Johnson County Butterfly Count

The Johnson County Butterfly Count was held Saturday at Kent Park and other places. Since I was one of the people who did not go, I will quote the Count Leader, Chris Edwards.

It turned out to be a record-setting day. In 9.75 hours we found 43 species (old record 39 species in 2007, 13-year average 33 species) and 2615 individuals (record 2711 individuals in 2008, 13-year average 1026 individuals). We found one new species for the count, Southern Dogface (at Kent Park), and recorded new high counts for 13 species. Southern immigrants were much in evidence, including an American Snout which perched on my antenna when we stopped at Subway for lunch! The majority of the total individuals were sulphurs seen in a single large alfalfa field south of Solon on my way home – after scanning the field with binoculars for fifteen minutes and realizing there was no way I could ever count all those butterflies, I conservatively estimated 1600 Clouded Sulphurs and 400 Orange Sulphurs, but I suspect there were a lot more than that.

To those who participated, thanks for your help on a very hot day! To those who were unable to participate yesterday, I hope you can join us next year.

Black Swallowtail 1, Giant Swallowtail 61, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail 36 *, Checkered White 2, Cabbage White 46,

Clouded Sulphur 1677 *, Orange Sulphur 426, Southern Dogface 1 (new species for count), Cloudless Sulphur 13 *, Little Yellow 14, American Copper 1, Bronze Copper 2, Gray Hairstreak 1, Eastern Tailed-Blue 28, Summer Azure 18, American Snout 3,

Variegated Fritillary 10*, Great Spangled Fritillary 9, Meadow Fritillary 15, Pearl Crescent 10, Question Mark 6, Eastern Comma 9 *,

Gray Comma 4 *, American Lady 2, Painted Lady 1, Red Admiral 25, Common Buckeye 27, Red-spotted Purple 7, Viceroy 21, Hackberry Emperor 17 *, Northern Pearly-eye 1, Common Wood-Nymph 13, Monarch 41, Silver-spotted Skipper 26 *,

Common Checkered-Skipper 2 *, Common Sootywing 11 *, Least Skipper 29, Fiery Skipper 27 *, Peck's Skipper 14 *,

Tawny-edged Skipper 7, Sachem 3 *, Black Dash 1, and Dun Skipper 2.

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