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Counting butterflies is one of those things that sound easy but isn’t. Six of us are squinting and sweating in the morning sun, cameras and binoculars in hand, in the Peterson Butterfly Garden in Northern Virginia, and the butterflies are thick. Our goal today is to conduct a census of the butterflies in this garden and several neighboring fields.
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The trailhead was quiet this year. 4 Mountain bikers were all we saw during our hike. When we started the temperature was 59 degrees and at 1:00 pm when we heard thunder and started heading back to the car, the temp was only marginally higher: 64 degrees. Clouds and wind kept the butterfly activity down. A lot of plants like AZ Thistle, Elkweed and Butterfly Weed were almost blooming, but not quite yet. I would suggest going back there in a few weeks on an all sunny day.
Total list for the group: 23 species.
Orange Sulphur 1, Dainty Sulphur 3, Bramble Hairstreak 1, Gray Hairstreak 1, Marine Blue 3, Ceraunus Blue 1, Spring “Echo” Azure 5, Acmon Blue 4, Western Tailed Blue 1, Northwestern Fritillary 12 (Atlantis), Mylitta Crescent 10, Field Crescent 6, Satyr Comma 1, Common Buckeye 2, Tropical Buckeye 1, Red-spotted Admiral 1, Weidemeyer’s Admiral 1, Canyonland Satyr 1, Silver-spotted Skipper 7, Golden-banded Skipper 1, Northern Cloudywing 3, Duskywing sp. 1 (with white fringes), Deva Skipper 1 (pictured).
I want to thank all participants for their company. Please don’t hesitate to email me with your photos and butterfly ID questions. -- Marceline VandeWater (trip leader).
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A small group of butterfly enthusiasts joined our May fieldtrip. The weather was perfect. Butterflying was still a bit slow after a cool Spring, but finding a Soapberry Hairstreak definitely made up for that. It was a lifer for most of us!
Total list of 19 species:
6 Pipevine Swallowtail, 1 Checkered White, 2 Sleepy Orange, 1 Orange Sulphur, 5 Cloudless Sulphur, 3 Southern Dogface, 6 Dainty Sulphur, 2 Reakirt's Blue, 19 Marine Blue, 1 Soapberry Hairstreak, 1 Mormon Metalmark, 5 Western Pygmy Blue, 8 American Snout, 6 Elada Checkerspot, 1 Texan Crescent, 2 Empress Leilia, 1 Mourning Cloak, 4 Queen and 1 Duskywing sp. -- Marceline VandeWater (tripleader)
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Here is an up-date on how our visit went with the Double Circle Ranch.
Marceline and I had a great visit up in Clifton May 14-16. I am working with them as part of a community project to help build a butterfly garden. A grant letter was written so they might be able to receive a grant to help build this garden. Marceline will provide them with an informative butterfly identification brochure.
The owners, Wilma and Doug are great people and were very kind to us. Marceline helped them identify 50 different species of birds on their property and we found 26 species of butterflies in the area. We also saw three different species of snakes, a fox, Antelope, White-tailed Deer, Javelina and a very large Jackrabbit. I did a presentation on butterflies and HALF THE NEIGHBORHOOD showed up. Okay, there are only 12 people that live in this area where Wilma and Doug live so 6 of them showed up for the presentation. They enjoyed it very much.
Wilma and Doug and friends will prep the ground where we decided it was the best spot to start their garden. I have a list of nurseries in Safford and will find out what plants are available (to support local business). I also will write a letter to Home Depot to see if they can donate a gift card towards this project.
Amazingly, Wilma and Doug have already received over $1 million in grant money for their ranch. They have used that grant money to make their ranch eco-friendly like running on solar power. They also built overnight facilities to accommodate groups for birding-, photography- and team building workshops. Soon butterfly workshops can be added to the list…
We are happy to be community partners with Wilma and Doug and be able to share our passion of butterflies with others. -- Adriane Grimaldi (teamleader)
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Eleven of us enjoyed a beautiful morning in the main canyon and the picturesque side canyon, which had more water than usual, resulting in many pretty small waterfalls. Although the number and diversity of butterflies was not as large as in some previous years, 26 species were identified, including the specialty of the side canyon – the Yucca Giant-Skipper. An interesting sight was that of the groups of caterpillars of the Mourning Cloak that had just hatched and were beginning to eat the leaves of the willow tree they were on.
The 2 species of sulphurs, that had not been seen in Rackensack, were observed at the Sears Kay Ruin picnic area. Three species were added to our Rackensack/Sears Kay Ruin Checklist: Mylitta Crescent, Common Sootywing, and Funereal Duskywing. As usual there were good numbers of Variable Checkerspots using the colorful patches of verbena.
We were fortunate to have some knowledgeable botanists on the trip, so were able to identify more than 45 plant species and add some new ones to the basic Rackensack plantlist.
Total list: Pipevine Swallowtail 3, Two-tailed Swallowtail 6, Sara Orangetip 8, “Pima” Desert Orangetip 1, Sleepy Orange 1, Orange Sulphur 1, “Martin’s” Square-spotted Blue 1, Acmon Blue 2, Elada Checkerspot 3, Variable Checkerspot 12, California Patch 2, Red Admiral 1, Painted Lady 1, West-coast Lady 2, Sagebrush Checkerspot 1, Mylitta Checkerspot 1, Mourning Cloak 3, Northern White-Skipper 1, Common Streaky-Skipper 2, Golden-headed Scallopwing 1, Common Sootywing 1, Funereal Duskywing 3, Common/White Checkered Skipper 8, Orange Skipperling 1, Giant Skipper sp. 1, Yucca Giant-Skipper 2.
-- Janet Witzeman (tripleader)
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