Butterflies

[Astronuc]

I just saw a lone Monarch or Viceroy.  It flew past my car as I was pulling into a transfer station to drop off some garbarge and recycling.

I didn't have my digital camera with me. 

Next time perhaps.

[Astronuc]

Pictures from Butterfly World

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/butterfly/msg031420019447.html?10

http://www.butterflyworld.com/butterflyguide/0butterflyguide.html

from http://www.butterflyworld.com

[Astronuc]

Every year the North American Butterfly Association sponsors a nation-wide Butterfly Count on or about the 4th of July.

  How cool it that?!  So get out your binoculars and watch butterflies.

I got the message from - http://www.catskillnativenursery.com/Butterfly%20Day.htm

Checking the North American Butterfly Association site - NABA Butterfly Counts- http://www.naba.org/counts.html

The NABA Butterfly Counts is an ongoing program of NABA to census the butterflies of North America (United States, Canada and partially Mexico) and to publish the results. Volunteer participants select a count area with a 15-mile diameter and conduct a one-day census of all butterflies sighted within that circle. The counts are usually held in the few weeks before or after July 4th in the U.S., July 1st in Canada and September 16th in Mexico. Maps give the location and compiler information for the individual counts. Highlights from the 2003 counts, highlights from the 2002 counts, and highlights from the 2001 counts may be found on on this web site. If you are interested in participating in your area in 2006, please contact the compiler listed and join that count for a day of fascinating butterfly counting. If there is no count in your area, you may start your own if you know how to identify the butterflies. Otherwise, inspire a nature center or butterfly club to start one for you! For more information on the count program and how to conduct a count, please write:

NABA Butterfly Counts
2533 Mc Cart
Fort Worth, TX 76110

or email NABA at naba at naba.org

But there is also - NABA Memorial Day/Victoria Day Butterfly Counts - http://www.naba.org/memvic.html

Even if one doesn't participate in the Counts, one can still watch butterflies.

http://www.naba.org/   

http://www.nababis.org/servlets/Sightings    Far out!   

 

[Astronuc]

Successful summer for large blue 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5385488.stm
By Mark Kinver, Science and nature reporter, BBC News 

UK conservationists are celebrating a successful summer for a rare butterfly, which went locally extinct in 1979.

An estimated 10,000 large blue butterflies have been recorded at sites across southern England - the largest number for at least 60 years.

Efforts to rebuild the population have been underway since 1983, when Swedish caterpillars were introduced to the UK.

Experts hope the project will show that such programmes can help other species threatened with extinction.

More than 150 scientists, conservationists and volunteers have been involved in the Large Blue Project, a partnership of 11 organisations, co-ordinated by the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology.  Dave Simcox, manager of the project, said there was still more work to be done.

"Whilst one landscape in Somerset is reasonable secure, the real challenge is to replicate this success throughout the Cotswolds, South Devon, and the Atlantic coasts of Devon and Cornwall," he explained.