Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy

Skippers are the toughest of the butterflies to identify.  Similar to the birding world where that unknown bird gets put into a lot called ”LBB” (little brown bird”), with butterflies we have our own LBBs, and they are the skippers. 

Identifying them is so rewarding though because it makes you really look at their markings, pick up on subtle cues, watch their behavior, and put together the clues. They have great names, too, like “Dreamy” and “Sleepy” and “Long Dash”.

Mona Miller emailed me a great website that helps with Skipper Identification so I wanted to share that here with you in case you’d like to try your hand at Skipper identification: Skipper Butterflies  I bet you have some in your garden!

Today is our 14th Annual Loudoun Butterfly Count and in a couple of hours over 70 of us will be heading to our team meeting spots and starting off the great count. We’ll no doubt encounter our share of skippers throughout the day.

Either tonight when I get home or tomorrow I’ll start posting some photos and news from our count day.  In the meantime, wish us luck!

This just in from Monarch Watch (see report below). It will be interesting to see what we find through our butterfly count this Saturday and compare it to previous years. I’ve only had a couple of encounters with Monarchs this year and I’ve been looking!  Our intern, Erin Snook, took this great shot of a Monarch caterpillar at Banshee earlier this season.

Status of the Population

The 2009-2010 overwintering monarch population in Mexico covered a forest area of only 1.92 hectares. This figure represents an all time low for overwintering monarchs and is well below the long-term average of 7.44 hectares (1994-2010).

We worried about these low numbers because of the possibility that a devastating storm could drive the population even lower. And then it happenedŠa storm of the worst possible dimensions hit the overwintering area starting on 2 February.

Accounts of the flooding and landslides can be found on the Monarch Watch Blog at

http://monarchwatch.org/blog/category/mexico/

Attempts to find out how the monarchs fared following these winter storms were unsatisfactory. We estimated that at least 50% of the monarchs died during the winter months, recognizing that this value could have been low.

Fortunately, the conditions encountered by the monarchs that reached Texas were favorable. The result, in spite of the low number of returning monarchs, was a substantial first generation.

These butterflies colonized much of the northern breeding area from late April to mid-June.

It appears that the monarchs are making a modest recovery and we expect the overwintering population will measure close to 3 hectares.

For a more detailed status and updates throughout the season please visit the Monarch Watch Blog at http://monarchwatch.org/blog/

As we head into the final days before our big Butterfly count, I thought I’d share this Butterfly Identification website that Mona Miller, one of our count leaders, sent over.

Click on the wing shape and a series of photos pops up with common butterflies that look like that.  There are also colors that you can click on in order to narrow in your id from that direction. 

A nice tool for use as you learn the butterflies.

Norm Gresley took this beautiful shot of a _____ Butterfly at the Blue Ridge Center for Environmental Stewardship a few weeks ago.

Can you identify it? After you try your hand at using the id site, hover over the image here and you’ll see what species it is.

On July 17, a total of 12 people found 17 different butterfly species on a very hot & humid Butterfly Walk at the Blue Ridge Center.  Most of the two-hour walk was spent on the organic farm which was, by far, the most productive spot we visited.  The reason for this was that with the exception of some thistles, little was flowering in the fields.  However, it looks like a lot of the late summer flowers should be blooming in time to make the Blue Ridge Center a great place to visit for our Annual Butterfly Count on Saturday, August 7.
 
While there were a lot of butterflies, there wasn’t as much variety in species as expected.  The highlight of the walk was an AMERICAN SNOUT that landed and briefly perched on one of the participants.  Interestingly enough a HACKBERRY EMPEROR, as they are prone to do, landed on the same individual a little while later and wouldn’t leave. 
 
Most of the butterflies we saw were CLOUDED SULPHURS and SULPHURS, though there were also a fair number of EASTERN TIGER SWALLOWTAILS, including several dark morph female, EASTERN TIGER SWALLOWTAILS.  We also saw Spicebush Swallowtail, Cabbage White, Eastern-tailed Blue, Variegated Fritillary, Great Spangled Fritillary, Pearl Crescent, Silver-spotted Skipper, Horace’s Duskywing, Least Skipper, Peck’s Skipper, Little Glassywing, and Dun Skipper. 
 
