"Roadsides May Provide..."

bill and Dale droberts03 at snet.net
Wed Jun 6 09:17:42 EDT 2001


    Admiral corridor:   I read with interest the post yesterday
"Roadsides May Provide Butterfly Corridor" and I enjoyed the article but
not exactly for the purpose the author intended. Ever since the Red
Admiral invasion/migration began in earnest here in Connecticut a couple
weeks ago I've noticed that Admirals use the road I live on as a
corridor to move northward. I live in Guilford, eight miles inland, on a
road that runs north/south from Long Island Sound toward Middletown. On
sunny mornings the Admirals zip along the roadside by my house at a good
rate, always going north, flying low and fast. Lately the traffic's been
getting heavy. The ones that stop to nectar and rest/roost in my back
pasture and wildflower meadow seem to cut across my yard when they're
ready to go and fly until they hit the treeline at the roadside at which
point they turn north and join the migrating stream. Lately lots of
purple clover and yellow hawkweeds have come into flower and the numbers
of Admirals stopping to fuel up has increased. I decided to try an
experiment, decidedly unscientific, but amusing at least. Noticing how
once they decide to go they fly as fast and low and straight as
possible, I cut a series of paths through the meadows emptying out in my
side yard. I was attempting to channel them from the fields  up to the
road through my yard so I could count the stopovers along with the
regular migrators as they passed my house. Having done all that I made
three experimental 15 minute counts to get an idea of the number of
Admirals moving by my house. I began at 9 AM and waited 15 minutes
between each count. These are the results:
1st count- 21
2nd count- 9
3rd count- 13
Total of 43 for three 15 minute counts or an average of 56 per hour
passing my house flying north toward Middletown. Interesting?
   Now I know that this isn't science, it anecdote, but I thought some
people might be interested. Also conditions were ideal yesterday and
today the numbers were way down, less than a third of yeasterday's rate.
But it's still a beautiful thing.

Bill Yule


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