As usual, the North American Butterfly Association’s
Butterfly Count started at 9 am in Lick Creek Park. Our resident butterfly
expert (Bruce, of course!) was out of town so the group was led by another local
expert, Jim Snyder. Volunteers consisted of Rio Brazos Audubon members, TMN members and people with no affilation who heard about the count and just showed up. We were also joined by several members of
the NABA Houston group and they were a big help to us beginners!
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| Volunteers at Lick Creek Park |
It was a successful day overall! Twenty (!!) volunteers started at Lick Creek
Park in the morning. It was a GREAT
turnout! After lunch with the heat of
the day upon us, the numbers dropped to nine volunteers combing though Millican
Reserve and Bee Creek Park. At Lick
Creek Park we didn’t see any Zebra Heliconian like we had last weekend on
Bruce’s butterfly walk. Maybe
Rick photographed the demise of the last one mid-week! Who knew that dragonflies eat
butterflies?!
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| Zebra Heliconian getting eaten by a Black-shouldered Spinyleg Dragonfly. Rick took this picture a few days before the NABA count. |
At Millican Reserve there were so many dragonflies the
butterfly numbers were pretty low. We
actually saw Common or White Checkerspot-skippers fleeing from dragonflies.
Bee Creek Park brought a renewed vigor to the search… maybe
it was the just the heat getting to us!
But we did add several new species to the list.
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| Left: Gulf Fritillary from Lick Creek Park Right: Fiery Skipper from Lick Creek Park |
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| Lady butterflies were out ovipositing! Left: Female Common or White Checkerspot Skipper from Lick Creek Park Right: Female Horace's Duskywing from Lick Creek Park |
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| Comparing the emperors! Left: Hackberry Emperor making friends with Mark in Bee Creek Park Right: Tawny Emperor from Bee Creek Park |
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| Comparing Hairstreaks! Left: Gray Hairstreak from Lick Creek Park (seen on Bruce's butterfly walk on June 4) Middle: Dusky-blue Groundstreak from Bee Creek Park Right: Red-banded Hairstreak from Lick Creek Park (seen on Bruce's butterfly walk on June 4). |
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| Two views of a Red-spotted Purple from Lick Creek Park |
Of course, butterflies don’t pose on demand and it can be
frustrating to try and identify them on the fly. That’s ok, we had plenty of other critters to
look at!
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| Left: Delta Flower Scarab on Rattlesnake Master from Lick Creek Park Right: Southern Leopard Frog from Lick Creek Park |
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| Left: Green Anole from Lick Creek Park Right: Greater Roadrunner from Millican Reserve |
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| Left: Great Blue Skimmer from Lick Creek Park Right: Widow Skimmer from Lick Creek Park |
It was a wonderful count day! If you couldn’t attend and still want to see
butterflies, they’re still around. You
don’t have to walk miles through Lick Creek Park to see them, either. Gardens throughout town should have butterflies
visiting nectar plants.
Thanks to everyone who came out! Have a wonderful timing watching butterflies
during the summer months!
