The Saturday Ecology Program, Butterflies and Their Habitats at IES, took place in spite of withering temperatures and humidity. Of 14 who started the program, 6 stayed till the end. We looped through the Gifford Garden, where the volume and variety of nectar sources attracted many butterflies. The two Old Hayfields are always quite different, the first populated by spotted knappweed and the back one by wild bergamot. Rather than circling each field, we took one side of each and dove into the cool woods of the Wappinger Creek Trail. We worked our way along the Creek hoping for, but not seeing, woodland butterflies and came out into the Old Pasture. Leap-frogging patches of shade, we scanned for skippers and coppers but, again, were thankful for at least the shade... The Sedge Meadow Trail rewarded us with not only shade and cool, but a quick look at a denizen of wet woods: the Appalachian brown. The end of the trail let us out with Gifford almost in sight. Once inside, under the gentle breeze of fans, we found excellent viewing of several spring azures through the window by the water cooler! Below is a table of the day's butterflies and their distribution.
| Species | Gifford House | Hay Field Front | Hay Field Back | Sedge Meadow | Old Pasture | Wappinger Creek Trail | Totals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eastern Tiger Swallowtail | 1 | 5 | 6 | ||||
| Spicebush Swallowtail | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||||
| Cabbage White | 6 | 8 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 24 | |
| Clouded Sulphur | 1 | 3 | 3 | 7 | |||
| Orange Sulphur | 3 | 3 | |||||
| Spring Azure | 3 | 3 | |||||
| Great Spangled Fritillary | 4 | 1 | 5 | ||||
| Pearl Crescent | 2 | 6 | 8 | ||||
| Red-spotted Purple | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||||
| Appalachian Brown | 1 | 1 | |||||
| Common Ringlet | 1 | 6 | 6 | 13 | |||
| Common Wood-Nymph | 3 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 14 | |
| Monarch | 3 | 3 | |||||
| Silver-spotted Skipper | 2 | 1 | 3 | 6 | |||
| Tawny-edged Skipper | 1 | 1 | |||||
| Dun Skipper | 1 | 1 | |||||
| Individuals | 19 | 30 | 44 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 99 |
| Species | 9 | 8 | 12 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 16 |
| © 2005 Barry Haydasz |
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