NEWSLETTERS ~ CURRENT PROJECTS ~ BUTTERFLY COUNT ~ CHRISTMAS BIRD COUNT ~ NATIVE PLANTS & PRAIRIE ~ VOLUNTEERING & ADVOCACY
Results of Butterfly Counts for Olmsted County (Rochester, MN)
For a listing of species seen in counts in Olmsted County see Butterfly Count Results. Links are provided in that file for photographs and other information on each of the species. For information about butterfly species habitat, flight, food and wintering see Butterfly Information.
2017 Results
Saturday, July 2, 2017 - Annual Butterfly Count
The morning was overcast and wet, in the high 70s and low 80s with very high humidity. We did not see many species on the morning rounds. The skies cleared off for the afternoon and numbers vastly improved throughout the afternoon.
Thirty different species of butterflies were identified during the count including 1 new species - a Leonards Skipper - that we had never seen in the area before. Four species we couldn't identify were also found. A total of 768 individual butterflies were seen by our volunteers. Many thanks to Joel Dunnette for organizing, to Chester Woods for the loan of a Gator to get around the park, and to all the volunteers who walked the fields and tallied up their sightings To see the complete list click here (2mb excel file). View photos from this year's count here, or on our Facebook page.
2016 Results
Our 2016 count was held on July 9th, a warm, sunny day in the upper 70s. The count was led by Joel Dunnette. As this year's count was about two weeks earlier than last year, we may have hit a different portion of some species (such as Monarchs) life cycle. Our total identified species this year was 39 species (which is our second best year – best year being 42 – digital cameras are really helping with IDs) ... and the total number of individuals counted (580) is slightly better than an average year The monarch count was down from 153 individuals in 2015 to just 36 individuals this year. The highest count for monarchs we’ve had in the 18 years of doing the survey was 233 in 2007. The lowest count was just 11 in 2004. The average over the years has been in the 60s. Click to see more pictures. Visit our Facebook album to see even more!
2015 Results
Our 2015 count was held on July 19th and led by Joel Dunnette. It was postponed from day before due to hot humid weather. We had good weather, decent butterfly numbers and with good effort by several independently operating volunteers, good variety of butterflies. Of note were the very good numbers of Monarchs, but low numbers of skippers and crescents. Variety of hairstreaks was good. Following a butterfly watching class in June, we had several new volunteer watchers. We did have some equipment problems with the off-road vehicles at Chester Woods – the 4 seater would not start, and then we lost the key for another out in the field, which cut short some potentially good counting.
Click here to see some photos taken by Terry Grier on this year's count.
2014 Results
Our 2014 count was held on July 26th and led by Joel Dunnette. We started at Quarry Hill Nature Center but had with overcast skies and even a few sprinkles, our morning count was low. Things improved in the afternoon when the sun came out. Our count sites also included the RCTC Smart Garden, Lawler Prairie, Eastside Marsh, Chester Woods and a few other places. We believe we found three new species this year, bringing our species count over the past 16 years up to 64. New species this year were: a Silver Bordered Fritillary, a Peck's Skipper and a Little Glassy Wing Skipper (being confirmed). Click here to see some of the photos we took on this year's count.
2013 Results
Spring and summer were slow to come in 2013. The scarcity of butterfly numbers may partly be due to that. We know also that the 2012 drought took Monarch numbers to historic lows. But there had been decent warm weather in June and July 2013, and a few species had good flights - more Mourning Cloaks than usual, a good flight of Hackberry Emperors. But those flights were over by count day. The species count of 31 was about average. The total number of individual butterflies of 475 was a bit below the median for the history of the count. Every observer remarked that they had to work hard to find what they did. So the numbers being as good as they are is a tribute to the skill and perseverance of the observers. We were happy to find two new species for the count - Meadow Fritillary and Crossline Skipper.
2012 Results
The 2012 count was held on July 14th. With the warm, early spring, there were hopes for really good butterflies this year. And we did have good number and variety in June. But the hot dry weather from late June into July seemed to make the butterfly (adults) disappear. So this year's count was a bit of a disappointment. We also had low turnout of counters. We found 357 butterflies, of 24 species. This is well below the 14 year averages of 631 and 28 respectively, and also lower than the 14 year medians of 500 and 31. The best find of the count were Fiery Skippers. We had never seen them before, and we managed to get pictures for positive ID. Thanks to Jerry Pruett, Ruthann Yaeger, Cliff Hansen, and Tony Stans for helping count, and for signing up as official observers. And thanks to county parks for the use of gators to get around Chester Woods; that allowed us to cover a LOT more ground than we would have otherwise! Maybe next year will be a big year and we can break some records.
