Folks,
On Sunday, May 28, five of us (Bob/Nancy Baldwin, Charlie Cameron,
Elizabeth Riggs, and I) had a great day on the 12th annual Forsyth County
count. It was mostly sunny with the temperature rising from 70 to 86
degrees. It has been extremely dry in Forsyth County, 6 inches below
average so far this year.
But we still found 298 butterflies of 30 species. [In the 3 days since
the count I have encountered 5 more species in the count area.]
I had expected Reynolda Gardens to have many butterflies since it is
irrigated, but we did better on the Great Wagon Road at Bethabara and the
farm areas.
In previous years we have found large numbers of Sleepy Orange because
their host, Sicklepod, infests soybeans - but this year we had 55 Cabbage
White because everyone has grown winter wheat, which is infested with
mustard. The 14 Least Skippers were a pleasant surprise.
2 Pipevine Swallowtail also 14 eggs and 11 caterpillars on Dutchmans
Pipe
13 Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
2 Spicebush Swallowtail also 1 caterpillar on Sassafras
55 Cabbage White
8 Clouded Sulphur
19 Orange Sulphur
2 Cloudless Sulphur
11 Sleepy Orange
1 Red-Banded Hairstreak
4 Eastern-Tailed Blue
34 Azure
6 Variegated Fritillary
9 Great Spangled Fritillary
7 Silvery Checkerspot
21 Pearl Crescent
2 polygonia spp.
2 American Lady
1 Common Buckeye
2 Red-Spotted Purple
2 Gemmed Satyr
32 Carolina Satyr
0 Monarch but 2 eggs and 11 caterpillars
21 Silver-Spotted Skipper
1 Hayhurst's Scallopwing
2 Common-Checkered Skipper
3 Clouded Skipper
14 Least Skipper
1 Crossline Skipper
8 Whirlabout
8 Sachem
1 Zabulon Skipper
2 Dun Skipper
Jim Nottke
Return to Carolina
Butterfly Society Home Page