Here are the remaining seven maps for butterflies with six or fewer counties needed to complete their “clean sweep” of all 93 counties. If you happen to be traveling through or have relatives in any of these counties there is an opportunity to get your/their name in the record book (see Garfield County post fromContinue reading “Distribution Map Updates – Part 2”
Tag Archives: Tiger Swallowtail
Four More County Records for NE
On June 2 Steve Spomer stopped at the Brainard Cemetery in Butler County and found (among a few other things) Silver Spotted Skippers and a Hobomok Skipper, both of which had not been previously reported from Butler county. Then Friday June 4 Jen and I met Pat and Diane Miller at the Scotia Chalk MineContinue reading “Four More County Records for NE”
Hunt for Henry’s Elfin Larval Hostplants
What a strange spring (but what does a “normal” spring look like). Once in a while a nice “butterfly day” followed by another week of cold weather. I guess it’s been several weeks ago Jen and I made our annual spring pilgrimage to Harlan County Reservoir to kick off butterfly season. We were met thereContinue reading “Hunt for Henry’s Elfin Larval Hostplants”
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”
Harlan County Spring Trip
Ever since finding the first and only specimen of the Cobweb Skipper (Hesperia metea) in Nebraska at this site on May 2 1989 I’ve frequently revisited this location trying to recapture lightning in a bottle (or a skipper in a net) but to no avail. But over the years I’ve found quite an interesting mixContinue reading “Harlan County Spring Trip”
Return to Box Elder WMA
On May 3 I met Jon Nikkila at Box Elder SWMA in Lincoln county for a second look at this WMA. Our first visit was very early (April 11) and we looked almost exclusively for Giant Yucca Skipper tents (of which we found two) along with one Olympia Marblewing. This trip the main target speciesContinue reading “Return to Box Elder WMA”