Walking the straight and narrow

Martin Bailey cmbb at sk.sympatico.ca
Mon Jul 8 19:51:43 EDT 2002


While walking my more or less straight line over a self-described course, a
car stopped by the field that I was in.  Taking the hint I went to the
vehicle noticing that it was silvery patched.  The owner was doing his own
body work. Nice job.
"What you doeng."
"Catching butterflies."
"What for."
With an air of innocence I replied, "To see how far they travel."
Not knowing quite what to make of what I said the farmer got to his point.
"Those gypsy moths are really someting." And then he paused.  My move.
"I don't know very much about them."
"Well.. I can hardly open my screen door and my kitchen is blanketed wit
dem."
"I think that at that point they just suck nectar from plants."
"And they lay eggs."
His hidden agenda was now out on the table.  Anything that went across his
fields probably ate some part of his crops.  Butterflies ain't pretty.  They
are eggs and caterpillars at some time or another.  Eaters of stalks and
stems.

Not everyone feels that way.  The Stockgrowers Association are very
interested in birds these days.  The more varied the numbers of birds out in
a pasture, the more varied are the grasses in that pasture, and the
healthier it is.  Folks out with binoculars that can tell one grassland bird
from another are useful.

But here I am with my net, usually ignored, often thought to be  an official
sweeping for some bug that would be soon blanketed with spray to kill them
all.

 And what am I actually doing?  Walking a transect supposedly studying
habitat fragmentation.

What sort of barriers are butterflies willing to go over to get to suitable
habitat?

Seemed like a good idea last winter.  Some work has been done on it.  May be
I'll add my bite.  Trouble is that the patches that I chose are not growing
up the way that they were suppose to.  The patches of land that have never
been plowed and because of their pitch were probably never grazed have been
overrun with plants that came with European settlement.  If I wanted to
study the effects of fragmentation of native habitat on butterfly
dispersion, I am walking through the wrong place.

Interesting problem I am now facing.  Spend my time observing the butterfly
species that remain in fragmented habitat that no longer supports the plant
species that were part of the native prairie or do something else.

Martin Bailey,

greetings from:  Weyburn, SK., Canada.
                         49.39N  103.51W





 
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