Pearl Crescent Omnipresence

I've neglected this blog recently; the past few days have been busy:

  • In preparation of the approaching Duke Farms Butterfly Count, on Thursday I was "scouting" the property so I could alert the counters to concentrate on the more promising areas.
  • On Friday I was helping the Raritan Headwaters Association to remove invasive plants around some bush/tree plantings at the Fox Hill Preserve.
  • On Saturday I spent a couple hours at Duke Farms at their Outdoor Education station (primarily) talking to people about fireflies, then did some more "butterfly scouting".
  • On Sunday we had the actual Duke Farms Butterfly Count, which left me a little worn out after 6 hours walking around the property.
  • On Monday morning, I did my usual Steward Volunteer assignment, in this case helping to remove mostly invasive plants around one of their containment fences.

We encountered a lot of the "usual suspect" butterflies on Sunday; I suspect the most abundant butterfly we found was the Pearl Crescent, a small but good-looking species. We found nearly 100 of them in the Community Garden area alone. (A subgroup of butterfly counters was pretty sure they saw a Giant Swallowtail in either the Fox or Oak Meadows, but I didn't see anything truly rare/exotic myself.)

Here's the first Pearl Crescent I photographed this year, probably doing some mudpuddling.

May 6, 2023 at Duke Farms
Photo 282303902, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)


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