Our annual butterfly count was held on Saturday, August 3. Although the forecast called for nice weather, a storm front rolled in on the morning of the count. We were still hopeful we could get in a good count, but as our eight teams made up of 89 participants met at their designated starting points, the weather degraded. We pressed on and counted as many butterflies as we could, but our numbers were low and most teams called it quits at noon because of rain.
All in all we found 33 species and a total of 1,400 butterflies. In contrast, in a good year we have more than 50 species and as many as 5,000 individual butterflies. Nonetheless, we had fun! Butterflies stayed fairly still due to drizzle and cloudy conditions, so we were able to get great views of them. This was helpful especially for beginning butterfliers because we could study field identification marks. Entering the count we knew Eastern Tiger Swallowtail numbers were exceptionally high and despite the rain, tigers did not disappoint us. We totaled 848 Eastern Tiger Swallowtails – the highest count in 17 years! If it were sunny, this number (and all others) surely would have been even higher.
We thank all the people who came out for count and helped spot and identify butterflies and really appreciate the continued support and dedication to our count team leads: Joe Coleman, Larry Meade, Bob Blakney, Phil Daley, Eric Raun, Jon Little, Dirck Harris, Nicole Hamilton. And thank you Doug Cordeman for sending in count data from his property! Thank you all who came out for the count! We hope you’ll join us again next year!
Smith, Jo-Anne and Preston Burlew, Donna Quinn, Robert & Jean Trail, The Beltane Family, Vanessa Smith and her daughter Gemma, Ken Larsen, Gary Myers, Michael Ready, Julia Rottier, Syvia Shuey, Fred & Ann Bogar, Jodi Kinney Barry Pearson, Dale Ball, Libby Slavensky, Joette Borzik, Ashley Brody, Sophia Brody, Suzanne Diebes, Mary Ann Good, The Johansen Family, Bandula Karunarutnapd, Barry Marts, Susan McFarlin, Monica Neff, Mildred Porter, Donna Travostiso, Jane Yocom, Liza Young, Laura and Liam McGranaghan, Kathy Hayden, Lori Kruse, Nancy Walker, Al VanHuyck, Marcia Weidner, Joanne Levy, Sandy Burrill, Jeannette & Marie Forbes, Sharon Crowell, Sharon Moffett, Jenny Vick, Pidge Troha, Kim & Rick Norgaard, Teresa McAllister, Tom Ramsey & Nancy Goetzinger, Teresa Davenport, Casey & Candi Crichton, Ianina Dana, Phyllis Hass, Barry Sholin, Puneet Sriram Velidi, Elinor Fischer, Del Sargent, Teri Petrosino, Ginger Lucas.
See our butterfly count data here.