numbers game or counting- Forgot something

[Michael Gochfeld]

I certainly agree that a single count in early summer can't represent a
butterfly fauna in a meaningful way.  In our club I've tried to
encourage people to select a particular place (park, powerline cut, etc,
to census every 2-4 weeks throughout the season.  I do this behind our
house. 

But it lacks the party atmosphere of an annual count.  MIKE GOCHFELD

Barb Beck wrote:
> 
> 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

 
 ------------------------------------------------------------ 

   For subscription and related information about LEPS-L visit:

   http://www.peabody.yale.edu/other/lepsl