2011 Results
The 2011 count was held on July 16th. Count Results have been posted on the data sheet.
2010 Results
Well, every year is different. The summer of 2010 has been quite warm, which we expect to be good for number of butterflies. And it was – we counted 1022 individual butterflies – tied for second most in the 12 years of the count. But the continued heat may have pushed flights of adults to earlier than normal, since our species count at 28 was middling, compared to our range from 20 to 41 in other years.
The heat also affected our ability (or willingness) to stay out in the heat; that may have somewhat limited what we saw. Thanks to the loan by Olmsted parks of gators, we were able to cover good amounts of Chester Woods. And thanks to folks who covered areas on their own – we found a lot more that way. We did find a new species – Little Yellows were seen at 4 different sites. They suddenly appeared in SE MN this year, coming in from the south, perhaps due to the sustained warmth and winds from the south. The most common butterflies seen were Orange Sulfur (329, thanks to alfalfa fields), Monarch (166), Clouded Sulfur (150) and Red Admiral (75). Lacking were hairstreaks and skippers, which would have increased out species count.
Next year we plan to have the butterfly walk for novices and children on a separate day, so we can focus on counting on count day.
2009 Results
The summer of 2009 had been remarkably cool, so butterfly numbers were lower than usual. And then the day of the count was cloudy, breezy, and even cooler than surrounding days. So we had to literally ‘kick up’ butterflies. They just were not flying much. We had several knowledgeable observers spending many hours, with relatively little to show for the effort. We found only 199 individual butterflies, well below the 11 year average of 630, and below the previous low of 350. We identified 20 species, the lowest ever by one, and well below the average of 29.
2008 Results
2008 has been a modest year for butterflies, with a cool slow spring and early summer. So butterfly numbers had been noticeably low. But our team of butterfly counters came through with a nice diversity and number of butterflies. We saw 38 species of butterfly – almost as good as last year’s record 41, and well above our 10 year average of 29. Nora found 1 new species, Hickory Hairstreak, bringing our composite 10 year total to 54 species. Having knowledgeable area leaders really helps!
Surprisingly, we had record high counts for quite a few species: Banded Hairstreak (16), Striped Hairstreak (8), Northern Crescent (4), Silvery Checkerspot (2), Eastern Comma (5), Mourning Cloak(18), Red-spotted Purple(5), Hackberry Emperor(100, Little Wood Satyr(12), Common Wood Nymph(146), European Skipper (85 – previous high 1!) and Delaware Skipper (5). Numbers were low for several common species. We saw a total of 737 individual butterflies. This is well below our smashing high of 1248 in 2007, but good enough for 3rd all time.
Thanks to Bill Bruins, Nora Dooley, Terry and Joyce Grier, Greg Munson, and Ruthann Yaeger for independently covering areas and leading novices.
2007 Results
This has been a very good year for butterflies, both in terms of numbers and in terms of diversity. The consistent warmth and relative dryness has helped their populations. And for this year’s Rochester count we covered more areas, and had more knowledgeable area leaders. The combination of factors led to us smashing our previous records.
We saw 41 species of butterfly – breaking our previous high of 31 species. We saw 4 new species, bringing our composite 9 year total to 53 species! The new species were Acadian Hairstreak, Gray Hairstreak, Silvery Checkerspot, and Gray Comma. Also new this year was the number of species documented with digital photographs – it is the way of the future!
We had high counts for 12 species, and tied the previous high for 3 others. Especially notable were large numbers of Monarchs (227), Eastern Tailed Blue (223) and Red Admirals (145). And although not as numerous, we had unusually high counts for American Coppers (22), Edwards Hairstreaks (13) and Common Buckeyes (26).
