Thank you all so very much for taking the time to respond to my ‘survey’ question about how you view films. Wow, what a variety of answers. I am working on a plan for Everyone to view!
Such a disappointingly light Monarch migration through Cape Ann this autumn but the shift in wind direction at the beginning of the week produced a tiny sprinkling of butterflies. Friends along the New Jersey coast are reporting good numbers the past few days. You can see on the map from Journey North how few overnight roosts have been recorded on the East Coast. Typically the map is much more densely colored: Monarch Butterfly Overnight Roosts 2020 Hopefully the migration will strengthen in the central part of the country
Stay well and take care,
Very best wishes,
Kim
Migrating Monarch in the garden fattening up on nectar at the pink New England Asters
I hope you are all doing well and fortunate enough to have good health.
After a brief cold snap we are having a beautiful Indian Summer here on Cape Ann. I hope you have the opportunity to get outdoors today and enjoy nature. Bird and butterfly migrations are well underway. At Parker River National Wildlife Refuge, rangers shared that they have never seen a migration such as this year’s, with over 180 species sited at the refuge this past week. The birds appear to have benefitted from decreased human activity over the past seven months. On the other hand, the Atlantic Coast Monarch migration seems stalled or nonexistent. Perhaps we will have a late, great migration as we did several years ago. And there are some positive signs for the butterflies, especially through the Mississippi Flyway as Monarch Waystations further north, such as the one at Point Pelee have been reporting that the Monarch migration is doing well. I’ve seen Monarchs migrating through Cape Ann in good numbers as late as the second week of October, so we’ll be ever hopeful.
Good news to share -the page for Beauty on the Wing is up on American Public Television World Wide! Here is the link, including information with a link on how to license Beauty. The page looks great and the line-up of films, stellar. We are so honored to be included in this fine catalogue of Science, Health, and Nature Programming!
And more super good news to share – Beauty on the Wing has been accepted to the Boston International Kids Film Festival! This is an outstanding festival for kids, by kids, and about kids and is organized by a dynamic group of women: Laura Azevedo, Kathleen Shugrue, and Natalia Morgan. A complete list of films for the 2020 BIKFF will be posted in the upcoming days, along with information on how the festival will be organized for safe viewing during the pandemic.
I have been following (or become enchanted is a more accurate description) a small flock of Bobolinks. Click here to read a story posted on my website: Bobolinks Amongst the Sunflowers. While reading about Bobolinks, I came across a link to The Bobolink Project, a truly worthwhile organization. The Bobolink Project habitat conservation plan not only helps Bobolinks, but many species of declining grassland birds.
The sun is coming out and the temperature still summery. Stay well and enjoy the day!
If you would like to license Beauty on the Wing or would like more information, please follow the above link and click on the Contact Us box. Thank you!
For more information about the documentary Beauty on the Wing and the Monarch Butterfly migration, visit the film’s website here: Beauty on the Wing
I am so excited to share that the New Haven Documentary Film Festival begins on Tuesday the 18th. Because of the pandemic, much of the festival is online. Beauty on the Wing will begin airing at 11am on the 21st. There is also an interview about the making of Beauty on the Wing with myself and Karyl Evans.
Very unfortunately and yet another consequence of the pandemic, the films in the program are geoblocked, which means they can only be viewed in Connecticut. Not to worry though, as soon as it is safe, we will have a local premiere and I am very much looking forward to that!
For any of my readers in Connecticut, if you are interested in purchasing a ticket, please GO HERE
To learn more about the New Haven Documentary Film Festival, click here.
See the NHdocs 2020 trailer here (with lots of clips from Beauty on the Wing!) –
Great Spangled Fritillary nectaring at native Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea)
Dear Friends,
Have you noticed the sheer numbers of our winged friends? Returning this evening from a swim at 6:45, I bumped into three Monarchs nectaring and a Red-spotted Purple (all in pristine, newly emerged condition). Early evening is an unusually late time of day for butterflies on the wing, especially when skies are slightly overcast. This, after a day of observing and shooting numerous numbers of butterflies, caterpillars and hummingbirds–and never leaving our garden. I work for a bit, but then the garden calls and I’m out the door with both video and still cameras. If this fabulously warm weather keeps up, I think we are in for another banner year with the butterflies, and skippers too.
Currently, we have 28 Monarchs, in various stages of development, residing in our kitchen, and seven Black Swallowtail caterpillars and chrysalids.
Black Swallowtail Caterpillar–note the fine “girdle” spun by the pupating caterpillar. Attached to the stem by both the girdle and a silky mat in which his last proleg is hooked, the caterpillar is securely latched. The proleg becomes the cremaster during pupation.
Newly formed chyrsalis
The darkening chyrsalis–perhaps it will emerge tomorrow! After ten days, the silky girdle and cremaster continue to perfectly support the pupa.
I am often asked why I collect butterfly eggs and don’t simply leave them in the garden. Butterfly larvae have a roughly one in ten chance of survival in the wild. In our kitchen, the odds increase exponentially, with a ten in ten rate of survival. For instance, I have learned, that after observing a butterfly deposit her eggs on a host plant, to gather them up quickly. If I become distracted and wait even only an hour, they often disappear, usually having been eaten or parasitized.
