Belated results, but here they are!

The fourth ever Rockingham County butterfly count was held on 8/28/14 with mostly clear skies and temperatures ranging from 78-90 degrees. Six observers in two parties tallied 42 species and 857 butterflies. 224 of those were Sachem, 138 Eastern tailed Blue. Just to give you an idea of how bad this year has been for butterflies, let’s take a look at the numbers of last years most numerous butterflies! Last year we had 1101 Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, this year only 12! Carolina Satyr went from 582 to 83 and Silver-spotted skipper from 271 to 22.

One species was new to the park area, though long overdue: Red-banded Hairstreak.

Misses were: Black Swallowtail, Cabbage White, Cloudless Sulphur, Question Mark or Eastern Comma, Painted Lady, Red Admiral and Common Wood-nymph.

Many thanks to the counters!

2-Pipevine Swallowtail
12-Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
8-Spicebush Swallowtail
3-Clouded Sulphur
3-Little Yellow
9-Sleepy Orange
3-Gray Hairstreak
1-Red-banded Hairstreak
138-Eastern Tailed-blue
95-Summer Azure
3-Variegated Fritillary
33-Great Spangled Fritillary
6-Silvery Checkerspot
6-Pearl Crescent
1-American Lady
32-Common Buckeye
26-Red-spotted Purple
1-Viceroy
3-Hackberry Emperor
3-Tawny Emperor
21-Northern Pearly-eye
7-Gemmed Satyr
83-Carolina Satyr
2-Monarch
22-Silver-spotted Skipper
2-Horace’s Duskywing
3-Common Checkered-skipper
3-Swarthy Skipper
2-Clouded Skipper
7-Least Skipper
1-Fiery Skipper
2-Tawny-edged Skipper
9-Crossline Skipper
4-Southern Broken-dash
6-Northern Broken-dash
2-Little Glassywing
224-Sachem
36-Deleware Skipper
29-Zabulon Skipper
2-Dun Skipper
2-Ocola Skipper

857 INDIVIDUALS
41 SPECIES

—
Brian Bockhahn
birdranger248@gmail.com