Folks:
The Wilmington, NC, count was held on Saturday, Aug. 24. Four folks --
all from the Piedmont, of course -- Derb Carter, John Dole, Will Cook,
and I -- split into two to three parties to cover the circle. The
weather was, as expected, very hot and sunny -- sultry and stifling are
proper words. High temperature in the shade reached 98 degrees. But, at
least it wasn't rainy, so the butterflies were out in force. A couple of
sad notes -- Eagle Island has been sprayed for mosquitoes (West Nile
scare, or maybe just routine spraying each year?), so it was pretty
bleak. And the drought has caused the Cape Fear River marshes --
normally quite fresh -- to be a bit brackish, and the grasses and forbs
(cattails, etc.) are quite brown, incluing the cypresses. Despite the
recent rains, the plants are soaking in all the moisture and most places
look green, but ditches and creeks are about bone dry.

We did pretty well, thanks to good success at nurseries (well watered)
and a few other places.

10 Black Swallowtail
22 E. Tiger Swallowtail but missed Giant Swallowtail
12 Spicebush Swallowtail
89 Palamedes Swallowtail
1 Cabbage White
3 Orange Sulphur
585 Cloudless Sulphur
4 Little Yellow
38 Sleepy Orange
1 Great Purple Hairstreak at a nursery!
1 Juniper Hairstreak ditto
7 Gray Hairstreak Derb saw 2 White-M on Sunday at Figure Eight
6 Red-banded Hairstreak
1 LITTLE METALMARK new record for New Hanover County, found by Will
135 Gulf Fritillary
19 Variegated Fritillary
29 Pearl Crescent
2 Painted Lady but nary an American Lady
1 Red Admiral
80 Common Buckeye
2 Red-spotted Purple
5 Viceroy
4 Carolina Satyr
9 Monarch
51 Silver-spotted Skipper
13 Long-tailed Skipper
14 Horace's Duskywing
4 Zarucco Duskywing
4 Common Checkered-Skipper
1 Swarthy Skipper
65 Clouded Skipper
6 Least Skipper
14 Southern Skipperling
74 Fiery Skipper
1 Tawny-edged Skipper
26 Whirlabout
2 Southern Broken-Dash
9 Delaware Skipper
2 Byssus Skipper but missed Rare Skipper this time
18 Broad-winged Skipper
4 Dion Skipper
2 Dukes' Skipper
9 Dun Skipper
10 Eufala Skipper
2 Twin-spot Skipper
4 Brazilian Skipper 2 at Eagle I., 2 at Tinga Nursery "big"
numbers in NC now!
107 Salt Marsh Skipper
31 Ocola Skipper

Total -- 48 species. Good numbers and diversity of "migrants". Things
like Little Yellow, Painted Lady, Long-tailed Skipper, Eufala and Ocola
Skipper, Brazilian Skipper -- can be missed in some years. Cloudless
Sulphurs are streaming N in big waves now at Figure Eight (fide Derb),
so hopefully folks near the coast in NC and SC will have a much better
late summer and fall for strays and migrants.

--
Harry LeGrand
NC Natural Heritage Program