numbers game or counting- Forgot something

[Barb Beck]

Martin pointed out something I left off.

The fact that we have only one butterfly count per summer is a real flaw in
the setup.  There should be several to correspond to our various butterfly
seasons.  Hopefully as we get more people involved we will be able to do
more than that.  Right now we are just getting snapshots at one time of the
year per circle.  In some areas like around Edmonton we have many counts and
run some of them early and others late but in the rest of the province we
just do not have the manpower. We are getting snapshots around the province
on a variety of consistent dates since it is not convenient to hold them on
the 4th of July Date.  Our routes that are associated with BBS route and the
Cold Lake Count which is held in conjunction with a University field trip
are end of May - early June each year.  These counts must be held then
because it is the only time the people are in that  area on a consistent
basis.  Our mountain counts are late and we have a few counts near Edmonton
which are held late each year.  In other words we are getting snapshots
under the current rules of butterflies at various seasons but unfortunately
not multiple snapshots per season at one place.

It would be nice if the rules were amended for multiple counts in one circle
BUT right now I would just like to see the species we have properly recorded
and not have our data lost by the practice of "conservative taxonomy".

Barb Beck
Edmonton, Alberta


 
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