Ron's Butterfly Habitat Summary

2001

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This is our fourth summary and our 8th year for our urban butterfly garden.  2001 was another interesting year, but slightly disappointing for two reasons.  From April 16th thru September our rainfall measured approximately 4-5 inches.  Even when Reading, PA was suffering from a flood, Pottstown only received one inch of rain.  I watered constantly, which is something I try to avoid since the butterfly plants do not need much water, and water causes disease.  Secondly, butterfly sightings were down in our garden, probably because many flowers in the wild bloomed later because of the dry weather.  Loosetrife was still blooming in September, which I had not seen till this past summer. 

On the bright side, we had two new sightings in our garden, the Olive Hairstreak and the Summer Azure.  This brings our total species sightings to 38 for our garden, since its inception in 1994. 

Monarch sightings were up, although we only averaged two per day in our garden.  The total number of butterflies was down in our garden for 2001.  Swallowtails were low in numbers for the second year in a row. Take me back to 1999 when we had 15-20 Swallowtails at a time!! Red Admiral and the American Painted Lady sightings were up.  Fruit eating butterfly sightings were at an all time low.  Commas, Question Marks, & Red Spotted Purples, were scarce.

In the wild, reports of sightings from Karl Gardner and Ryan Woolwine, lepidopterists, from Berks County were excellent.  Personally, I made it to the Susquehanna River five times this year, usually for a couple hours each time.  I was able to get some good photos of the Zebra Swallowtail, and the Varigated Fritillary.  Also I captured a photo of two Viceroys and a Comma feeding on the same Cocklebur flower.  On trip number 5, I was able to help Chris Bowers, one of the locals, complete his school project.  I got some good practice with my butterfly net.

Butterfly Bush was the best attractor for the second year in a row. Verbena Bonariensis was a close second.  Giant Hyssop had significant attraction power for the first time.  Our Swamp Milkweed project was successful with many blooms.  Butterfly weed seeds did not germinate well in the garden. We are experimenting with it again next year.  I added sand to the soil and planted it in the Fall again.  The Boneset project produced a plant about 5 1/2 feet tall and about 6 feet wide.  It bloomed in September, so we are identifying it as Late Flowering Boneset.  This monster, which only grows 2 or 3 feet tall in the wild, had many sweet white flowers but did not attract many butterflies, although in the wild in September it is absolutely a fantastic attractor.

Highlights of the year included attending two Coventry Land Trust meetings, exhibiting at Earth Day at Warwick County Park in May, exhibiting at the 9th Annual Penn State Insect Fair at University Park in September, and attending the Newark Entomological Society meeting at Rutgers University in November.  Also I visited the only prairie in Pennsylvania, the Jennings Environmental Center, near Slippery Rock, PA.  The Prairie is 80 acres and is controlled by the use of fire.  One fourth of the Prairie is burned each year, weather permitting.   There were many nectar flowers there.   

Yes, we did have our 6th Annual Butterfly Garden Open House.  It was attended by 104 people, and 30 butterflies, which included 14 species. Ryan Woolwine identified a new sighting for our garden at the open house, a Summer Azure.  We were lucky again, since sightings were down in our garden. The main event at the open house was when Alec Murphy captured a Sachem butterfly barehanded, and had a Red Admiral land on his shirt that would not leave him. While everyone else was having fun, for the first time I wondered to myself, should we have the open house again?  Do I have to get up every morning at 6AM or is it going to rain in 2002?  Comments made by Ben Walk, Tammy Wolfram, and Karl Gardner sealed the deal for 2002.  The 2002 open house will be Saturday, August 10th, from 10am to 7pm.  Also we are offering a garden tour for the 250th celebration for the city of Pottstown on Saturday, July 20th, from 10am to 4pm. 

We are still seeking land to build a butterfly preserve. Donate your land to us and in return we will keep the land as open space!  

The French Creek State Park Project on Firetower Road is doing well since the Park mowed the area with a bushhog.  I used to see 55-60 butterflies at the same time in this area.  We are continuing to dig out Multi-Flora Rose and Mile-A-Minute Weed there.  We have planted over 2,000 milkweed seeds in this area in order to restore Common Milkweed, Butterfly Weed, and Swamp Milkweed.  I was able to get two outstanding photos in the Park this year.  One was the Pipevine Swallowtail nectaring on Butterfly Weed.  This year the Pipevine Swallowtails had a beautiful metallic blue on the underside.  The other was a photo of three Great Spangled Fritillaries nectaring on Canadian Thistle.  

Some of my photos are on display at The Cup Restaurant on North Charlotte Street in Pottstown.  Don't forget http://www.butterflybutterfly.com, which has had 154,000 hits.  Major improvements are in store for our website in 2002, which will include photos of the butterfly nectar plants. Our aim is to make the site more educational.  

Don't forget to grow nectar plants to feed the butterflies, and grow host plants for them to lay eggs on!  Help save the butterflies in Pennsylvania!

Ron   

Ron's Butterfly Sightings Summary
2004 Butterfly Habitat Summary 2005 Butterfly Habitat Summary 2006 Butterfly Habitat Summary
2002 Butterfly Habitat Summary   2003 Butterfly Habitat Summary
1998 Butterfly Habitat Summary 1999 Butterfly Habitat Summary 2000 Butterfly Habitat Summary

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