Folks:

Just as I was disappointed at the meager 41 species at Wilmington, I feel good about the 41 we had at Croatan NF. That is because we spent all our time in natural habitats, and so gardens, fields, etc., aren't covered. And, even though this is the 3rd year for the count, we still have had just one party -- mainly because I don't like to split parties if the threat of rain is very real (and we have to quit the count early). Yes, it rained before 9 am, but the rain held off, and we had 60% sun most of the day. Of course, the dew point was close to 80 degrees, and the jungles of the Amazon aren't this bad! John Finnegan, Stephanie Horton, Will Cook, and Randy Emmitt helped out, and we had a very good time, and 3 of us stayed till 4:30. We again covered 3 main areas. I sure want to split up next year, but only if there is little threat of rain until mid or late afternoon.

Here's what we got (we also had 41 last year, and I think in the 30s in 1999). The flowers were in good shape, thanks to normal conditions. The butterfly scarcity elsewhere, including Wilmington, was little evident here, except for the scarcity of the southern migrants.

2 Black Swallowtail
5 E. Tiger Swallowtail
6 Spicebush Swallowtail
40 Palamedes Swallowtail
1 Cabbage White
20 Cloudless Sulphur ridiculously low
12 Sleepy Orange
2 Great Purple Hairstreak I knew they had to be on those big inflorescences of Aralia spinosa!
3 Gray Hairstreak
20 Red-banded Hairstreak
2 E. Tailed-Blue
6 Summer Azure
2 Little Metalmark too early to hit third brood with any numbers
1 Variegated Fritillary and, some big orange butterfly (Gulf Frit.??) got away
12 Pearl Crescent
1 Painted Lady
4 Red Admiral
5 Common Buckeye where are they?
2 Red-spotted Purple
2 Viceroy
1 pearly-eye sp. flew in front of my car, but flew into woods and not relocated
22 Carolina Satyr
30 Georgia Satyr
2 Common Wood-Nymph
3 Monarch
1 Hoary Edge the rarest species of the day, and NO Silver-spotteds! Amazing!
4 Southern Cloudywing but, alas, nary a duskywing
7 Swarthy Skipper
25 Clouded Skipper
5 Least Skipper
8 Tawny-edged Skipper
3 Southern Broken-Dash
2 Little Glassywing tough to find around here
11 Arogos Skipper apparently a state one-day record; all at the known site
8 Delaware Skipper
4 Zabulon Skipper
1 Dun Skipper
12 Lace-winged Roadside-Skipper
60 Carolina Roadside-Skipper record NC count and record NABA butterfly count; most common species of the day!!
1 Reversed Roadside-Skipper
40 Twin-spot Skipper perhaps new NABA count record --

Harry LeGrand
harry.legrand@ncmail.net