Three weeks ago during the regular monthly bird walk on June 26, when a lot more was blooming, we had more diversity and in addition to the above butterflies also saw Pipevine Swallowtail, Zebra Swallowtail, Meadow Fritillary, Red-spotted Purple, Northern Pearly-eye, and Monarch butterflies.
 
For more information about the Blue Ridge Center for Environmental Stewardship, one of Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy’s partners and open to the public every day of the year, visit www.brces.org.
 
To sign up for the Annual Butterfly Count visit http://www.loudounwildlife.org/Butterfly_Count.htm.

Spicebush (Lindera benzoin) was one of the first native shrubs that I learned when I moved to Loudoun.  We have it in various places just growing wild through our back yard area and I was curious about their bright red berries.

It turns out, Spicebush is a wetland plant that often grows alongside Sassafras in moist soils, stream banks, floodplains and swamp forests (which we love for all their amphibian habitats!). When I read about this the first time, it helped me put together clues about the habitat that ran through our back yard.

The flowers come out very early in spring, even before the leaves. As the flowers are pollinated, green berries start to take shape and can be seen on the plant through the summer.  Then, just before the leave drop off, the berries take on their bright red color – a sure sign to the birds that food is here.

Spicebush is a really important wildlife plant. First, for the Spicebush and Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterflies, it provides food for the caterpillars.  Spicebush is the host plant for this butterfly meaning that the caterpillar will eat this plant as it grows and transforms from caterpillar to chrysalis to beautiful butterfly. Learning this, I then understood why we had so many of this butterfly flying through our garden and forest area.

For mammals and birds, Spicebush provides cover and nesting sites. And then there are those beautiful red berries. They ripen in September and provide great nourishment to migrating and local birds.

Another interesting thing about this plant are that it is a member of the Laurel family and as such, it is remotely related to avocados, bay leafs, and cinnamon.

The migration of the Monarch butterflies is underway!

As you know from reading the January and February report, the number of Monarch butterflies that made it to Mexico last fall was the lowest since data has been recorded in the 1970s. Then, with the storms that came through Angangueo, at least half of that tiny population was killed.

CBS News put together a nice story and set of videos on Monarch Butterflies this year: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/03/30/eveningnews/main6348230.shtml

USA Today also did a story on the Monarchs that was well done: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/environment/2010-03-30-Monarchs30_ST_N.htm

Now here we are as their cycle of life continues and the adults that survived are coming back north. This migrating generation, the same butterflies that left our yards seven months ago and flew 2,000 miles to the mountains outside of Mexico City, has mated and started their return flight north.

The females will lay eggs on milkweed plants as they fly north for as far as they can (generally no further than the latitude of 40N) until their little bodies finally expire by the end of April. As their young hatches, gobbles up milkweed and transforms from caterpillar to butterfly, they will continue the relay by flying further northward.

So where are they now? Well here’s a quick listing of reports I saw through March on the Monarch Watch listserv. You can also see the reports on the map to the left from Journey North (current as of this week).

The circles are sightings of migrating butterflies. The triangles represent locations where monarchs were seen over the winter, with the most significant being that one little triangle in Mexico:

March 6: sightings in the Lower Rio Grande
March 10: San Antonio, TX
March 12: Port Lavaca, TX (where milkweed plants were already healthy sprouts with some about 8″ high)
March 17: Eagles Pass, TX
March 22: Deridder, LA
March 24: Corpus Christie, TX

Planting milkweed now here in Virginia will provide the Monarchs with what they need when they get here by late May. Ask your local nursery to stock Swamp Milkweed and Butterfly Weed.

Let’s do our part here in Loudoun to Bring Back the Monarchs!

I’ll be doing my monthly blog post on the state of the Monarch Butterfly population shortly but this is pretty urgent so I wanted to share the report below with you from Monarch Watch and ask that you jump on in and plant some milkweed as well as nectar plants in your garden this spring! You can also certify your garden as a Monarch Waystation though Monarch Watch and be recognized as being a part of this important effort! 

You can purchase milkweed seeds through online companies like Prairie Nursery (that’s where we buy our seeds for the waystation kits we put together) and you can also ask local nurseries to order and stock milkweed plants. Prairie Moon, another company that sells plants/seeds, is also having a sale right now on some of their Butterfly Weed milkweed plants.

