I've noticed that quite a few contributors are bemoaning the dearth of butterflies in their area/garden. I'm reading a delightful book "A Year in the Maine Woods" in which the authior points out that our memories of the numbers of butterflies in past years often COMBINE the butterflies seen over many viewing periods in the past and compare this memory with a ONE-TIME current observation. I realize that I've done this and wonder if many others have as well. How about each of us doing a BRIEF COUNT for maybe 5 minutes for a day or two each week for the next few weeks. We would then have a series of controlled one-time counts that we could use to get a better idea of butterfly numbers in our area/garden. To make it easier, I suggest NOT TRYING TO ID EACH BUTTERFLY SPECIES, but just count total butterflies. If you want, you could add the most plentiful species that you saw. For example, I did a 10-minute walk around our one-acre butterfly sanctuary yesterday and counted 59 butterflies- Silver-spotted Skippers and Pipevine Swallowtails were the most numerous species.

mike