Unusual Numbers of Unusual Butterflies
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Jerry
May 31, 2012, 7:51:16 PM5/31/12
to MNLEP
Hello All,
This afternoon (5/31/2012) I did a butterfly count at the Sax-Zim
wildlife refuge and saw some dramatic and unusual things. There
currently are population explosions of butterflies that normally are
in far smaller numbers. I saw 47 arctic skippers and 62 silver-
bordered fritillaries. These numbers strike me as very strange! Also
seen were 9 buckeyes, 63 Canadian tiger swallowtails, 32 orange
sulphurs, and 43 mourning cloaks. The totals were 384 butterflies of
27 species! Most of the skippers were puddling and many of the others
were feeding on mustard blossoms. It will be interesting to see if
anyone else finds unusually high numbers of these same butterflies
elsewhere!
Get out and enjoy the sunshine and butterflies,
Jerry McCormick
This afternoon (5/31/2012) I did a butterfly count at the Sax-Zim
wildlife refuge and saw some dramatic and unusual things. There
currently are population explosions of butterflies that normally are
in far smaller numbers. I saw 47 arctic skippers and 62 silver-
bordered fritillaries. These numbers strike me as very strange! Also
seen were 9 buckeyes, 63 Canadian tiger swallowtails, 32 orange
sulphurs, and 43 mourning cloaks. The totals were 384 butterflies of
27 species! Most of the skippers were puddling and many of the others
were feeding on mustard blossoms. It will be interesting to see if
anyone else finds unusually high numbers of these same butterflies
elsewhere!
Get out and enjoy the sunshine and butterflies,
Jerry McCormick
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