[leps-talk] RE: The onset of winter.

Woody Woods woody.woods at umb.edu
Sun Oct 3 21:50:29 EDT 2004


Mark, you ought to pay Alex a visit while you're in the neighborhood and do
a P. rapae count in his back yard. It might give him a break from his
gardening responsibilities...  -Woody

> From: "Mark Walker" <mwalker at tils-ttr.org>
> Date: Sun, 3 Oct 2004 18:35:57 -0700
> To: <tils-leps-talk at yahoogroups.com>, <leps-l at lists.yale.edu>
> Subject: [leps-talk] RE: The onset of winter.
> 
> 
> Todd Stout once wrote that, because of burnout from the long collecting
> season out west, he tends to give up on local lepping sometime in August.  I
> know exactly what he's talking about, and have relatively few specimens from
> places I've lived with dates after late July.  That was even true during my
> years in Vermont, where the collecting season didn't even get started until
> mid-May.  I did very little collecting in August or September, and I missed
> a few great bugs on account of it.
> 
> Of course, things totally change when you get to go someplace other than
> where you live during the Autumn months.  I've been blessed to visit
> Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Washington, Oregon, Texas, Florida, Mexico,
> Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and even Malaysia during the Autumn months - and I've
> never had any trouble swinging my net as a visitor.
> 
> Back home in San Diego, I've really been dragging my feet the past few
> months = and our season is not yet over there.  I often snoose as the fall
> broods begin flying in California.  But now I find myself on the eastern
> coast of the United States, where the fall has already set in, and I've
> found the urge to look for butterflies simply irresistable.  I wonder what
> that is all about?
> 
> So on Saturday under cloudy skies I explored some wild areas in southern
> Rhode Island, and today, with a cooling trend setting in, I hiked some
> trails in New Jersey's Pinelands under mostly sunny skies.  While the
> specimens encountered are all considered "junk" bugs, I still found it
> fulfilling to be out swinging a net and examining what might be
> participating in the last flight here.
> 
> Next weekend I'm looking forward to visiting Ron in South Carolina.  Ron
> admitted that he didn't do much local collecting this late in the season,
> but since I'm a visitor and am therefore not bored by the _local_
> collecting, I'll do my best to drag his butt out into the bushes - well, you
> know what I mean.  I'll also have to show him the Phyciodes that I took from
> New Jersey, since I now have no idea how to id them };>)
> 
> Kingston, R.I. - 10/2
> 
> Colias philodice
> Colias eurytheme
> Pieris rapae
> Lycaena phlaeas
> Everes comyntas
> Nymphalis antiopa
> Polygonia comma
> 
> New Lisbon, N.J. - 10/3
> 
> Colias eurytheme
> Phyciodes tharos?
> Pieris rapae
> Everes comyntas
> Junonia coenia
> Pyrgus communis
> 
> Mark Walker
> visiting Edison, N.J.
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-leps-l at lists.yale.edu [mailto:owner-leps-l at lists.yale.edu]On
> Behalf Of Neil Jones
> Sent: Sunday, October 03, 2004 7:31 AM
> To: tils-leps-talk at yahoogroups.com; leps-l at lists.yale.edu
> Subject: The onset of winter.
> 
> 
> "Season of mists and mellow fruitfullness" that is how one poet described a
> British autumn. Well he didn't live where I do. Here in South Wales we say
> that if we can see the English coast across the sea it is going to rain. If
> we cannot it is because it is raining. It rains a lot here, in Welsh we have
> to use the word for "to strike" to say it is raining. Today I cannot even
> see
> the nearby mountains. Winter is fast approaching.  I rather suspect he poet
> had consumed the brewed products of the mellow fruit before writing the
> poem.
> 
> Last week however was a different story. A trip down to Dorset in the sunny
> south of England was a little better. At Butterfly Conservation's HQ in
> Lulworth,  haunt of the rare Lulworth Skipper, the small butterfly garden
> was
> full of fluttering life. Painted Ladies and Red Admirals abounded and we
> were
> able to watch a Hornet eating a hoverfly. One of my colleagues had the
> foresight to bring his digital SLR camera and was able to take some
> pictures.
> 
> The highlight for me was the Hummingbird Hawkmoth (Macroglossum
> stellatarum).
> on the Buddleia. This is a migrant from Europe and although it isn't that
> rare I had never seen one in the UK until 2003. Just bad luck I suppose.
> 
> This was my second specimen seen  of the year. The earlier one being at the
> National Botanic Garden of Wales
> 
> There are some lovely poetic names for butterflies in Welsh.  The
> Comma( Polygonia c-album) is "Adain Garpiog"  (Ragged Wings) and the Ringlet
> ( Aphantopus hyperanthus) is "Iar fach y glaw" (The little hen of the rain
> or
> rain butterfly) It will fly in the rain which is rather a necessity living
> here, or at least it feels that way today.
> 
> Perhaps our friends from warmer climes can entertain us with sightings from
> places where the cold wet of winter does not dampen the enthusiasm.
> 
> --
> Neil Jones- Neil at nwjones.demon.co.uk http://www.butterflyguy.com/
> "At some point I had to stand up and be counted. Who speaks for the
> butterflies?" Andrew Lees - The quotation on his memorial at Crymlyn Bog
> National Nature Reserve.
> 
> 
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