[SEMCO] "4th of July count", July 13.

[Alison Robb]

Nature's Circle

Box 186, Woods Hole, MA 02543
www.home.cape.com/nature
nature at cape.com
Alison Robb  508-540-2408

Press  Release

The North American Butterfly Association "Fourth of July Butterfly
Count" will be held in Falmouth on Sunday, July 13, 2003.

 Since 1975 the annual butterfly count has been held in the U.S., and
now in Canada and Mexico as well.  Each count area is a circle 15 miles
in diameter and the count is a one-day census of all butterflies
observed within that circle.  The count promotes interest in
butterflies, and provides results useful to scientists who are
monitoring butterfly populations and habitats.  An official report is
available in the Spring of the following year.  Everyone is encouraged
to participate either as an observer in their own garden or as a member
of the group that visits sites selected by the count leader.

 The Falmouth count is in its fifth year.  The count circle reaches from
Woods Hole through the conservation lands in the Massachusetts Military
Reservation, including all of Falmouth and parts of Bourne, Sandwich and
Mashpee.

 The 2000 count, led by Alison Robb, included fourteen counters who
tallied 349 individual butterflies of 30 species.  This year we hope
more volunteers will join us.   The number of butterflies counted has
decreased each year since then.  The sites we will visit are the same
sites we visited in past years, so that a comparison can be made.  In
2000 we had had too much rain in June, which decreased the number of
surviving  butterflies.  In 2001 we had a drought for a few weeks in
May, which may have decreased the numbers again.  This last winter was
so severe that temperatures and flower blooms are two weeks or so behind
normal.  There are many reasons for population changes; weather,
insecticide use, and habitat decrease or increase.

 Knowledgeable butterfliers are needed, and those who want to have the
experience to get started are also welcome.   Participants are asked to
pay $3.00.   Anyone who would like to join us on July 13 by treking with
the group or by counting in their own garden should call 508-540-2408 to
sign up and find out the  place of meeting.   It will run from 9 am to
about 3 pm.   Do join us.

 Nature's Circle presents butterfly field classes weekly.  Do plan to
join us at those as well.

Nature's Circle is a project of the Green Center, a nonprofit
educational organization at the Alchemy Farm, Hatchville Road, East
Falmouth.  Donations are tax deductible.  Field trips are without charge
and open to the public;  workshops and lectures are at a moderate fee.
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