Milkweed plants that are great for our local area include: Swamp Milkweed, Common Milkweed, Butterflyweed

Nectar plants that you should also plant as part of your waystation include: Ironweed, Sweet Joe Pye Weed, Purple Coneflower, Blackeyed Susan, Goldenrod, New England Aster

Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy will have Monarch Waystation seed kits at our fair booth at the Leesburg Garden Festival, Earthday@Loudoun, Arbor Day and other events in April. Check our programs calendar for details. I’m also doing a program on Monarch butterflies in June in the Ashburn area and it’s free and open to the public – Waystation kits will also be available at the program.

The number of Monarchs this year was already low before the devastating weather events set in. With only half of the remaining population still alive, our monarch waystations are more critical than ever in helping bring back the monarch!

The rest of this blog post provides the report from Monarch Watch:

Storms in Mexico
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There has been a disaster of extraordinary proportions in the heart of the monarch overwintering area. Unprecedented rainfall from 31 January – 4 February led to flooding and landslides that resulted in the loss of many lives and the near destruction of the towns of Angangueo and Ocampo, the two municipalities that serve as hubs for those visiting the monarch colonies at Sierra Chincua and El Rosario.

The community of El Rosario was also hit hard with a major landslide that buried more than a dozen residents and destroyed bridges and homes. The consequences of this disaster will be felt for years by some and for a lifetime by others. Angangueo will never be the same – the one we remember before the flooding is gone.

The monarch colonies were also strongly impacted by the rainfall but the monarch population will recover – how long this recovery will take is a question that can’t be answered at this time.

We have posted a series of articles about the storms in Mexico, the status of the monarch population, etc. via our blog:

http://monarchwatch.org/blog/category/mexico/

A few quick facts:
1) An unprecedented amount of rainfall in eastern Michoacan in the first four days of February led to landslides and massive flooding in Angangueo and the surrounding area. About 50 people lost their lives in landslides and Angangueo was severely damaged. The story of the storm and the aftermath are extensively chronicled on our Blog.

2) A series of storms in January and February have taken a toll on the monarch population. The final estimate on the mortality suffered by the monarchs is not yet in but it is clear that over 50% of the overwintering population died as a result the harsh winter conditions.

3) Because of the severe mortality at the overwintering colonies, the number of monarchs returning to the breeding areas this spring will be fewer than at anytime since the colonies became known to science in 1975. These numbers are so low that they are certain to impact the number of monarchs that return to Mexico next fall.

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Bring Back the Monarch Campaign
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In response to mortality suffered by the monarchs in Mexico we will be launching a “Bring Back the Monarch”campaign by encouraging a nationwide expansion of the Monarch Waystation Program and the planting of milkweed on private and public lands. This effort will be supported in part by the Monarch Joint Venture, a new nationwide program whose mission is to foster monarch conservation. We will post more information about these efforts in the coming months, in the meantime you can learn more about our Monarch Waystation conservation initiative at

http://monarchwatch.org/waystations

Mona Miller, the “Butterfly Lady”, just sent over her secret recipe for attracting butterflies and it’s the perfect time to give it a try! This time of year, Mourning Cloaks, Question Marks and Commas can often be seen. They overwintered as adults in the leaf litter and will be out looking for some sweets to nectar on as well as some sunshine to warm their bodies.

So to make this special blend, you’ll need:
- A ripe banana
- A swig of dark rum
- A spoonful of Molasses

Simply mix the ingredients together and put it out on a plate or other flat surface in the sun so the butterflies can get to it. You may need to take it in at night so raccoons and other animals don’t get into it.

Mona writes, “Viceroys, Admirals, Question Marks, Commas, Hackberry, Red Spotted Purples, Wood Nymphs are the butterflies that I have seen butterfly bar hopping.”

So, when I thought about doing this monthly series on Monarch Butterflies and “where are they now”, I thought it’d be a lighthearted fun set of posts throughout the year, tracking them as they went from Mexico to the US and Canada and back again to Mexico.

Then, I embarked on that first post in January with the reports of the lowest number of overwintering butterflies recorded but ending the post with a ray of hope….scientists modeled that with 6 more weeks of good weather in Mexico and enough milkweed in spring in the US, the population could rebound.

