The
Know Your Place Project
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KYPP
(Know Your Place Project) Participatory Butterfly Surveys
Welcome to the KYPP Butterfly page. This
page is
meant to provide updates and information for participants in the our
participatory butterfly surveys of Columbia County, New York. There are
two types of information here - general information regarding the
butterflies to be found in the County and the specific results of our
outings. This is meant to be a community of web page of sorts
(admittedly, the community is that small, crazy set of us who like to
follow the butterflies of our region). Please feel free to
send observations
and photographs to me, and I will
try to post
them here in a timely manner.
Butterflies are not only beautiful but, like all organisms, they give
us perspectives on our surroundings. By following the variation in the
butterfly diversity across the season and across the landscape, one
becomes a bit more sensitive to the meaningful ecological changes that
occur here in time and space. The study of butterflies is thus one
entry point into knowing your place.
Resources:
Outing Reports:
These
are meant to summarize what we found during our
trips as a group but are also a place where I will post any individual
outing reports that are sent to me or that I participate in. Such
reports help people keep track of what is happening around the County.
Please send photographs - don't worry if they aren't publication
quality, anything that is identifiable is appropriate (we offer the
'anonymous photographer' option for those who wish to hide their more
modest offerings!) Additions & corrections to my reports are
welcome. When not otherwise noted, photographs are by Conrad
and were taken duirng the outing described.
See our 2009 reports
2010 Butterfly Round-Up
Our fieldwork got ahead of us this year, and I was not good
at keeping up with our individual outing records so… here’s an end of
the year
wrap up.
It repeats information from some of the individual outing posts which
were completed through mid June (and remain posted below this account).
Compared to 2009, this was a grand butterfly year. We added
the following five new species to our list of sightings in the County:
1) Cobweb Skipper
Finding
this species, with Harry Zirlin's aid, in an extensive Little Bluestem
field in Mid May was a nice way to start the year.
Images of the first Cobweb Skipper we've seen in the County.
Top photo by David Lewis; bottom one by Otter Vispo.
2) Indian Skipper
That same field, not surprisingly, also offered up Indian
Skippers a week or two later. Despite a decent search, no Dusted
Skippers were found in this field in May (nor Leonard's Skippers in
late August).
 
Female Indian Skipper.
A male Indian Skipper.
3) Wanderer/Harvester
A Wanderer (at Shaker Swamp in New Lebanon.
The Caterpillars of this species feed upon wooly aphids which are
commonly found on Alder; the adults eat aphid 'honey dew'. Not
surprisingly therefore, one finds them hanging out around Alder swamps.
Unlike many other butterflies, 'hanging out' actually seems to be a
reasonably good description of what they do: we found them perched on
low leaves, generally slightly above head level, and they had a
somewhat laid-back flight style, seemingly uninterested in skipper-like
vanishing acts or striking off boldly for new lands in the manner of
some larger species.
A Wanderer at Drowned
Land Swamp in Ancram.
4) Giant Swallowtail
John Piwowarski first documented this species around his Hillsdale house during the third week of July.
Giant Swallowtail laying eggs on Rue (photo by John Piwowarski).
He observed the eggs and followed them through the 'delectable' caterpillar stage in late August...
Photo of Giant Swallowtail caterpillar by John Piwowarski.
Another adult was sighted at Cowberry Crossing Farm in the first week of September.
Giant Swallowtail, Cowberry Crossing Farm, Claverack, 6 Sept. 2010
On 5 July, this species 'popped up' at Little Seed Farm (where we had seen a flock of Bronze Coppers three weeks earlier).
A Dion Skipper at Little Seed Farm Chatham.
This species (and Bronze Coppers
and Mulberry Wings) were frequenting the wildflowers found along the
permanent grass strips that Little Seed uses to separate its vegetable
beds.
Those were the new species that we registered during this year but we also added a pair of new sites for Bronze Coppers
in the County: Little Seed Gardens (Chatham) and Scenic Hudson's
Stockport Conservation Area. During previous years, we had found this
species at Hawthorne Valley Farm (Hillsdale), RoeJan Townpark (Copake),
Rheinstrom Hill wetland (Hillsdale), Cowberry Crossing Farm (Ghent),
and Roxbury Farm (Kinderhook). They have all been found on current or
former farmland, in and about low wet areas with ample herbaceous
vegetation.
Bronze Coppers from 11 June 2010, Little Seed Gardens. Female (top) and male (bottom).
While they were hardly numerous, we did see a few Hairstreaks this year (after having seen none in 2009). Most if not all of them were apparently Banded Hairstreaks.
David Lewis' photograph of a Hairstreak at Rheinstrom Hill, 20 July 2010.
Hairstreak at Stockport Conservation Area, 27 July 2010.
Hairstreak at Shaker Swamp, New Lebanon. 29 July 2010.
In Columbia County, as elsewhere, it was also a year for Red Admirals. Early in the season, we saw a steady stream of Red Admirals heading in a
generally northerly direction with definite determination. Red Spotted Purples also seemed relatively common, and Monarchs, while patchy, were not scarce.
A freshly emerged Red-Spotted Purple, 25 May 2010, Drowned Land Swamp, Ancram.
Two late-season fliers - a Red Admiral (top) and Monarch (bottom) from the Stockport Conservation Area, 8 October 2010. Both
of these species are migratory, although the migration patterns of the
Red Admiral seem less concise and dramatic than those of the Monarch.
In sum, a more encouraging year than 2009. Butterflies weren't
necessarily abundant relative to long-term historical levels (the
relative dearth of Hairstreaks is worrisome, and abundances seem less
than those recorded in some historical accounts), but at least they
were up from the previous year.
Below are individual outing accounts from the first half of 2010. I
have left these up because, although they repeat some of the sightings
noted above, they provide more detailed information.
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Stockport, Scenic Hudson Property, 30 April 2010
A warm spring and the
butterflying has begun. Sulfurs, Cabbage Whites, Azures, Pearl
Crescents, Eastern Tailed Blue. All in some abundance. The curiosity of
the day was a "melanistic" Pearl Crescent ("melanistic" refers to a
particularly dark individual of a given species; for example, our
"Black Squirrels" are really melanistic Grey Squirrels and not a
separate species.
A Spring Azure depositing eggs on Grey Dogwood flower buds; apparently the
caterpillars of this species feed on a variety of shrub & tree flowers.
An Eastern Tailed-Blue
 