We saw a total of 1240 individual butterflies (excluding 6 caterpillars and 2 eggs spotted by younger folks with good eyes) easily breaking our previous high of 1022 in 2001. Thanks to Bill Bruins, Nora Dooley, Terry and Joyce Grier, and Greg Munson for independently covering areas and leading novices.
For a listing of species seen in counts in Olmsted County see Butterfly Count Results. Links are provided in that file for photographs and other information on each of the species. For information about butterfly species habitat, flight, food and wintering see Butterfly Information.
2017 Results
Saturday, July 2, 2017 - Annual Butterfly Count
The morning was overcast and wet, in the high 70s and low 80s with very high humidity. We did not see many species on the morning rounds. The skies cleared off for the afternoon and numbers vastly improved throughout the afternoon.
Thirty different species of butterflies were identified during the count including 1 new species - a Leonards Skipper - that we had never seen in the area before. Four species we couldn't identify were also found. A total of 768 individual butterflies were seen by our volunteers. Many thanks to Joel Dunnette for organizing, to Chester Woods for the loan of a Gator to get around the park, and to all the volunteers who walked the fields and tallied up their sightings To see the complete list click here (2mb excel file). View photos from this year's count here, or on our Facebook page.
2016 Results
Our 2016 count was held on July 9th, a warm, sunny day in the upper 70s. The count was led by Joel Dunnette. As this year's count was about two weeks earlier than last year, we may have hit a different portion of some species (such as Monarchs) life cycle. Our total identified species this year was 39 species (which is our second best year – best year being 42 – digital cameras are really helping with IDs) ... and the total number of individuals counted (580) is slightly better than an average year The monarch count was down from 153 individuals in 2015 to just 36 individuals this year. The highest count for monarchs we’ve had in the 18 years of doing the survey was 233 in 2007. The lowest count was just 11 in 2004. The average over the years has been in the 60s. Click to see more pictures. Visit our Facebook album to see even more!
2015 Results
Our 2015 count was held on July 19th and led by Joel Dunnette. It was postponed from day before due to hot humid weather. We had good weather, decent butterfly numbers and with good effort by several independently operating volunteers, good variety of butterflies. Of note were the very good numbers of Monarchs, but low numbers of skippers and crescents. Variety of hairstreaks was good. Following a butterfly watching class in June, we had several new volunteer watchers. We did have some equipment problems with the off-road vehicles at Chester Woods – the 4 seater would not start, and then we lost the key for another out in the field, which cut short some potentially good counting.
Click here to see some photos taken by Terry Grier on this year's count.
2014 Results
Our 2014 count was held on July 26th and led by Joel Dunnette. We started at Quarry Hill Nature Center but had with overcast skies and even a few sprinkles, our morning count was low. Things improved in the afternoon when the sun came out. Our count sites also included the RCTC Smart Garden, Lawler Prairie, Eastside Marsh, Chester Woods and a few other places. We believe we found three new species this year, bringing our species count over the past 16 years up to 64. New species this year were: a Silver Bordered Fritillary, a Peck's Skipper and a Little Glassy Wing Skipper (being confirmed). Click here to see some of the photos we took on this year's count.
2013 Results
Spring and summer were slow to come in 2013. The scarcity of butterfly numbers may partly be due to that. We know also that the 2012 drought took Monarch numbers to historic lows. But there had been decent warm weather in June and July 2013, and a few species had good flights - more Mourning Cloaks than usual, a good flight of Hackberry Emperors. But those flights were over by count day. The species count of 31 was about average. The total number of individual butterflies of 475 was a bit below the median for the history of the count. Every observer remarked that they had to work hard to find what they did. So the numbers being as good as they are is a tribute to the skill and perseverance of the observers. We were happy to find two new species for the count - Meadow Fritillary and Crossline Skipper.
2012 Results
The 2012 count was held on July 14th. With the warm, early spring, there were hopes for really good butterflies this year. And we did have good number and variety in June. But the hot dry weather from late June into July seemed to make the butterfly (adults) disappear. So this year's count was a bit of a disappointment. We also had low turnout of counters. We found 357 butterflies, of 24 species. This is well below the 14 year averages of 631 and 28 respectively, and also lower than the 14 year medians of 500 and 31. The best find of the count were Fiery Skippers. We had never seen them before, and we managed to get pictures for positive ID. Thanks to Jerry Pruett, Ruthann Yaeger, Cliff Hansen, and Tony Stans for helping count, and for signing up as official observers. And thanks to county parks for the use of gators to get around Chester Woods; that allowed us to cover a LOT more ground than we would have otherwise! Maybe next year will be a big year and we can break some records.