Well, as February hit and we dig out from our snow storm here, I was flooded by emails on a weather event of a different type in Michoacan, Mexico:  Rains, cold temperatures, mudslides and even a snowfall hit this tiny mountain area.  The towns of Angangueo, Ocampo, Zitacuaro and others were destroyed, leaving a trail of people dead, entire towns of people homeless and the future of Monarch butterflies as we know it in question.

Before I go further to recount the February events, I want to reflect on the words of Emily Dickenson that “hope is a thing with feathers”. To take that further, hope is a thing with wings, indeed, the wings of Monarchs. In this relay of life that our Monarch Butterflies endure, the surviving butterflies will start their journey northward in the next few weeks and we (you and I) play a key role in helping restore their population. The future of monarch butterflies is in our hands and it lies in the seeds of a simple plant, one that you and I can protect and grow far and wide: the Milkweed.

In coming days, I’ll do a post just on Milkweed, but for now, let’s step back into February to understand what happened to the people and the butterflies of Michoacan:

February 4^th was the first email I read and it started with this: “It has rained hard for 3 days and continues.  Angangueo’s river flooded all the way down to the Tuxpan river, and has done much damage in the area of the path of both rivers.  Also, a tornado went through the outskirts of Zitacuaro yesterday and destroyed some places we  know..…They have no electricity, which means also no water, no news….The hospitals have had to close.”

Then, Lincoln Brower sent this report:
“First killing winter storm for the 2009-2010 overwintering season.   I am just off the phone (4:30PM EST) with colleagues in Mexico 4 February 2010.   Pablo Span visited the Pelon colony when it was not raining on Tuesday 2 January and said there were more (presumably dead) monarch butterflies on the ground than he had ever before seen.   Pablo reports that the local Pelon guards told him that there are two colonies on Pelon, one called Carditos and the other La Costera.  According to our student, Raul Zubieta, there was a major winter storm occurring on the Sierra Chincua on Monday 1 February and that this likely has caused major mortality in all the colonies.

Second killer storm.  Pablo also told me that very severe weather is currently impacting the whole area.  At 6 AM on Wednesday 3 February heavy rain began falling and it is still raining at 5 PM on 4 February.  He measured the rain on 3 February at the hotel at 3.5 inches.  As of 740 PM 4 Feb, so far 15 inches of rain have fallen since Monday.  Two groups of tourists attempted to visit the butterflies at Rosario today (4 Feb). 

The first group succeeded, but the second did not because a bridge between Ocampo and Rosario washed out.  Pablo also said that the main highway bridge on Route 15 through Tuxpan washed out.  LPB tried calling Mitzi Mancilla in Tuxpan but could not get through.  Pablo also said that a colleague who lives near Crescencio Morales (located at the southern end of the Sierra Campanario – Rosario is at the northern end) reported serious flooding.  The ejido Crescencio Morales has been illegally and massively clear cut in the past 4 years.  It is likely that the erosion of the now barren former Oyamel forest area is extensive.  Another colleague in Angangueo reported frightening rain for 48 hours and still raining as of noon 4 Feb. and that a house fell down killing three children.  Little we can do…..”

While there was little to no coverage of this tragedy in our US news, there was some information gained through Mexican newspapers online and people posted videos to YouTube. Here is one of them: Angangueo Devastation

Reports show over 10,000 people impacted, 2,500 homes destroyed, hundreds injured and at least 37 killed. Dams broke, rivers overflowed, mountains deforested gave way to massive mudslides that buried homes and buildings below. The Mexican Army was deployed to help as they could. Through the rains, Monarchs clung to branches but were also pushed to the ground.

We hoped for weather above freezing so that they could survive. By February 7^th, the sun was out, rubble was being cleared and Angangueo was officially evacuated. I reached my friend Mario, who guided us through the sanctuaries and took us to special places when we visited last February. He and his family were fine but had lost friends in mudslides and floods.

Information on the Monarch population has been sketchy both because roads to the sanctuaries have been out so few people have been able to get to the colonies to check and because the clusters of Monarchs have dispersed some with the storms. I’ve seen reports that maybe 10% of the butterflies have died, but there have also been hopeful reports that while there has been mortality, it’s not as bad as it could have been for the butterflies.

