3rd annual Blowing Rock, NC Butterfly Count June 29, 2002

The 3rd annual Blowing Rock, NC, count was held this past Saturday, June
29. Despite great weather (partly cloudy and rain held off until 6 pm,
though rain the evening before kept meadows wet until mid-morning), we
had a blah count -- 31 species. I blame it simply on number of parties
-- 2 this year versus 3 the other years. This is too good a count circle
to cover with two parties. Next year, if I don't have enough experienced
folks for 3 or more parties, I will probably call it off. I drive up
from Raleigh, and I don't want to put in the effort for a lackluster
count. We can blame drought, a five-day frost period in mid-May, etc.,
for the "low" species number, but I think the butterflies were there, we
just didn't get to visit enough sites. We had six folks show up,
including Rita Venable, the editor of the NABA butterfly gardener
newsletter, who came from central TN just to visit on the count.

Here is the list:

11 Pipevine Swallowtail
31 E. Tiger Swallowtail
10 Spicebush Swallowtail
17 Cabbage White
6 Clouded Sulphur
5 Orange Sulphur very low
90 E. Tailed-Blue
79 Summer Azure
2 American Snout a surprise
8 Variegated Fritillary
2 Diana Fritillary fresh males
200 Great Spangled Fritillary
4 Aphrodite Fritillary overlooked, not scarce
13 Meadow Fritillary
2 Silvery Checkerspot
100 Pearl Crescent
1 Question Mark
3 Eastern Comma
2 American Lady
7 Red Admiral
12 Common Buckeye
7 Red-spotted Purple
1 Northern Pearly-eye
1 Gemmed Satyr a good find, making up for missing Carolina Satyr!
4 Common Wood-Nymph
190 Silver-spotted Skipper
2 Horace's Duskywing
1 Wild Indigo Duskywing
3 Little Glassywing
16 Sachem
3 Dun Skipper

Note the lack of Am. Copper, any hairstreaks, etc, and the very poor
skipper list. BTW, we had 44 species last year, so now you know why I'm
bummed at the results for the count!

--
Harry LeGrand
NC Natural Heritage Program