Butterflies at Pleasant Valley Conservancy

Ann Thering has been photographing butterflies at Pleasant Valley Conservancy for several years, and kindly provides notes on what she sees. The table below shows the data from mid June 2010.

Here is what she said in her email: "Numbers are down a bit from last year (the general trend this year is for higher numbers) but diversity is still good. The purple milkweed is spectacular. And your large common milkweed clones are awesome. The butterflies go nuts over this. The Delaware Skipper, while not listed as threatened or anything, is always a nice find. You never see many in one spot."

Ann will be giving a course in August at Olbrich Garden on buttefly gardening. See the details in the Empire-Sauk Chapter (Prairie Enthusiasts) web site.

Species	Numbers	Notes
Silver spotted skipper	1
Banded hairstreak	25+
Coral hairstreak	1
Silvery checkerspot	3
Baltimore checkerspot	9
Great spangled fritillary	8+
Aphrodite fritillary	6+
Meadow fritillary	2
Red admiral	1
Little wood satyr	1
Summer azure	15+	Laying eggs on New Jersey tea
Eastern tailed blue	1
Monarch	8	3 caterpillars
Eyed brown	1
Delaware skipper	1
European skipper	1
Black swallowtail	3
Eastern tiger swallowtail	1
Mourning cloak	1
Common wood nymph	3
Orange sulfur	5
Clouded sulfur	6
Data courtesy of Ann Thering