Here is an account from Journey North with Lincoln Brower on data that has come in so far, pretty much leaving us with the recognition that we’ll have to wait and see: http://www.learner.org/jnorth/tm/monarch/Brower022510.html

I’ll continue to follow this of course and will post again on our Monarchs in March. But in the meantime, start ordering those milkweed seeds!

I thought it would be interesting to do a monthly posting on Monarch butterflies: where they are and how they’re doing throughout the year. I’ll apologize in advance for the news in this post because it’s a bit of a downer but hopefully the news of the Monarch populations will improve as we move through the year.

For those who attended my program on Monarchs this past year, you know that they have a pretty interesting lifecycle that takes them through 4 generations of butterflies over the course of the year with the fall generation being the one that makes the epic journey all the way to Mexico! They rely on habitat here and in Mexico and both are under threats of different sorts. That, combined with the usual challenges of weather that they face make the great Monarch migration an endangered phenomenon.

But let’s kick off with catching up with our Monarch friends - those Monarch butterflies that you saw in late August, September and into October flew 2,000 miles to a very special mountain area near the town of Angangueo, Mexico. That is where they are right now: in a tiny mountain forest area outside of Mexico City, at an altitude of around 8,000 – 10,000 feet, clinging to branches of Oyamel pine trees, resting and awaiting the change in season so they can breed and begin the migration back.

Unfortunately, the numbers this year are at an all-time low. The World Wildlife Fund’s Mexico staff have been monitoring the number of monarchs and I saw this report from them posted by Monarch Watch. The places I visited last February and showed in my program were the three colony sanctuaries mentioned in the report below:

“The news is not good. The total area occupied by monarchs at the overwintering sites in December was 1.92 hectares. Only 7 colonies were found. The three largest colonies El Capulin (Cerro Pelon) 0.53ha, El Rosario 0.50ha, and Cerro Prieto (Chincua) 0.47ha constitute 78% of the total area. The totals for both hectares and numbers of colonies are at an all time low.

Good records of the numbers of colonies and area occupied go back to 1992 and there is less complete data for most years going back to the late 1970s and numbers this year appear to be lower than observed for any year since the overwintering colonies became known to science in 1975. The lowest previous total, 2.19 hectares, was reported in 2004.

This decline continues a trend that started in the late 1990s. In the decade of the 90s the mean area occupied by monarch colonies was close to 9 hectares. The mean for the last 10 years, through the 09 migration, is now below 5 hectares per year and the three lowest monarch overwintering populations were reported in this decade.”

Chip Taylor of Monarch Watch offers explanations for the low numbers:

“Without going into great detail and wishing not to repeat the October report, here is a brief summary of the reasons for the low overwintering numbers.

1.) High temperatures in Texas in March and early April limited production of first generation monarchs. It is these monarchs that recolonize the northern breeding range and fewer monarchs moving north/northeast out of Texas from late April to June impacts the rest of the breeding season.

2.) Conditions were less than ideal for the first generation monarchs as they moved north in May and early June.

3.) Upon arrival in Minnesota monarchs encountered drought conditions that limited reproductive success of first generation in that area.

4.) As the summer progressed, cool and cool, rainy conditions prevailed in many areas, limiting reproduction and slowing development of larvae.

5.) Colder than normal condition prevailed for most of the western two thirds of the northern breeding area from mid June into early September.

In many respects the conditions during the monarch breeding season in 2009 were a repeat of the conditions seen in 2004 that contributed to the previous low overwintering population number of 2.19 hectares.

In spite of the recent cold snap that reached into Mexico, there have been no indications of weather related mortality at the overwintering sites. Let’s hope that normal winter conditions prevail during the next 7-8  weeks. Even if there should be some mortality, our experience with the disaster of 2002, in which an estimated 80% of the population died as the result of a January storm, showed that, if at least 1 hectare of monarchs survives to move north and, IF they encounter normal conditions as they move north through Mexico and in Texas, the population can recover.”

Ok, so the news isn’t great this month but there’s the glimmer of hope that Chip offers that the population can recover if they don’t encounter further setbacks. Let’s hope there aren’t any bad cold snaps in Mexico over the next few weeks.

If there is enough interest, I’d be happy to do my program on Monarchs and their lifecycle again this Spring – just let me know.