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Scarcity of butterfles?
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Posted by mjaniceanne Florida (My Page) on Sun, Jun 21, 09 at 7:11
| Hi -I am a wildlife photographer living in central Florida, my greatest interest has been photographing butterflies. Unfortunately we had a quite cold winter, drought, then lots of rain. Now we are having really awful heat. I have seen very few butterfles since last fall-since this is my first summer in Florida is this a normal thing or is it the screwy weather? Has anyone in this part of the world seen butterflies? Thanks! |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Scarcity of butterfles?
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Mary in central Florida usually posts on this forum frequently, but she's only posted a few times so far this year to tell how scarce the butterflies are. She assumes, like you and I, that the weather conditions have something to do with it.
The heat has come to my area, and it's REALLY hot, got up to 96 degrees here, but in some nearby places it's been 99 degrees - awful! I've been watering a lot - yesterday we had a VERY brief shower that appeared to be a typical summer type, so maybe the intense heat will give way to more moderate heat with plenty of thunderstorms. It is normal to have this type relatively cloudless heat in late June.
At the same time, there's a "butterflyer" that lives just north of Tampa on another forum that's been seeing a good many butterflies, so maybe they're just on the way for you, too.
Sherry |
RE: Scarcity of butterfles?
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| In MD, at least, there is also a lull between the May and July broods of many species. It varies inversely with the number of postings on GardenWeb titled, "Where are the Butterflies?" :) This has indeed been a cold rainy May and June for us, so the May brood was a bit suppressed. With a week of sunshine in the forecast, I'm hoping for higher numbers this week. Jeff |
RE: Scarcity of butterfles?
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| As Miss Sherry said, I haven't been seeing as many species as normal and the types I do see are fewer in numbers. Monarchs are the only type that I am seeing greater numbers. I am raising some Eastern Blacks now, some Giant Swallowtails but haven't seen the butterflies hanging around the yard. Haven't seen the first Zebra Longwing or Spicebush yet. Very few Gulf Frits and when I did raise some cats, they all died. Don't know if my passionvines are infected with something but this also happened last year with my vine and a friends vine as well. Even my Polydamas are few in numbers. I usually see at least a dozen hanging around my yard by now but I see single females. They lay eggs and I have raised some cats to be very large. I have put them back out on the vine as I am short of cages this year. Hoping they made it to chrysalis and that I will see more of them. OP, where are you located. I am in Lakeland. |
RE: Scarcity of butterfles?
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| I am in Riverview, near Tampa, and bf activity has increased just recently. This Saturday I had a number of monarchs and frits in the yard, along with one bst, one giant swallowtail, one polydamus, a few cloudless sulphurs, a couple of dusky wings, many cassius blues and a rare (for me) either Florida White or Great Southern White. I have lots of cats including monarchs, bsts, frits and polydamus feeding on their hosts. It is getting better as the summer goes along. Morning seems to be the best time of the day for numbers and varieties. |
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