Date: 14 Sept. 2015
Loc: Calhoun Co. East
Obs: Donna and Dennis Forsythe
Time: 1115-11215; 1400-1600 hours
Effort: 18 mi
Coverage: Purple Martin Marsh, Wise Rd below Ft. Motte, Lang Syne Rd, Lone Star Rd, St Matthews City Park and vicinity
Weather: 70-82 f, clear, N wind
Roadsides and ditches in agricultural areas clean, no habitat for butterflies, Checkered White probably extirpated from area.
Species:
E. Tiger Swallowtail 8 including 1 dark and 1 intermediate female
Spicebush Swallowtail 1
Palamedes Swallowtail 4
Cloudless Sulfur 60
Little Yellow 1
Sleepy Orange 30
Red-banded Hairstreak 2
Gray Hairstreak 2
Eastern tailed-Blue 8
Summer Azure 1
American Snout 2
Gulf Fritillary 25
Variegated Fritillary 20
American Lady 1
Common Buckeye 2
Pearl Crescent 2
Red-spotted Purple 15
Viceroy 1
Monarch 1
Silver-spotted Skipper 3
Long-tailed Skipper 3
Horace’s Duskywing 2
Zarucco Duskywing 8
White Checkered-Skipper 6
Clouded Skipper 1 very worn
Southern Skipperling 2
Fiery Skipper 15
Whirlabout 1
Dun Skipper 1
Ocola Skipper 4
Dennis
—
Dennis M. Forsythe PhD
South Carolina Ebird Reviewer
Emeritus Professor of Biology
[email protected]

Hi All,

Here are our results from the Congaree Bluffs HP portion of the Congaree NP NABA Count.

Date: 14 Sept. 2015
Loc: Congaree Bluffs Heritage Preserve
Obs: Donna and Dennis Forsythe
Time: 1215-1400 hrs
Effort: 1 mi
Species:
E. Tiger Swallowtail 3
Spicebush Swallowtail 1
Zebra Swallowtail 1
Cloudless Sulfur 9
Little Yellow 7
Sleepy Orange 18
Eastern Tailed-Blue 3
Summer Azure 1
American Snout 1
Gulf Fritillary 20
Variegated Fritillary 25
American Lady 2
Red Admiral 1
Common Buckeye 3
Pearl Crescent 3
Red-spotted Purple 15
Hackberry Emperor 2
Carolina/Intricate Satyr 20
SIlver-spotted Skipper 1
Zarucco Duskywing 3
White Checkered-Skipper 4
Clouded Skipper 1
Fiery Skipper 3
Crosslne Skipper 1
Zabulon Skipper 4
Dun Skipper 1

Dennis
—
Dennis M. Forsythe PhD
South Carolina Ebird Reviewer
Emeritus Professor of Biology
[email protected]

Folks:

Saturday (Sept. 5), nine brave butterfliers defied questionable weather forecasts to count butterflies in the Lake Phelps area in Washington and Tyrrell counties. Though the rain pretty much missed us, and the mostly cloudy skies weren’t much of a factor, the strong NE winds from 12-18 mph made things difficult, especially in the wide open fields north of the lake. It was probably the windiest count we had ever been on.

Thankfully, we split up into 6 parties, so the final tally makes it appear like the count was a great success (45 species is average, and 50 would be a real success.) Though butterfly numbers are up from the past two years, skipper numbers are still low, especially for various wetland species, and some skipper species had presumably already finished their broods by Sept. 5. Thanks to Ed Corey for recruiting folks for the count and helping out; thanks also to Lori Carlson and John Jarvis, to Elisa and Nick Flanders, to Signa and Floyd Williams, and to Salman Abdulali for helping with me. Here are the totals, with a few comments:

