Notes about your surroundings.
Counting Butterflies--The fifth annual Orange County butterfly count, sponsored by the Xerces Society, will be July 20.
The count here will be part of the society’s 17th annual effort to tally the butterfly population nationwide. Counts will be taken throughout the country now through July 28.
According to local count organizer Larry Shaw, the average number of species in the county is between 32 and 35. The number of butterflies observed during last year’s count was smaller than usual, Shaw said, because of the effects of the drought on butterfly habitats.
The count will be conducted by volunteers, who will be sent to count areas within a 15-mile radius of Bowers Museum in Santa Ana.
“Large migrations of painted ladies have been seen through the desert and into Orange County,” for example, he said.
The count will be conducted by volunteers, who will be sent to count areas within a 15-mile radius of Bowers Museum in Santa Ana.
The Xerces Society, named for a now-extinct blue butterfly, is dedicated to the preservation of invertebrates and their habitats.
For more information about participating in the count, call Larry Shaw at Orange County Vector Control, (714) 971-2421.
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