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Ron's Butterfly Habitat Summary 2002         

                                                                                     

 

         It was a very hot summer with a severe drought (even though Pottstown led Montgomery County in rainfall with over 30 inches) but butterflies were plentiful, especially the smaller ones.  There was one long lull where nobody was seeing any butterflies, e.g. Swallowtails, but by the first week in August sightings were up again.  Very few Monarchs were seen until the end of August.

 

        On July 20th we held an open house for the Pottstown Garden Club fundraiser in conjunction with the 250th Pottstown celebration, which was attended by 60 people.  On August 12th we held our 7th Annual Butterfly Garden Open House.  We had 106 attendees, 42 butterflies-12 species total.  The number of species was slightly down.  It was our first open house that a Monarch was not seen and the first open house that no butterflies were seen on the watermelon.  I personally was disappointed that we did not see a Comma or Question Mark butterfly.  I gave a couple of short presentations that day.  After the second presentation, a girl by the name of Charis Bybee, age 9, wanted to know " How do you catch a butterfly when you need one?"  She had broken off a sprig of Butterfly Bush with a flower on it and was holding it in her hand, when she asked the question.  She took her flower and coaxed a butterfly onto it.  For the next few minutes several kids went around the garden with butterflies on sprigs of Butterfly Bush.  I guess you really do not need a butterfly net!   Another highlight was having my father, Richard Richael from Farrell, PA, age 79, on hand for his first open house.  Verna Thompson from New Castle, PA accompanied my father and helped host the open house. The Butterfly Garden Open House will not be held in the future.  We had over 1,000 visitors as this phase of our butterfly adventure comes to an end.  Thanks for your support.  Our new venture is the Butterfly Preserve, which I will talk to you all about in the near future.

 

        Other highlights of the season were two new sightings in our garden, the Buckeye butterfly and the Zebra Longwing.  We have now seen a total of 40 species in our urban garden.  Also I visited Fort Indiantown Gap, and saw my first Regal Fritillary since 1960.  The Pennsylvania National Guard along with the Nature Conservancy is protecting this butterfly on a 200-acre plot of land that is a restricted part of the military base.   The base has 17,000 acres and only 800 acres without trees.  Setting aside 200 acres for this butterfly is significant. This is the last known colony of Regal Fritillaries East of the Mississippi River.  Carol and I attended Earth Day in Chester County on April 20th at Warwick County Park.  This is always a great day. Last but not least I attended the dedication of the new butterfly house on September 7th at Springton Manor in Chester County near Exton.  What a great project!! See you in 2003.

 

Ron

Ron's Butterfly Sightings Summary
2004 Butterfly Habitat Summary 2005 Butterfly Habitat Summary 2006 Butterfly Habitat Summary
2001 Butterfly Habitat Summary   2003 Butterfly Habitat Summary
1998 Butterfly Habitat Summary 1999 Butterfly Habitat Summary 2000 Butterfly Habitat Summary

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