Zebra Swallowtail 12
Black Swallowtail 2
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail 57
Spicebush Swallowtail 16
Palamedes Swallowtail 148
Cabbage White 6
Orange Sulphur 194 good count
Cloudless Sulphur 360
Little Yellow 1 rare in the region, and first record for Washington County
Sleepy Orange 707
Great Purple Hairstreak 9 good count
Gray Hairstreak 63 good count
Red-banded Hairstreak 17
Eastern Tailed-Blue 2
Summer Azure 27
Gulf Fritillary 1 rare in the region
Variegated Fritillary 14
Pearl Crescent 176
Question Mark 2
American Lady 4
Painted Lady 1 scarce in NC this year
Red Admiral 32
Common Buckeye 134
Red-spotted Purple 22
Viceroy 25
Southern Pearly-eye 9
Creole Pearly-eye 1
Carolina Satyr 17
Common Wood-Nymph 4
Monarch 5
Silver-spotted Skipper 220
Long-tailed Skipper 1 scarce in NC this year
Horace’s Duskywing 4
Common Checkered-Skipper 12
Common Sootywing 7
Clouded Skipper 5
Least Skipper 74
Fiery Skipper 223
Southern Broken-dash 1
Little Glassywing 1 photo documentation for confirmation; scarce in this region
Sachem 9
Zabulon Skipper 1
Dion Skipper 3
Dun Skipper 3
Lace-winged Roadside-Skipper 2
Ocola Skipper 52

Total: 46 species

Harry LeGrand
Raleigh

For our annual count preliminary numbers, we now have 49 species and 607 butterflies. I’ve been through all of my images but will send a couple off to Harry L for confirmation. But I don’t think the numbers will change much more. We apparently missed a couple that were around (folks sent me photos from Reynolda Village on Sunday of a Juniper Hairstreak and a Long-tailed Skipper which we missed). We also found no Anglewings which doesn’t surprise me. They have been scarce since early summer. One short power-line cut which is mowed once a year in Bethabara, provided some of my favorites, Swarthy, Crossline, Tawny-edged, Dun, and Delaware Skippers mixed in with a lot of Sachem.

We covered mostly western (Tanglewood), northwestern Pfafftown, Bethabara, and Bethania areas. We didn’t have enough personnel to cover Tanglewood and parts of Walnut Bottom Bethania Saturday. A couple of our butterfliers were missing on vacation. Maybe next year!

At any rate, these are very good numbers for here for any time of the year, especially in a poor butterfly season. Thanks to all who participated, even a couple of pop-in helpers contributed to the cause.

Good Count,
Gene S

Count held Thursday, August 20, more than two weeks later than previous counts. Weather was great; mix of sunny, partly cloudy, cloudy, five minute sprinkles. High in low 80s.

This ties our 2012 high count of 55. We had three BFs new to count (Sleepy Orange, Zarucco DW, Tawny Emperor), and missed two (Silvery Checkerspot and Hayhurst Scallopwing) that we had on all previous counts. Sachem, SSS, ETB, and Pearl Crescent numbers were high counts. Our total individual count was highest ever at 2626.

We had 9 participants, six walking Sandy Mush gamelands and 3 driving other areas. Big thank you to Doug Johnson, Joe Tomcho, Vin Stanton, Simon Thompson, Nancy Cowal, Janie Owens, Ruth Young, and Sue Perry.
Compiler – Gail Lankford

