2009 Butterfly Count and ID Workshops announced

It may still be winter but here at Audubon, we are already planning for the summer! We have the Butterfly Count survey dates and the orientations scheduled:

Orientations/ID Workshops:
Tuesday, June 23—6-7:30 pm at Portsmouth Free Public Library, 2658 East Main Rd., Portsmouth
Wednesday, July 1—6:30-8 pm at Audubon Headquarters, Powder Mill Ledges Refuge, 12 Sanderson Rd., Smithfield
Tuesday, July 7th—7-8:30 pm at US Fish & Wildlife’s Kettle Pond Visitor Center, 50 Bend Rd., Charleston
Thursday, July 9—7-8:30 pm at Audubon’s Fisherville Brook Refuge, Pardon Joslin Rd., Exeter

Butterfly Counts:
East Bay: Saturday, June 27, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. (Survey areas here also overlap into the West Bay)
West Bay: Saturday, July 11, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

For anyone new to this list, these annual butterfly counts are organized all over North America by the North American Butterfly Association (NABA). Audubon Society of Rhode Island coordinates the counts in Rhode Island and submits the data to NABA. Volunteers go into specified survey areas to identify and record all the butterflies they can in one day. The event is open to the public, and amateurs are welcome. Participants may choose to survey for the whole day or a shorter time if they choose.

Survey areas, according to NABA protocol, are 15 mile diameter circles. Once plotted, these same areas are re-surveyed every year. We have maps of our Rhode Island survey areas on our butterfly web page, plus previous count results and lots of other information: http://butterflyingwithaudubon.blogspot.com/

If you are interested in participating, contact July Lewis at 401-949-5454 x3044 or jlewis@asri.org. We will be sending out more information and requests to register for the count as we get closer to the date. In the meantime, keep an eye out for Mourning Cloaks on warm winter days! And if you see one, you might want to post it at Ocean State Butterflies: http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/oceanstatebutterflies/ , our local butterfly yahoo group…we’ll all be encouraged to know that spring is coming!


Eugenia Marks & July Lewis
Audubon Society of RI
401-949-5454