Butterflies Tough to Tab, but Group Has Their Number

Call them quaint or call them devoted environmentalists, but don’t ever question the dedication of people who drive 100 miles to count butterflies.

From as far away as Camarillo and as near as San Clemente, about 20 butterfly aficionados spent a beautiful, sunny Sunday surveying butterfly species on the 2,100-acre Rancho Mission Viejo Land Conservancy.

“People always look at me funny when I tell them I’m spending the day counting butterflies,” said Don White, 57, of La Habra. “But this is a tough business. You try getting these little stinkers to sit still when you’re trying to identify them.”

From the pygmy blue to the painted lady, the fluttering insects were followed through coastal sage brush and oak groves by volunteers who counted and catalogued dozens of species for the private land preserve.

“This is kind of an informal survey,” said conservancy director Jill Davison. “We weren’t going for exact numbers, but we wanted to get an idea of what’s out here.”

Totals for the survey won’t be available for a few days. When they are, the results will be registered at the New Jersey-based North American Butterfly Assn., which tracks butterfly populations throughout the country.

Sunday was the kind of day butterfly watchers hope for. After a wet winter and spring, wildflowers have blossomed in abundance, “which really brings out the butterflies here,” Davison said.

This was the second consecutive year the private land preserve’s conservators have called on butterfly lovers to help complete the survey.

Answering the call was a group as diverse as the insects they admire. It included 8-year-old Adam McCann and 13-year-old Amanda McCann of Newport Beach, who scampered across grassy fields wielding homemade butterfly nets.

At the other end of the age spectrum was 76-year-old Don Bauman, a retired pediatrician from San Clemente. “Butterflies are very exciting and very beautiful,” he said. “I’m constantly amazed at how something like a caterpillar can become something as wonderful as a butterfly.”

Scratch the surface of a butterfly watcher and you’ll likely find a former or current bird watcher.

“I find that many butterfly watchers are burned-out bird watchers,” Davison said.

Not surprisingly, butterfly people aren’t shy with an opinion about their favorite activity. The raging topic in the world of butterfly folk these days: to net or not to net.

For White, the issue is simple: “I don’t use nets. It isn’t right.”

“We are where bird watchers were 20 years ago,” said Fred Heath of Camarillo, who is a director in the North American Butterfly Assn. and president of the Los Angeles chapter of the Audubon Society. “Bird people used to catch birds rather than observe them. Our goal for butterflies is to observe them with binoculars and not make specimens out of them.”