Re: [natural-history-l] Red admirals on the wing!

[Meena Madhav Haribal]

I have been seeing them for past few days. Todays push seemed like that of Broadwings. I was at Derby Hill past Tuesday, and I saw quite a full swing of them pushing east. I too saw a few Vanessa cardui and Eastern Commas.I remember Bill Evans collecting quite a few dead specimens along the road. I did some isotope analysis but never wrote anything about it. I still have the data somewhere. 

Cheers

Meena 

Meena Haribal

Ithaca NY 14850

42.429007,-76.47111

http://meenaharibal.blogspot.com/

Dragonfly book sample pages:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B1ngrZelDNo5QnFDMl9BdVNlLXc

Road Trip to Africa Book Preview https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KsoxFFcMNSck8y_qpxNHqefq4iL-VSSS/view?usp=sharing

 

 

 

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From: bounce-12817...@list.cornell.edu <bounce-12817...@list.cornell.edu> on behalf of William Evans <wre...@clarityconnect.com>
Sent: Monday, April 29, 2024 4:01 PM
To: NATURAL-HISTORY-L <NATURAL-...@list.cornell.edu>
Subject: RE: [natural-history-l] Red admirals on the wing!

 

Rick,

 

Yes, there is a large northbound Red Admiral flight across the area today still going strong as I write. Rates of passage higher than 1/minute per100 ft east-west cross-section. Flight is mostly < 15 ft above ground level.

 

Bill E

 

 

From: bounce-12817...@list.cornell.edu <bounce-12817...@list.cornell.edu> On Behalf Of Rick Lightbody
Sent: Monday, April 29, 2024 3:32 PM
To: natural-...@list.cornell.edu
Subject: [natural-history-l] Red admirals on the wing!

 

Is anyone else seeing large numbers of red admirals today?  When I was birding at the city golf course and Jetty Woods this morning, I saw about ten of them.  And then driving home afterward I saw half a dozen likely RAs (butterflies flitting across the road which were the right size and flight style).

I recalled there being an impressive irruption of RAs about ten years ago or so.  Checking my emails and notes just now, I see that was in 2012--with a very big day on April 16 of that year, with Bill Evans, Meena Haribal, etc. reporting seeing LOTS that day (and I did as well).

I haven't yet done a very thorough Googling to see where else this current migration might be drawing extra human attention...but I did find the following article, posted just yesterday, about their large numbers in a park in Detroit:

Red Admiral: Why So Abundant in April This Year?

https://elizahowellnaturewalk.com/2024/04/28/red-admiral-why-so-abundant-in-april-this-year/

If anyone has interesting observations or factoids to share, I'd love to hear them.

Rick