A "melanistic" Pearl Crescent; wings closed, wings open.
What Pearl Crescents usually look like.
Hilltop Little Bluestem Hay Meadow, Ancramdale, NY - 15 May 2010
Visited this field on a windy
May day in hopes of finding one of the May-flying, Little
Bluestem-feeding skippers. Harry Zirlin led us on the scouting and, lo
and behold, as we were about to leave, Harry spotted a Cobweb Skipper.
So far as we know, this was a county record. Also seen at or near that
site were the following: Silver Spotted Skipper, Juvenal's Duskywing,
Hobomok and Peck's Skippers, Northern Cloudywing, Spring/Summer Azure,
American Copper, Common Ringlet, Pearl Crescent, Red Admiral, Tiger
Swallowtail, and Clouded Sulfur.
The habitat of the Cobweb & Indian Skipper in spring (top). In autumn (bottom), the steeper parts of the field take
on the beautiful orange haze of Little Bluestem.
Images of the first Cobweb Skipper we've seen in the County.
Top photo by David Lewis; bottom one by Otter Vispo.
Hawthorne Valley Farm, Harlemville, NY - 21 May 2010
Hey look, a Red
Admiral... and another Red Admiral...oh, what do you know, a Red
Admiral... The Red Admirals were coming through with conviction and
plotting a northerly course. Also seen about the pastures on this day
were American Lady, Clouded Sulfur, Pearl Crescents, Common Ringlets,
American Copper, Little Wood Satyr, Cabbage White, Peck's Skipper, Wild
Indigo Duskywing, and our season's first Monarch.
An American Lady on the wing.
 
A Little Wood Satyr, wings open & closed. The eyes are watching you either way.
The diminutive but fiesty American Copper.
A Wild Indigo Duskywing. This species has made great demographic strides since it 'realized' that Crown Vetch
was as good a caterpillar food item as Wild Indigo (which is very rare in our area).
A male Pearl Crescent, one of many.
A Peck's Skipper, perhaps gathering minerals from the mud.
Hilltop Little Bluestem Hay Meadow, Ancramdale, NY - 25 May 2010
A return trip to this site
looking for Indian and Dusted Skippers, a pair of Little Bluestem
skippers that fly slightly later than the Cobweb Skipper we found on
the 15th. We're were 50% successful, finding Indian Skipper (new to us,
but previously recorded from the County by others). We also saw umpteen
Little Wood Satyrs, numerous (which means slightly fewer than umpteen)
Common Ringlets, many American Coppers and a few Pearl Crescents,
Juvenal Duskywings and Sulfurs.
Female Indian Skipper.
A male Indian Skipper.
A Pearl Crescent female, compare with the more dour male shown earlier.
Drowned Land Swamp, Ancram, NY - 29 May 2010
T his snooping revealed what appears
to be another new record for the County - the Wanderer (also known as
the Harvester). This is one of our few carnivorous butterflies - the
caterpillars feed upon wooly aphids that live mainly on alders. The
adults sip the aphids' honeydew. This site had alders, alder aphids
and... at least one Wanderer. Also present were Least Skipper, Pearl
Crescent, Common Sootywing, Azure, and Silver-spotted Skipper.
I'm cheating a bit here. This Red-spotted Purple was leaving its chrysalis on 25 May, but it is from this site.
That clump of white fuzz on the Alder twig is a herd of the aptly-named wooly aphids.
A tattered but collaborative Wanderer. This individual skipped lazily about the shrub leaves about
10' off the ground, pausing periodically.
Little Seed Farm, Chatham, NY - 11 June 2010.
The Bronze Coppers were
abundant. This generally wetland loving butterfly was out nectaring in
the wild flower and legume cover crops. This farm is surrounded by
creek and wetland. This is the sixth site in the County where we have
found this species. We have always found it on past or present farmland.
One of the wildflower and legume (ie., Clover or Vetch) cover crop plots on the Farm; Bronze Copper were
abundant in these areas.
Bronze Coppers. Female (top) and male (bottom).
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