Common Buckeye and bee nectaring at native Gayfeather (Liatris spicata)
More detailed information on each species will be forthcoming. Much footage to edit…
Question Mark Butterfly and Patrice ~ My favorite photo of the season (click on the photo to see full size). Yesterday afternoon, Lisa Smith, one of the producers over at Cape Ann TV, with her After the Beach Video Club for Teens, were filming in the garden. While Patrice was interviewing me, this Question Mark alighted briefly on her shoulder several times. I was prepared the second time, with camera ready and adjusted to the appropriate settings. The Question Mark’s cooperation throughout the day’s shoot–nectaring, sunning itself, and taking long sips of sap through the chinks of bark in the weathered old pear tree–was very much appreciated by all; he was the true star of the day!
Dear Gardening Friends, I wanted to share with you a fabulous new resource, the Butterflies of Massachusetts website. Created by Sharon Stichter, Butterflies of Massachusetts “offers a comprehensive review of the current status of butterflies in the state. It is designed as a resource for all those interested in these charismatic insects, including butterfly enthusiasts, conservationists, biologists, land managers, and wildlife professionals.” I find the Species List particularly useful for learning more about the earliest recorded sightings of Massachusetts’s butterflies, frequency and distribution, and caterpillar hostplants. My readers residing outside of Massachusetts but along the East Coast will find the information on the Butterflies of Massachusetts website nearly equally as valuable. Ecologically speaking, the Appalachian Mountains and Atlantic coastal plain are largely self-contained, allowing unrestricted north-south movement of individual butterflies and migratory populations. The information found on the new Butterflies of Massachusetts website represents many years of data compiled by Sharon Stichter and the Massachusetts Butterfly Club.
Joe-pye weed and Tiger Swallowtail
Sharon graciously agreed to speak with me about creating Butterflies of Massachusetts and how her passion for butterflies, particularly the butterflies and skippers of Massachusetts, has evolved. She was first drawn to butterflies through gardening at her summer home in Newbury, Massachusetts. Her husband is a landscape architect and together they developed and continue to cultivate their expansive garden abutting the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge. After retiring from her teaching position of thirty-five years as Professor of Sociology at the University of Massachusetts, Sharon joined the Massachusetts Butterfly Club. She very much enjoys hiking in nature with fellow club members and finding beautiful living creatures.
The following are just some of Sharon’s favorite flowers for attracting butterflies (listed in no particular order): spicebush (Lindera benzoin), pussytoes (Antennaria plantaginifolia), Joe-pye Weed (Eupatorium fistulosum), butterfly bush (Buddleja davidii), gayfeather (Liatris spicata), dill (Anethum graveolens), flat-leaf parsley (Petroselinum crispum var. neapolitanum), cardinal climber (Ipomoea x multifida), Spanish flag (Ipomoea lobata), and many daisy-like members of the Asteraceae, including purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea), Mexican Sunflower (Tithonia rotundifolia), and zinnias (Zinnia elegans).
Pussytoes for American Lady Caterpillars
The Massachusetts Butterfly Club was founded in 1992, following the completion of the highly successful Massachusetts Audubon’s sponsored Massachusetts Butterfly Atlas. A butterfly atlas is a project where, with the help of volunteers, the presence of as many species of butterflies at a given time and geographic location is recorded. The Massachusetts Butterfly Atlas (1986-1990) was the first statewide butterfly atlas ever undertaken in North America. At the end of the atlas period a core group of the volunteers, led by Brian Cassie, formed the Massachusetts Butterfly Club (MBC) to promote the continued appreciation and documentation of the state’s butterflies. Sharon is currently the editor of the semiannual publication of the Massachusetts Butterfly Club.
I am looking forward to the completion of Sharon’s BOM website, particularly the “Pioneer Lepidopterist” page where Sharon will examine the earliest Massachusetts lepidopterists, Thaddeus W. Harris (1795-1856) and Samuel H. Scudder (1837-1911), who “were describing a butterfly fauna already heavily impacted by early agricultural development. The works of Harris, Scudder and Thoreau are used to show what butterflies were known and what can be said about their abundance at the end the 19th century.” The first North American entomologists were from Harvard and many North American Lepidoptera species names were penned by these earliest zoologists. The books of Samuel Hubbard Scudder are available for anyone to read online at the Open Library.
Sharon explains that today the majority of lepidopterists are working in the tropics, looking for “new” discoveries. New England butterflies have become largely overlooked because they are “old” news, unfortunately so because there is still much to be gleaned, and because we have a vast store of comparative historical and current data.
Sharon is currently working at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, helping to photograph specimens of Harvard’s Lepidoptera collection, which will be made available to everyone to view online. Sharon feels more strongly than ever after doing this work “that there is hardly any need for anyone to actually collect butterfly specimens anymore. The Massachusetts Butterfly Club quite rightly promotes observing only, no nets or collecting.”
End Note: As mentioned above, the books of Samuel Hubbard Scudder are available for anyone to read at the Open Library. I am currently reading Scudder’s Frail Children of the Air, published by Houghton Mifflin in 1895, which is a compendium divested of the more technical details of his extensive three volume set Butterflies of the Eastern United States and Canada (1889) that after published Scudder wrote “…is a work so costly as to reach relatively few, and one which was mainly addressed to the specialist.” Wonderfully ironic, won’t you agree, that thanks to resources like Open Library, books that were rare and precious even at the time of their publication are today freely available for everyone to read!
Migrating Monarch in the garden fattening up on nectar at the pink New England Asters