Pipevine ST – 3
Black ST – 9
Tiger ST – 46
> Spicebush ST – 13
> Cabbage White – 23
> Clouded Sulphur – 7
> Orange Sulphur – 19
> Cloudless Sulphur – 33
> Sleepy Orange – 1
> Little Yellow – 5
> Am. Copper – 1
> White M HS – 1
> Gray HS – 10
> Red Banded HS – 3
> ETB – 208
> Summer Azure – 9
> Gulf Fritillary – 1
> Variegated Frit – 25
> Great spangled Frit – 20
> Meadow Frit – 4
> Pearl Crescent – 426
> Question Mark – 5
> E. Comma – 2
> Am. Lady – 4
> Red Admiral – 10
> C. Buckeye – 65
> Red-spotted Purple – 16
> Viceroy – 7
> Hackberry Emperor – 2
> Tawny Emperor – 6
> No. Pearly-eye – 40
> Gemmed Satyr – 9
> Carolina Satyr – 14
> C. Wood-nymph – 4
> Monarch – 3
> SSS – 382
> Hoary-edge – 9
> So. Cloudywing – 1
> No. Cloudywing – 2
> Horace DW — 3
> Wild Indigo DW – 27
> Zarucco DW – 1
> Common Checkered Skipper – 3
> Common Sootywing — 1
> Swarthy Skipper – 14
> Clouded Skipper – 4
> Least Skipper – 20
> Fiery Skipper – 5
> Peck’s Skipper – 3
> Tawny-edged Skipper – 5
> Crossline Skipper – 14
> Little Glassywing – 3
> Sachem – 1127
> Zabulon Skipper – 22
> Dun Skipper – 26

The Transylvania NABA count was held on Thursday, August 13, 2015. We counted a total of 48 species, as listed below. I’ll be submitting the higher number of Wild Indigo Duskywings when I complete my report to NABA. We had some questionable individuals and after photographs were submitted to Harry LeGrand, they were identified as Wild Indigos, not Zarucco duskywings.

Many thanks to-Doug Johnston, Gene Schepker, Sven Halling, Gail Lankford, Nancy Cowal, Janie Owens, Sue Perry, Roger Wellington, and Salman Abdulali for the great job you did!

Ruth Young

Pipevine swallowtail 27
Black swallowtail 6
E. Tiger swallowtail 165
Spicebush swallowtail 20
Cabbage white 9
Clouded sulphur 25
Orange sulphur 18
Cloudless sulphur 11
Sleepy orange 3
Harvester 3
Gray hairstreak 6
Red banded hairstreak 7
Eastern tailed blue 81
Summer azure 206
Gulf fritillary 2
Variegated fritillary 58
Diana fritillary 7
Great spangled fritillary 2
Aphrodite fritillary 1
Meadow fritillary 92
Silvery checkerspot 2
Pearl crescent 83
Question mark 2
Eastern comma 3
Red admiral 5
Common buckeye 65
Red spotted purple 6
Viceroy 4
Northern pearly eye 2
Carolina satyr 2
Monarch 10
Silver spotted skipper 308
Long tailed skipper 3
Horace’s duskywing 18
Wild Indigo duskywing 18 (28?)
Common checkered skipper 1
Swarthy Skipper 1
Least skipper 23
Fiery skipper 12
Peck’s skipper 43
Tawny edged skipper 2
Crossline skipper 30
Little glassywing 2
Sachem 33
Zabulon skipper 10
Dun skipper 3
Lace winged roadside skipper 1
Ocola skipper 4

Butterfliers,

Despite laments that the 2015 butterfly season in the eastern half of North Carolina has been poor, we enjoyed a very good 17th annual Durham Butterfly Count today (Sun 16 Aug 2015), with a total of 54 species (average 56) and 4155 individuals (average 3755). Near perfect weather helped our cause with mostly clear to partly cloudy skies and highs reaching into the low 90s. Eleven counters in six parties spent the day in fields and forests around Durham, NC searching for butterflies. Most of the species’ tallies today were a little above or a little below average with a few record highs set: Silvery Checkerspot, Tawny-edged Skipper, Delaware Skipper, and Ocola Skipper. The only record low was a complete lack of ladies, as this was the first time we’ve ever missed American Lady, and it was only the second time we’ve missed Gemmed Satyr. “Best” butterfly of the day was a Gulf Fritillary found by Richard Stickney, only the second ever for the Durham Count. Jeff Pippen’s party tallied the most individuals with 1558 thanks in big part to gangbuster numbers of Silver-spotted Skippers and Sachems in the Duke Gardens. Brian Bockhahn’s and Randy Emmitt’s parties tied for the highest diversity with 41 species.

