Butterflies galore

Dunn skipper seen on butterfly count

On Aug 9, my wife and I joined three other Virginia Master Naturalists for the Northwest sector in the Williamsburg annual butterfly count. The count is in support of North American Butterfly Association (NABA) and locally sponsored by the Coastal Virginia Wildlife Observatory (CVWO). We have done several other counts in the region the last several years but this is our first time on the Williamsburg count. Usually in early August we can expect very hot and humid to very hot and very humid weather. This year we got lucky with the temperature and humidity at quite comfortable levels. 

Most of our stops were manicured gardens instead of the wild areas that we have been in for other counts. This included a plant nursery, a community garden, or allotments, the Williamsburg Botanical Gardens, and a couple of private gardens. With all of the blooming garden plants, there were a lot of eastern tiger swallowtails, monarchs, and sachems (a skipper) throughout the day.

Eastern swallowtail

Common buckeye

We started at the plant nursery with permission to be there before they opened for sales. The agastache (Anise hyssop) was covered with tiger swallowtails. We counted at least 8 moving between the blooms and at times, it seemed like a lot more with many in the air at a time. There were also high numbers of three different skipper species. 

A quick stop at the James City County library where there is a small storm water pond netted us several pearl crescents and common buckeyes. Both high counts for the day.

Sachem on a zinnia

Red-spotted purple seen
in the woods

The allotment gardens were a busy place; both people and butterflies. Probably half the gardens had people tending them on the Saturday morning. And with the blooming vegetable plants and a lot of zinnias, the butterflies were busy as well. We had sixty individual butterflies from 17 species; most at the allotments. This included 13 monarchs, another 8 tiger swallowtails, 8 variegated fritilaries, and 11 sachems. We also walked around some of the wooded edges and sports fields. A soccer field hosted 45 killdeer which would have been a great count if we were counting birds instead of butterflies. But it was still an impressive sight.

Our last major stop was at the Williamsburg Botanical Gardens. This was again full of tiger swallowtails along with a handful of sleepy oranges and a scattering of other species. We also had a very accommodating ruby-throated hummingbird.

Rudy-throated hummingbird (a bird, not a butterfly😁 )

All told, after 6 and a half hours looking for butterflies, we had seen 137 individuals from 20 species, including this male and female pair of zabulon skippers.

Male and female zabulon skippers