still more admirals

bill and Dale droberts03 at snet.net
Sun Jul 1 18:24:57 EDT 2001


All,         I know that many are probably sick of hearing about Red
Admirals but....I just got back from vacation on the shore of Rhode
Island (Charlestown) and was surprised at the intensity of the Admiral
migration there since here in CT it seems to have fallen off. On three
sunny days at Ninigret Wildlife Refuge, which is an abandoned Naval Air
Station, I stood on a an overgrown Airplane runway and counted an
average of nearly 130 Admirals/hour passing me, full speed ahead,
travelling due north.. Down at the beach, 15 feet from the Atlantic
Ocean, I counted an average of 45 Admirals/hour entering from the open
ocean flying directly by my beach-blanket and disappearing over the
dunes out of sight. What was remarkable to me was that of the multitudes
that I saw (900-1000?) at almost no time did I see an Admiral stop, slow
down, rest or nectar. (Well I did see two nectaring in a 40 foot tall
stinking Tree-of Heaven). The migration began as early as 8 AM and I
still saw fly-bys as it was getting dark at 8:40 PM.Almost every
individual was flying as if it were the Mad Hatter late for the tea
party. In any event I thought some people might be interested in these
observations from our neighbor State to the east.
      One other interesting observation was the almost total lack of
skippers, hairstreaks, Monarchs, sulfurs and cabbage whites. I think I
saw three euro skippers, one clouded sulfur and six cabbage whites. Well
enough of Rhode Island.
                             Bill Yule


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