reduce protections for some, including certain pollinators.

Monarch (Endangered in Canada / Special Concern in Ontario)

Herbicides and insecticides reduce milkweed, a crucial piece of the Monarch’s breeding habitat. Their long-distance migration also exposes them to threats such as habitat loss and declining wildflower availability.

Rusty-patched Bumble Bee (Endangered)

Once common in southern Ontario, this species has declined sharply. The last confirmed observation records in Canada come from two Ontario Parks, Pinery Provincial Park (2009) and St. Williams Conservation Reserve (2000).

Mottled Duskywing (Endangered)

This butterfly depends on rare oak woodlands and plants such as the New Jersey Tea and Prairie Redroot. These habitats are limited and fragmented, making populations vulnerable.

West Virginia White (Special Concern)

An early spring butterfly that depends on Two-leaved Toothwort. Invasive garlic mustard is a threat to this species as it disrupts egg laying behaviour.

Yellow-banded Bumble Bee (Special Concern)

An early spring pollinator of wild plants and crops such as blueberries and apples. This bumble bee’s abundance has decreased in Ontario and is associated with habitat loss, pesticide exposure, climate change, and disease.

Contribute your Sightings

If you spot these or other species, you can contribute to community science projects:

• Butterflies and moths can be recorded through the Ontario Butterfly Atlas and the Butterflies in My Backyard project
• Bumble bees can be reported via Bumble Bee Watch
• Birds via Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas
• Reptiles and Amphibians via Ontario Reptile and Amphibian Atlas

You can also join the global community of iNaturalist users to share and verify observations. The Natural Heritage Information Centre has a Rare Species of Ontario project.

The Ethics of Observation

Observe wildlife responsibly to avoid disturbance and ensure useful data. Follow A Nature Viewer’s Code of Ethics and be aware that many species are protected under Ontario’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act and Canada’s Species at Risk Act.

Every observation matters. Whether you notice pollinators in your garden, birds overhead, or frogs in a wetland, your sightings contribute to a better understanding of Ontario’s ecosystems—and how they are changing.

“How about doing a moth survey at Sydenham?”

“A moss survey?” Asked Roberta Buchanan, local property steward for Sydenham River Nature Reserve, who didn’t quite hear me while we were walking outside.

“No, moths. Like a nocturnal equivalent to the butterfly survey. Who knows what we’ll find?”

It was 2023. I knew how unique the reserve was through my involvement with the annual butterfly and breeding bird surveys, and I suspected this oasis of biodiversity had fantastic potential for moths.

Compared to their diurnal counterparts, moths are relatively under-surveyed. Most species are nocturnal and inconspicuous, and documenting them requires specialized survey techniques – sheets and live traps baited with light or food. It also requires dedicated surveyors willing to stay up all night!

On the evening of June 24, 2024, a team of volunteers (Roberta Buchanan, Mark Buchanan, Paul Carter, Pete Chapman, Scott Connop, Deryl Nethercott, Dale Buchner, and myself) from Lambton Wildlife set up two light sheets and two traps across the Sydenham River Nature Reserve property. We documented hundreds of individual moths well into the night, and even more when we opened the traps the following morning. Then came the real fun: sorting through thousands of photos and identifying every moth.

Identifying all these moths is no trivial task. There are over 3,000 species of moths in Ontario, so field guides include only the most common species. Encountering moths that aren’t in the guide is common, and several groups of moths are notoriously hard to identify, even for experienced moth-ers. My approach is to photograph every moth, upload these photos to iNaturalist with my tentative ID, and wait for confirmation by a moth expert. For those who don’t know, iNaturalist is an online platform where you can post photos or recordings of an organism and crowdsource identifications from experts all over the world.

To keep track of the growing species list, I created an iNaturalist project which automatically consolidates all the moth observations from the property. The strength of this approach is that it stays current, as taxonomic changes and revised identifications will update the species list automatically. This makes it more reliable over time than a static checklist, which inevitably becomes outdated. As of 2026, we have documented 196 species of moth that first night, 13 of which are considered vulnerable at some level. After a second survey in May 2025, the total moth species count at Sydenham River Nature Reserve stands at 328, including 30 vulnerable species.

Fast forward to July 2025. I was checking my iNaturalist and saw there was a comment on one of my moth observations from the 2024 survey. Someone disagreed with my identification of what I believed to be a common white-fringed emerald, suggesting instead a species I hadn’t heard of – a Tuscarora emerald.

I quickly checked the range map, and my excitement spiked: this was a very rare moth, with only about fifty observations, all from the eastern United States – mostly localized populations in the Appalachians. If this was actually a Tuscarora emerald, it would likely represent the first record for Canada.

The identifier, Daniel Kluza (d_kluza on iNaturalist), a New Zealand-based biologist and iNaturalist taxonomy curator, pointed out a critical detail: our moth lacked the pure white spot on top of the abdomen which is present on the white-fringed emerald. This was a subtle difference, but potentially a decisive one. I needed a second opinion.

I reached out to Seabrooke Leckie, co-author of the Peterson Field Guide to Moths of Northeastern North America, and asked what she thought of it. Her response was unequivocal:

“I pulled out the Moths Of North America fascicle for this group to have a look at the official description of both species, Tuscarora and White-fringed, and I agree that this is Tuscarora. What a find!… Besides the presence/absence of the white spot at the base of the abdomen, the fascicle also says the white costa is very narrowly bordered inwardly by an apricot colour, and the AM and PM lines are wider than in White-fringed, both of which appear present here. There are no other eastern species that have both the white fringe and no markings on the abdomen.”

What makes this record especially meaningful is not just the rarity of Tuscarora emerald, but the way in which it was found. It was the result of methodical work by a team of volunteer community scientists, combined with the expertise of moth specialists. Not too long ago, access to such expertise was a significant roadblock, but it’s now easily facilitated through platforms such as iNaturalist.

We don’t know if this observation represents a previously overlooked population, a vagrant individual, or a northern range expansion driven by climate change. What is clear, however, is that protected places like Sydenham River Nature Reserve continue to demonstrate their conservation value in unexpected ways. When we take the time to look closely and collaboratively at under-surveyed groups like moths, we reveal hidden layers of biodiversity, uncovering the true richness of landscapes we thought we already knew.