Butterfly Trip

When we started the walk, it was cold, damp and cloudy, not good conditions for a butterfly walk. When we found our first butterfly, I was relieved that we would at least find one butterfly. It turned out that we had one of the best walks that we have ever had. A total of 28 species were seen. The list of species and number of each is below. The highlights of the day were the eight Hackberry Emperors, the Tawny Emperor, three Swarthy Skippers, four Red-spotted Purples, eight Monarch caterpillars and a Monarch chrysalis. This was the first butterfly walk in which both Emperors were found. The eight Hackberry Emperors tied or exceeded the total annual number found in eight of the 11 years of the survey. The single Tawny Emperor matched the survey total for last year. Both are considered “Rare”. The three Swarthy skippers exceeded last year’s total of two. One of the Hackberry Emperors landed on my shirt for good viewing by all.