I've been participating in the Vanessa Migration project, a citizen science project that tracks the migration of the Vanessa butterflies (Red Admiral, American Lady, Painted Lady, and West Coast Lady). I had sent in a few observations of American Lady and Red Admiral butterflies I had seen in my yard during the past week. I recorded them as "Presence of butterfly in my area." The photo is of one of these butterflies exploring my yard.I was amused that they asked for "Flight direction." What do you mean "flight direction"? Don't butterflies just fly around? Well today, I saw a couple of red admirals, then a couple more, then a steady stream of about one every few minutes. And they all entered my yard from one direction and left heading North-northeast! They actually did have a "flight direction"!
Later when we walked to Wegmans (lately we've gotten all our food by taking our backpacks on the 3-mile round trip about four times a week), we saw Red Admirals all along our walk, all heading NNE. Truly amazing!
The wonderful thing about citizen science -- apart from the fact that it helps collect important data that can't be collected any other way -- is that it sharpens your powers of observation and alerts you to all these events in nature. I imagine this migration has taken place every year, but I never bothered to notice before now.
1 comment:
That is really interesting. I have numerous Admirals this year - a butterfly that I have never noticed before in my garden. I will have to observe which way they are flying!
Post a Comment