10th Vischer Ferry 4JC (Albany NY)

Michael Gochfeld gochfeld at eohsi.rutgers.edu
Wed Jul 11 14:20:29 EDT 2001


The weather was 
The VISCHER FERRY COUNT covers the area between Albany and Schenectady, 
 NY on both sides of the Mohawk River.  There are only two parties, and 
the coverage is mainly in the River flood plain, including the Vischer 
Ferry Preserve.  One party also spends a half day in the Albany Pine 
Bush (Karner, NY). 

This is the tenth year for the count.  Coverage has been virtually the 
same each year. The main modification has been the disappearance of some 
favored fields and the addition of some new ones.  

The weather was fair and mostly sunny in the morning and early 
afternoon, clouding up gradually by 3 pm and threatening thunderstorms 
by 5:30 pm.  The number of individuals is shown in the third column and 
the status compared to the nine previous counts is given in the 4th 
column.   Although  Black Swallowtails are often common, we only found 
one in the last afternoon.  Likewise, Tiger Swallowtails were absent, 
but we miss them more often than find them at this season.  All 
specimens obtained at other times of the season have been of Eastern 
Tiger Swallowtail, but someday we'll find a Canadian.  

Bronze Copper appears to be a declining species in eastern New York, but 
it persists in the Mohawk River floodplain. We don't always get it 
because of phenology, and this individual was fresh (my category =w1).  

ALMOST ALL hairstreaks were found in the Albany Pine Bush. Only the 
single Acadian Hairstreak was found at a different location.  Banded 
Hairstreaks were more numerous than in previous years and Edwards were 
much less common than usual.  Moreover, virtually all of the Banded 
Hairstreaks were worn to very worn and almost all the Edwards were 
extremely fresh. I categorize these as w3-w5 for the Banded and w0-w1 
for the Edwards.  

Karner Blue's (Melissa Blue) has had a relatively good year, due to the 
extensive snow cover this past winter.  We found over 60 in a 15 min 
search around the edge of an extensive lupine bed. Virtually all were 
males. 

Eastern Tailed Blue: Clovers of several species are super-abundant, but 
we never find many Tailed Blues.  Wonder why. It doesn't seem to be 
solely phenology.  The clover is there all season, but the blues aren't. 

Summer Azure (C. neglecta), treated here as a distinct species, was 
particularly numerous in the Pine Bush, and many were moderately worn.  
They were also common and quite worn there a month earlier, so this is 
seems to be a second brood.  Another puzzle to work out.  Seems too soon 
to have a second brood, so it might also be a prolonged flight period. 

Baltimore Checkerspots:  Real Estate agents must track this species. 
Virtually every Baltimore colony that we have found has been wiped out 
by housing development. Last year we found a thriving new colony, and it 
was still there this year, albeit not at full strength (10 individuals 
vs 50 last year).

American Lady: 12 individuals was a high count for this species which we 
sometimes miss on the count. 

Red Admiral:  Not surprisingly this was a high count.  Admirals were 
present throughout the day. About 2/3 were simply moving through, 
heading more or less northward.  Others were nectaring.  None seen 
mating. 

Browns:  I don't find identifying the Browns in the field at all easy.  
Some disappear. Some don't afford a good angle, and this year several 
were worn.  Sometimes the field marks don't jibe with the book. Using 
the field marks in Glassberg's book, I am confident that all identified 
were S.appalachia.  Others might have been either species, including one 
in a woodland where   S.eurydice has been found before.  

Almost all of the Little Wood Satyrs were in the Pine Bush.  
Surprisingly virtually none were found in the other habitats visited.

Erynnis spp.   One Mottled Duskywing was seen, compared to at least four 
seen a month earlier.  The host plant, New Jersey Tea (Ceanothus), is 
very common in the Pine Bush.  A second Duskywing that was extremely 
worn, was either a Juvenal's or Horace's.  Normally Juvenal's isn't even 
around in early June, but this individual was so worn that it could have 
been a surviving and late E. juvenalis.  Either species would be new for 
that count.

There were 40 species (second highest) and 958 individuals (4th 
highest).  However, since three species: Cabbage, Edwards Hairstreak, 
and European Skipper, often account for more than 75% of the 
individuals, we compare counts with and without those three species.  
Without them the individual count in 2001 was 574, the highest in this 
category. 

VISCHER FERRY  LIST	TENTH  COUNT	Total	2001
2001	July 4, 2001					Compare2001
	    Party hours on foot	13.6			with prior
	    Party hours by car	1.5		##	years
Papilio polyxenes	Black Swallowtail	1	
Papilio glaucus		Eastern Tiger Swallowtl	1	4th time
Pieris rapae		Cabbage White		310	Medium
Colias philodice	Clouded Sulphur		38	Typical
Colias eurytheme	Orange Sulphur		3	Low
Lycaena hyllus		Bronze Copper		1	5th time
Satyrium titus		Coral Hairstreak	10	Medium
Satyrium calanus	Banded Hairstreak	48	Highest
Satyrium edwardsii	Edwards Hairstreak	46	3rd lowest
Satyrium caryaevorum	Hickory Hairstreak	2	
Satyrium liparops	Striped Hairstreak	2	
Satyrium acadica	Acadian Hairstreak	1	
Lycaedes melissa	Karner Blue		67	2nd high
Everes comyntas	Eastern Tailed Blue		8	medium
Celastrina neglecta	Summer Azure		27	highest
Speyeria cybele		Great Spangled Fritily	16	3rd high
Phyciodes tharos	Pearl Crescent		2	low
Euphydryas phaeton	Baltimore Checkerspot	10	typical
Polygonia interogationisQuestion Mark		 4	highest
Polygonia comma		Eastern Comma		10	2nd high
Nymphalis antiopia	Mourning Cloak		1	
Vanessa virginiensis	American Lady		12	highest
Vanessa cardui		Painted Lady		4	2nd high
Vanessa atalanta	Red Admiral		137	highest
Limenitis arthemis	Red-spotted Purple	Dead	
Limenitis archippus	Viceroy	1	
Satyrodes appalachia	Appalachian Brown	7+3?	2nd high
Enodia anthedon		Northern Pearly Eye	2	
Megisto cymela		Little Wood Satyr	38	highest
Cercyonis pegala	Common Wood-Nymph	22	3rd high
Danaus plexippus	Monarch			none	
Epargyreus clarus	Silver-spotted Skipper	29	medium
Erynnis spp		Horace/Juvenal's Duskywing	1	FIRST
Erynnis martialis	Mottled Duskywing	1	3rd time
Ancyloxphya numitor	Least Skipper		4	typical
Thymelicus lineola	European Skipper	28	medium
			Hobomok Skipper		4	
Wallengrenia egeremet	Northern Broken Dash	5	3rd low
Pompeius verna		Little Glassywing	12	highest
Atrytone logan		Delaware Skipper	8	medium
Euphyes vestris		Dun Skipper		32	highest
			
	TOTAL SPECIES	40	2nd high
	TOTAL INDIVIDUALS	958	4th high
	Total - Cabb & Europe	620	3rd high
	Total-Cabb&Europe&Edwards	574	highest
	New Species in 2001	1	
	Cumulative species on count	60	

Michael Gochfeld --compiler

 
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