the doldrums

[Grkovich, Alex]

What do you do in September, or do the "counts" mysteriously end on August
31st? Personally, I'm sick of hearing about 2,500 European Skippers, 700
Little Wood Satyrs, 221 Juvenals Duskywings, etc. How do you have so much
time to count? What about the taxonomy? Or is this something that has simply
dropped along the wayside and disappeared on the road to the obliteration of
the study of Lepidoptera? Are we supposed to believe you can do all this
without any voucher specimens?
.
> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Hank & Priscilla Brodkin [SMTP:hankb at theriver.com]
> Sent:	Monday, June 25, 2001 12:53 PM
> To:	Ron Gatrelle
> Cc:	Harry Legrand; Carolina Leps; Leps-l
> Subject:	Re: the doldrums
> 
> Ron Gatrelle wrote:
> 
> > Butterflying on the 4th of July is next to worthless here in the deep
> > South. It may be great in Maine or the Sierras but not in lower North
> > Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi,
> > Louisiana, Arkansas, much of Texas, non-montane Tennessee, etc.  If
> there
> > is any Birder tradition that is for-the-birds when it comes to
> butterflies,
> > it's the 4th of July "count". As I told someone who wanted to have a 4th
> > count at their nature preserve recently - I don't even go out that time
> of
> > year. In the Appalachian mountains good stuff is out then - but not in
> the
> > hot humid sweat belt.
> > 
> > In our region the counts need to be as Harry suggests - one for the
> spring
> > species and one for the fall species.
> > Ron
> 
> Ron, Harry et al:
> This has never been a problem down here.  The southeastern Arizona
> counts have always begun at the end of July through August after our
> "monsoons" are well under way and the majority of skippers and possible
> Mexican strays are around.  This year one person has scheduled a count
> for July 18 near Tucson - a date that may prove a little early for the
> optimum number of species?
> As far as I know there has never been a mandate to conduct the 4th of
> July counts on the 4th of July, especially in those parts of the country
> where this is not appropriate.
> To quote the guidelines:
> "A count may be held earlier or later than this period [centered around
> the 4th of July] if this is advantageous for counting butterflies in
> that area and if the count is held held about this same time each year."
> -- 
> 	             Hank & Priscilla Brodkin
> 	          Carr Canyon, Cochise County, AZ
>                    Send Mailto:hankb at theriver.com
>              SouthEast Arizona Butterfly Association
>           http://www.naba.org/chapters/nabasa/home.html
>          "Butterflies of Arizona - a Photographic Guide" 
>     by Bob Stewart, Priscilla and Hank Brodkin - due September 2001
>          http://www.naba.org/chapters/nabasa/book.html
> 
>  
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