This past Sunday was the Rondeau butterfly count. Weather was very nice, but butterflies were few and far between as one would expect. Seems to be going downhill with numbers every year; certainly not a good sign.
I did my usual area of South Point trail, with assistance from Paul Carter. It started out very slow, but things did pick up a bit.
We had a number of Appalachian Browns, but a far cry from last year.
Only two Northern Pearly-Eye were tallied.
Our best spot, as usual, was the old Dillon dump where Common Milkweed is prevailant. There were many Northern Broken-Dash and a number of Silver-spotted Skippers.
Perhaps our best, although a common species in season, was a very worn Hobomok Skipper. A fairly late record.
We ended up with ten Banded Hairstreaks, which is a good number for my area.
I ended up with 20 species, one more than last year, but less than half the individuals of last year. Since I have been doing this count since 1999, the average was around 24 species in my area. It has been many years since we have had a "good" count. 2012 was perhaps the last one.
We kept an eye out for odonates, but there was not much variety. This was our only Halloween Pennant.
A number of bluets were along the trail, which appeared to be fresh Tule, before they get their colour.
Clear Creek butterfly count will be the last day of the month....
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