Some good reading came out recently that might merit a few minutes of your time. The first appeared in the July 31 (Sunday) Omaha World Herald and deals with gardening for pollinators and Monarch butterflies in particular as a conservation group recently listed them as endangered. https://omaha.com/lifestyles/home-and-garden/in-the-garden-fight-isnt-over-to-help-monarchs-and-heres-how-to-do-it/article_dcc3f590-0ddc-11ed-b666-3b7bee54ef2a.html The August/September issue of Nebraskaland magazine has aContinue reading “Some Good Reading”
Tag Archives: Danaus plexippus
Godspeed AEJZ927 et al
Thursday afternoon (9/16) we went looking for Monarch butterflies to tag during their migration to Mexico. Waiting for them to find our asters in the yard had not proven to be a winning strategy so we went to a patch of alfalfa where they had been numerous in the past. The weather was warm enoughContinue reading “Godspeed AEJZ927 et al”
Monarch Tagging Time
Where did the summer go? Suddenly it’s August and time to consider doing some citizen science and tag migrating Monarchs. Monarchwatch.org (a University of Kansas outreach program) is the sponsoring organization. Check out their website for full details, but briefly – you order the kit containing labels and instructions on the tagging procedure. You tagContinue reading “Monarch Tagging Time”
Distribution Map Updates – Part 1
I just finished updating the distribution maps for all 215 butterfly species that have been recorded from Nebraska. Six butterflies have been recorded from all 93 counties – Red Admirals (Vanessa atalanta), Painted Ladies (Vanessa cardui), Monarchs (Danaus plexippus), Common Wood Nymphs (Cercyonis pegala), Orange Sulphurs (Colias eurytheme) and Cabbage Whites (Pieris rapae). Another 14Continue reading “Distribution Map Updates – Part 1”
2021 Niobrara Valley Preserve Butterfly Count
On July 1 eight intrepid observers took advantage of perfect weather to participate in the Niobrara Valley Preserve’s annual butterfly count. They found 254 total butterflies belonging to 36 species. The Great Spangled Fritillary was the most common butterfly with 65 tallied. Four Nebraska Natural Heritage Program Tier 1 (globally most at risk of extinction)Continue reading “2021 Niobrara Valley Preserve Butterfly Count”
Fun With Taxonomy/Nebraska’s Type Localities
Hopefully this post finds everyone healthy and well. So we made it to 2021 but it’s still not butterfly season. So to pass the time (and as time permits) I’ll try to put together some interesting tidbits on Nebraska butterflies and the people who have worked with them to share with you. I hope youContinue reading “Fun With Taxonomy/Nebraska’s Type Localities”
Let’s Tag Some Monarchs
Welcome to all the new viewers. Ideally the World Herald article would have been earlier in the year as it has generated a lot of traffic. As you can see I’m at 99 species for the year so a lot has happened already. June and July are when most of Nebraska’s butterflies that have aContinue reading “Let’s Tag Some Monarchs”
2020 Niobrara Valley Preserve Butterfly Count Results
Due to the Corona virus and other scheduling issues this year’s annual Niobrara Valley Preserve butterfly count was a two day affair by two different teams. On July 11 Jonathan Nikkila and his son Bennett covered a majority of the count. Jen and I followed that up on July 15 covering the remainder of theContinue reading “2020 Niobrara Valley Preserve Butterfly Count Results”
Platte River Bottom Lands – Alda to Wood River
Chris Helzer sent me a skipper picture Wednesday which he had correctly ided as Peck’s Skipper (Polites peckius). He’d taken the pic at a Nature Conservancy tract south of Alda and he commented that they were not uncommon there. As I had not yet sighted that skipper this year and it was only an hour’sContinue reading “Platte River Bottom Lands – Alda to Wood River”