Butterfliers,
At gathering time in the Museum of Life and Science parking lot in Durham
on the morning of the Durham Butterfly Count this past Sunday (8/10/08),
about 20 butterfliers questioned both their sanity and the local weather
forecasters as we sat in our cars and stood under umbrellas in the pouring
rain. The forecast predicted a day of partly cloudy, upper 80s and a 30%
chance of isolated showers. Hmmm, we were getting soaked! The radar,
however, was encouraging as it showed the system moving through
early, giving hope that we might yet salvage a day of butterflying.
So we waited for a couple of hours and our spirits brightened with the
skies. By 10:30 or so we set out for various destinations and by 11am
were kicking up a few leps out of the wet vegetation.
This auspicious start combined with last year's major drought had several
of us wondering if we'd see many (or any!) butterflies on this year's
count. But by the end of the day, we were a pretty happy bunch and, in
ten years of conducting this survey, had tallied an impressive 3,430
individual butterflies, comprising 59 species (one short of the all time
record), and TWO FIRST COUNT RECORDS!
Brian Bockhahn & Ricky Davis found a first count record worn GULF
FRITILLARY, of which Ricky got a nice photo. But Will Cook's group stole
the show with a first count record and ~5th state record GREAT SOUTHERN
WHITE, that flew up, perched briefly with slightly open wings, and then
flew off. Excellent details of the sighting were written up in the field.
Other great finds of the day included Harry LeGrand's second count record
of WHITE M HAIRSTREAK (two of them in fact!), a NORTHERN CLOUDYWING and a
EUFALA SKIPPER both found by Brian & Ricky, and a LITTLE YELLOW found by
Will's group. Tom Krakauer's group found the only Clouded Sulphurs
of the count and Randy Emmitt's group succesfully located a few of
the Appalachian Brown colony in the count area. Thanks to all the nectar
plants in the Duke Gardens, Jeff Pippen's group tallied the most
individual butterflies with 1136 (most of which were skippers)! And Will
Cook's group tallied the highest species number by a single group of 41.
We set new all time Durham Count high numbers for Pipevine Swallowtail
(22), Eastern Tailed-Blue (352), Common Wood-Nymph (10), and Wild Indigo
Duskywing (14). No new all-time record low numbers were set except for
the big miss of Eastern Comma (first time ever missed on this count). Our
other big miss of the day was Tawny Emperor (second time ever missed on
this count). In the "missed by a day" category, Randy Emmitt found a
Great Purple Hairstreak in his count area the day after the count. Had it
been present the day of the count, it would have been only the second ever
on the Durham Count and we would have tied our all time species record!
Overall, it was a great day and I wish to thank Uli Hartmond and The
Museum of Life & Science for providing a meeting location for our
compilation and free admission to the facility on count day. I also thank
all of the participants who helped out! I believe Dave & Marty Kastner
win the prize of having traveled the longest distance to participate
(South Carolina), followed closely by Bob & Nancy Baldwin from the NC
mountains. Thanks to everyone: Bob & Nancy Baldwin, Brian Bockhahn, Will
Cook, Ricky Davis, Wendy Elliott, Randy Emmitt, Ted Gilliland, Cyndy
Hummel, Clinton Jenkins, Dave & Marty Kastner, Tom Krakauer, Harry
LeGrand, Allison Leidner, Jennifer Maher, Owen McConnell, Meg Millard, Jim
Nottke, Jeff Pippen, Freddie-Jeanne Richard, and Carl Rothfels.
Here are the count totals:
Pipevine Swallowtail 22
Black Swallowtail 15
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail 62
Spicebush Swallowtail 29
Cabbage White 8
GREAT SOUTHERN WHITE 1
Clouded Sulphur 9
Orange Sulphur 12
Cloudless Sulphur 155
Little Yellow 3
Sleepy Orange 67
Juniper Hairstreak 2
White M Hairstreak 2
Gray Hairstreak 25
Red-banded Hairstreak 16
Eastern Tailed-Blue 352
Summer Azure 12
American Snout 3
GULF FRITILLARY 1
Variegated Fritillary 76
Great Spangled Fritillary 3
Silvery Checkerspot 1
Pearl Crescent 171
Question Mark 10
American Lady 22
Red Admiral 6
Common Buckeye 253
Red-spotted Purple 8
Viceroy 21
Hackberry Emperor 18
Northern Pearly-Eye 17
Appalachian Brown 2
Gemmed Satyr 2
Carolina Satyr 25
Common Wood-Nymph 10
Monarch 86
Silver-spotted Skipper 171
Hoary Edge 10
Southern Cloudywing 3
Northern Cloudywing 1
Horace's Duskywing 29
Zarucco Duskywing 1
Wild Indigo Duskywing 14
Com. Checkered-Skipper 33
Swarthy Skipper 8
Clouded Skipper 101
Least Skipper 42
Fiery Skipper 525
Tawny-edged Skipper 2
Crossline Skipper 16
Southern Broken-Dash 41
Northern Broken-Dash 1
Little Glassywing 32
Sachem 713
Delaware Skipper 3
Zabulon Skipper 122
Dun Skipper 21
Eufala Skipper 1
Ocola Skipper 10
butterfly sp. 3
caterpillars 33
Total parties 6
Total party hours 31
Total party miles 23
Total garden watchers 0
Good Butterflying!
Jeff
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Jeffrey S. Pippen
Nicholas School of the Environment
Rm A-241 LSRC Bldg, Box 90328
Duke University, Durham, NC 27708
PH: (919) 660-7278
http://www.duke.edu/~jspippen/nature.htm
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