Early spring butterflies at Cape May NJ

Anne Kilmer viceroy at gate.net
Fri Feb 19 07:48:57 EST 1999


Do not forget to go out and count your birds (and butterflies) this
weekend, submitting your findings to http://birdsource.cornell.edu/gbbc/
Feb. 19-22 is considered the weekend for these purposes. 
(North America only, this year. And they have not actually requested
your butterfly sightings.) 
The warblers are going through; I'll have to get out the bird book. I
consider them honorary butterflies, but, as Lee Jaques said, "The
difference between warblers and no warblers is so slight anyway ..."
Giant swallowtails are flying here ... circling the spot where the
tangelo was last month. "Ought to be right here somewhere ... "
Anne Kilmer
South Florida
viceroy at gate.net
Michael Gochfeld wrote:
> 
> This report is forwarded from another list regarding CAPE MAY, NJ
> 
> >Nature Notes: The mid-week warm weather produced a spate of butterfly
> >sightings Mourning Cloak, Question Mark, and Orange Sulphur were all
> seen >at the Cape May NWR at Woodcock Lane on the Feb 16th, and six
> Orange Sulphurs >were in Burleigh NJ on the same day.
> 
> --------------------------By contrast---------------------------
> 
> There has been nothing resembling a butterfly in Central NJ although the
> first Snowdrop (a flower) bloomed a week earlier this year than last,
> even though last year was substantially warmer.  Snow cover has been
> virtually absent this year (about 4 days) while last winter there were
> only about 3 days of snow cover.  I haven't checked but I would expect
> the norm to be about 15 days.
> 
> The microclimate at ground level (or below) where things over-winter,
> must be a delicate balance between air temperature and insulative snow
> cover.
> 
> M. Gochfeld


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