Tue 8/26 about 15 famous and infamous nc butterfly enthusiasts embarked on the commissary trail at mount mitchell to search for the rare and elusive green comma. After seeing one that did not cooperate for photos i was a little worried, but the sun and warm temps opened the flood gates! We had them perching on us, flowers, ground, dung, everything but the rotten bananas that i so grossly squeezed out of their skins onto some rocks as bait along the trail the previous night. They even landed on us while we were back at the office eating lunch!

Previous high count for green comma someone said was 12. Checked as many as possible for a gray but no luck. Our count total for green comma was very accurate with that many eyes, if anything maybe slightly conservative. With 8 reported a week ago and 5 reported in early aug, i wonder if next week will be higher or lower!?! Surely this was the peak, i cant imagine more numbers than this! Maybe someone can beat our record…

Thanks to all who came out for this glorious day!

50 pipevine swallowtail
22 eastern tiger swallowtail
2 clouded sulphur
2 orange sulphur
1 cloudless sulphur
4 e tailed blue
2 summer azure
8 great spangled fritillary
1 aphrodite fritillary worn
62 green comma, yes sixty-two!!!! (foy #116)
2 american lady
2 painted lady
6 red admiral
1 common buckeye
2 common wood nymph
11 silver spotted skipper
2 horaces duskywing
1 wild indigo duskywing
1 sachem

With so many folks i may have left something off, so let me know of any additions to this list so i can enter the data.

Brian Bockhahn
Durham NC