Impressive 4th of July counts of "Endangered" migrant monarchs.

[John Acorn]

Lepsters,

For those who might not realize this, it is worth mentioning that  
Vanessa butterflies (the ladies, and the red admirable) are well  
known for their dramatic population fluctuations, and their  
occasional migratory outpourings to the north.  Last year, the  
painted lady was in one of its big years, something that happens  
about every ten years or so.  So what we are seeing now are not  
"population levels" analogous to those of birds or mammals-- what we  
are seeing are normal fluctuations in species that can be super  
common one year and absent the next, or vice versa.  Pardon me for  
stating the obvious, but some folks might think that the low levels  
of Vanessa are cause for alarm.

John Acorn
Edmonton


On Jul 11, 2006, at 8:55 AM, chris kline wrote:

> On our butterfly walks here at the Arboretum this year, we saw two  
> Painted Ladies on April 1 and those are the only Vanessa's we've  
> seen this year, so far.
>
> chris
> Superior, AZ
>
> "Grkovich, Alex" <agrkovich at tmpeng.com> wrote:
> Roger,
>
> I would agree that it has been a poor year for Vanessas; but I just  
> saw a Red Admiral and an American Painted Lady at Sunday at  
> Bristol, Rhode Island; and I saw numerous Painted Ladies both in  
> western Arizona in February and in Greece last month...
>
> Alex
>
> From: owner-leps-l at lists.yale.edu on behalf of Roger Kuhlman
> Sent: Mon 7/10/2006 8:26 PM
> To: LEPS-L at lists.yale.edu
> Subject: RE: Impressive 4th of July counts of "Endangered" migrant  
> monarchs.
>
> While Monarchs have been doing pretty well in southeast Michigan this
> season, all three Vanessa species have been extremely scarce. In  
> fact no one
> who reports sightings for the Greater Washtenaw County Butterfly  
> Survey has
> spotted a Painted Lady yet this year. Definitely it is the worst  
> year for
> Vanessas in the survey's 12 year history.
>
> Roger Kuhlman
>
> >Every time that I have gone out this season (since mid-June  
> anyway), I
> >have encountered Monarchs and have seen several mating exercises.  
> I have
> >also seen them in our backyard, feeding on the milkweeds there...
> >
> >Alex
> >
> >-----Original Message-----
> >From: owner-leps-l at lists.yale.edu [mailto:owner-leps- 
> l at lists.yale.edu]
> >On Behalf Of Paul Cherubini
> >Sent: Monday, July 10, 2006 12:42 PM
> >To: Leps-L
> >Subject: Impressive 4th of July counts of "Endangered" migrant  
> monarchs.
> >
> >During the past week on the dplex-l there have been multiple posts  
> about
> >record or near record 4th of July counts of monarchs from southern
> >Ontario, plus favorable reports from neighboring Canadian  
> provinces and
> >the upper Midwest USA:
> >
> >Here's an example from Algonquin Provincial Park which is a huge
> >wilderness park in the northern section of southern
> >Ontario:
> >
> >1995 - 8
> >1996 - 5
> >1997 - 156 (our previous high)
> >1998 - 1
> >1999 - 66
> >2000 - 42
> >2001 - 142
> >2002 - 11
> >2003 - 52
> >2004 - count cancelled due to weather
> >2005 - 25
> >2006 - 189
> >
> >Paul Cherubini
> >El Dorado, Calif.
> >
> >
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>
> If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done.
> Chris Kline
> Senior Instructional Specialist
> Boyce Thompson Arboretum
> 37615 U.S. Highway 60
> Superior, Arizona 85273
> (520) 689-2723

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