[Pollinator] WV butterfly shortage

[forestruss at aol.com]

Dear friends of pollinators:

The response from around the country from my post last Friday relative to anecdotal observations that butterflies seem to be in low numbers this summer has been disturbing.  Over the weekend I received e-mails from Montana, Georgia, North and South Carolina, Ohio and Minnesota that report similar observations and a shared concern.  The only person who wrote to say that everything appeared to be in normal abundance was from Rhode Island.
Over the weekend I visited two areas where butterflies are normally common and often found puddling in hot weather.  One area is a valley bottom  meadow with hundreds of milkweed plants as well as other native wildflowers.  The four acre meadow had a single monarch butterfly and one swallowtail.  Yesterday, in the late morning before the day heated up I passed through a 1.4 mile long strip of bottom land and riparian habitat where I typically disturb clouds of butterflies.  I saw twelve butterflies total in the entire distance including five swallowtails in one mineral seep. 

Aside from recently hot weather there has been nothing unusual or exceptional about our weather here this year
I hope this is just an anomaly and would appreciate any posts that could explain what is happening. 

Sincerely,
Russ Richardson, Certified ForesterArnoldsburg, WV


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