Many thanks to all participants who helped with the Count this year: Brian Bockhahn, Lori Carlson, Randy Emmitt, John Jarvis, Ashley and Marshall Johnson-Prentice, Tom Krakauer, Meg Millard, Jeffrey Pippen, Lynn Richardson, Will Cook, and Richard Stickney.

Here’s our list!

5 Pipevine Swallowtail
1 Zebra Swallowtail
8 Black Swallowtail
300 Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
14 Spicebush Swallowtail
3 Cabbage White
13 Orange Sulphur
154 Cloudless Sulphur
263 Sleepy Orange
1 Juniper Hairstreak
12 Gray Hairstreak
3 Red-banded Hairstreak
188 Eastern Tailed-Blue
34 Summer Azure
13 American Snout
1 Gulf Fritillary
31 Variegated Fritillary
11 Great Spangled Fritillary
132 Silvery Checkerspot
235 Pearl Crescent
4 Question Mark
1 Eastern Comma
9 Red Admiral
354 Common Buckeye
30 Red-spotted Purple
7 Viceroy
5 Hackberry Emperor
6 Tawny Emperor
6 Northern Pearly-eye
150 Carolina Satyr
4 Common Wood-Nymph
30 Monarch
443 Silver-spotted Skipper
5 Hoary Edge
14 Horace’s Duskywing
1 Zarucco Duskywing
1 Wild Indigo Duskywing
13 Com. Checkered-Skipper
4 Common Sootywing
67 Swarthy Skipper
21 Clouded Skipper
35 Least Skipper
210 Fiery Skipper
11 Tawny-edged Skipper
33 Crossline Skipper
56 Southern Broken-Dash
4 Northern Broken-Dash
74 Little Glassywing
1003 Sachem
15 Delaware Skipper
41 Zabulon Skipper
3 Dion Skipper
16 Dun Skipper
57 Ocola Skipper

Additionally, I’ve posted pics of a somewhat intermediate yellow morph/dark morph Eastern Tiger Swallowtail that I found on the count. It could be re-named a dusky tiger swallowtail, based on appearance! Scroll about half way down the page to the 16 Aug 2015 pics to see:

http://www.jeffpippen.com/butterflies/easterntigerswallowtail.htm

For past results, see:
http://www.jeffpippen.com/butterflies/durhamcount.htm

Good Butterflying,
Jeff
—
Jeffrey S. Pippen
Durham, NC
http://www.jeffpippen.com/

The Iredell Count yielded 40 species without many surprises Outside of Eastern Tigers, there were only two other Swallowtails, a single Pipevine, and a Spicebush. Like in the other local counts in August this year, the skippers carried the day and larger butterflies where at a premium. The best find was an Eufala Skipper by Charles Cameron. There were well over 200 Sachem in one large field of Bermuda Grass, and the main blossoms were Bicolor Lespedeza and the dreaded Kudzu vine along field edges.

Pipevine Swallowtail 1,
E. Tiger Sw. 17,
Spicebush Sw. 1,
Cabbage White 3,
Clouded Sulphur 1,
Cloudless Su. 10,
Little Yellow 1,
Sleepy Orange 7,
Gray Hairstreak 2,
Red-banded Ha. 1,
E. Tailed-Blue 54,
‘Summer’ Spring Azure 8,
Am. Snout 1,
Variegated Fritillary 7,
Gr. Spangled Fr. 6,
Silvery Checkerspot 12,
Pearl Crescent 25,
E. Comma 1,
Am. Lady 1,
Com. Buckeye 51,
Red-spotted Purple 9,
Hackberry Emperor 1,
Tawny Em. 2,
N. Pearly-eye 9,
Appalachian Brown 2,
Gemmed Satyr 2,
Carolina Sa. 95,
Silver-spotted Skipper 29,
Horace’s Duskywing 2,
Com. Sootywing 31,
Clouded Sk. 2,
Least Sk. 11,
Fiery Sk. 2,
Crossline Sk. 1,
S. Broken-Dash 13,
Little Glassywing 2,
Sachem 212,
Delaware Sk. 4,
Zabulon Sk. 56,
Dun Sk. 1,
Eufala Sk. 1,
Ocola Sk. 2

Total 42 species, 699 individuals.