2011 Results
The 2011 count was held on July 16th. Count Results have been posted on the data sheet.
2010 Results
Well, every year is different. The summer of 2010 has been quite warm, which we expect to be good for number of butterflies. And it was – we counted 1022 individual butterflies – tied for second most in the 12 years of the count. But the continued heat may have pushed flights of adults to earlier than normal, since our species count at 28 was middling, compared to our range from 20 to 41 in other years.
The heat also affected our ability (or willingness) to stay out in the heat; that may have somewhat limited what we saw. Thanks to the loan by Olmsted parks of gators, we were able to cover good amounts of Chester Woods. And thanks to folks who covered areas on their own – we found a lot more that way. We did find a new species – Little Yellows were seen at 4 different sites. They suddenly appeared in SE MN this year, coming in from the south, perhaps due to the sustained warmth and winds from the south. The most common butterflies seen were Orange Sulfur (329, thanks to alfalfa fields), Monarch (166), Clouded Sulfur (150) and Red Admiral (75). Lacking were hairstreaks and skippers, which would have increased out species count.
Next year we plan to have the butterfly walk for novices and children on a separate day, so we can focus on counting on count day.
2009 Results
The summer of 2009 had been remarkably cool, so butterfly numbers were lower than usual. And then the day of the count was cloudy, breezy, and even cooler than surrounding days. So we had to literally ‘kick up’ butterflies. They just were not flying much. We had several knowledgeable observers spending many hours, with relatively little to show for the effort. We found only 199 individual butterflies, well below the 11 year average of 630, and below the previous low of 350. We identified 20 species, the lowest ever by one, and well below the average of 29.
2008 Results
2008 has been a modest year for butterflies, with a cool slow spring and early summer. So butterfly numbers had been noticeably low. But our team of butterfly counters came through with a nice diversity and number of butterflies. We saw 38 species of butterfly – almost as good as last year’s record 41, and well above our 10 year average of 29. Nora found 1 new species, Hickory Hairstreak, bringing our composite 10 year total to 54 species. Having knowledgeable area leaders really helps!
Surprisingly, we had record high counts for quite a few species: Banded Hairstreak (16), Striped Hairstreak (8), Northern Crescent (4), Silvery Checkerspot (2), Eastern Comma (5), Mourning Cloak(18), Red-spotted Purple(5), Hackberry Emperor(100, Little Wood Satyr(12), Common Wood Nymph(146), European Skipper (85 – previous high 1!) and Delaware Skipper (5). Numbers were low for several common species. We saw a total of 737 individual butterflies. This is well below our smashing high of 1248 in 2007, but good enough for 3rd all time.
Thanks to Bill Bruins, Nora Dooley, Terry and Joyce Grier, Greg Munson, and Ruthann Yaeger for independently covering areas and leading novices.
2007 Results
This has been a very good year for butterflies, both in terms of numbers and in terms of diversity. The consistent warmth and relative dryness has helped their populations. And for this year’s Rochester count we covered more areas, and had more knowledgeable area leaders. The combination of factors led to us smashing our previous records.
We saw 41 species of butterfly – breaking our previous high of 31 species. We saw 4 new species, bringing our composite 9 year total to 53 species! The new species were Acadian Hairstreak, Gray Hairstreak, Silvery Checkerspot, and Gray Comma. Also new this year was the number of species documented with digital photographs – it is the way of the future!
We had high counts for 12 species, and tied the previous high for 3 others. Especially notable were large numbers of Monarchs (227), Eastern Tailed Blue (223) and Red Admirals (145). And although not as numerous, we had unusually high counts for American Coppers (22), Edwards Hairstreaks (13) and Common Buckeyes (26).
We saw a total of 1240 individual butterflies (excluding 6 caterpillars and 2 eggs spotted by younger folks with good eyes) easily breaking our previous high of 1022 in 2001. Thanks to Bill Bruins, Nora Dooley, Terry and Joyce Grier, and Greg Munson for independently covering areas and leading novices.