Admirals March on

[bill and Dale]

Hi Lep-people,
         Once again at Hammonassett Beach State Park in Madison CT the
southerly migration (of the offspring of this years' earlier invasion)
of Red Admirals (Vanessa atalanta) was going strongly  It was difficult
to get good point counts today as the movement was highly dispersed
throughout the park  In my previous post of Red Admiral migration a
couple of weeks ago they moved along narrow corridors near the beach and
first vegetated dune. Today they were everywhere. Some milling around
rotting fruit and nectar sources and many were sunning in the earlier
part of the day. I did two 15 minute point counts at the Butterfly
Garden and estimate they were arriving at a rate of a little more than
125 per hour there.  I did a walking count early on through the trails
of Willard's Island where they were sunning and eating fruit juice and
came up with about 250 individuals. These numbers are just rough
snapshots of what must have been a movement of thousands of individuals
during the course of the day but as I say I've no way of accurately
counting when they are spread out through the park. A great spectacle to
behold none the less.  Monarchs were also going strong today and were
only slightly less numerous than Admirals.
Other butterflies-
Orange sulfur- 30++ (Colias eurytheme)
Clouded Sulfur- 10+ (Colias philodice)
Painted Lady- 15 (Vanessa cardui)
Least Skipper- 1 (Ancyloxypha numitor)
                                                Cheers everybody. I'd
like to hear other lep migration reports if anyone else is seeing this
stuff. I find the Admiral movement just as fascinating as the Monarch
migration and who knows where these Admirals are going??? I sure don't!

Bill Yule