I would like to thank Shelley Rutkin for compiling this year’s count and all who participated!

Gene Schepker

The first ever Hanging Rock/Stokes county butterfly count was held yesterday August 10. 3 intrepid observers weathered cloudy skies, cool temps in the 70s, moderate winds, sprayed power lines and even staff cutting down a field full of milkweed moments after we walked through it.

But still we amassed an impressive 39 species, 18 of those skippers, with 8 new park records and one new to Stokes county!!!

Some of the same misses at Surry/pilot for swallowtails and Pierids: Pipevine, Zebra, Black swallowtail, cabbage white, clouded, orange and cloudless sulphur, snout, variegated fritillary, question mark, american lady, viceroy and monarch.

With more coverage and some SUN, this count circle has some great potential, hope some of you can join us next year!

28 E tiger swallowtail
2 Spicebush swallowtail
2 sleepy orange
1 harvester
1 WHITE-M HAIRSTREAK (NEW FOR PARK and COUNTY)
1 Gray Hairstreak
2 Red-banded Hairstreak
51 E tailed blue
19 summer azure
4 great spangled fritillary
53 pearl crescent
6 eastern comma
2 red admiral
6 common buckeye
9 red-spotted purple
1 tawny emperor
5 northern pearly-eye
1 Appalachian brown
3 gemmed satyr
68 carolina satyr
2 common wood-nymph
39 silver-spotted skipper
1 hoary edge
1 southern cloudywing
2 northern cloudywing
1 horaces duskywing
18 swarthy skipper (NEW FOR PARK)
1 clouded skipper
2 least skipper
1 fiery skipper (NEW FOR PARK)
22 pecks skipper (NEW FOR PARK)
5 tawny-edged skipper (NEW FOR PARK)
6 crossline skipper (NEW FOR PARK)
5 southern broken dash (NEW FOR PARK)
11 little glassywing
22 sachem
16 Delaware skipper (NEW FOR PARK)
31 zabulon skipper
1 dun skipper

—
Brian Bockhahn
[email protected]

7 of us spent Aug 9 under mostly sunny skies counting butterflies from the summit of Pilot Mountain to the Yadkin River. We tallied 41 species with a fantastic 18 species of skippers!

Misses include Pipevine, Zebra and Black Swallowtail, Clouded and Orange Sulphur, Harvester, Snout, Question Mark, either Emperor, Gemmed Satyr and Monarch.

58 E. Tiger swallowtail
4 Spicebush swallowtail
1 Cabbage White
2 Cloudless Sulphur (plus one likely albino)
2 Little Yellow (FOY)
11 Sleepy Orange
3 Gray Hairstreak
24 E Tailed Blue
23 Summer Azure
13 Variegated Fritillary
5 Great spangled Fritillary
38 Pearl Crescent
1 Eastern Comma
2 American Lady
4 Red Admiral
11 Common Buckeye
15 Red-spotted Purple
1 Viceroy
4 Southern Pearly-eye
5 Northern Pearly-eye
1 Appalachian Brown
68 Carolina Satyr
4 Common Wood-nymph
18 Silver-spotted Skipper
1 Hoary Edge
2 Southern Cloudywing
1 Horaces Duskywing
1 Common checkered skipper
1 Swarthy Skipper
17 Least skipper
3 Fiery skipper
3 Pecks skipper
4 Tawny-edged skipper
10 Crossline Skipper
3 Southern Broken-dash
10 Little Glassywing
18 Sachem
11 Delaware skipper
11 Zabulon skipper
2 Lace-winged roadside skipper
1 Common roadside skipper

—
Brian Bockhahn
[email protected]