Butterfly Count Report BTA 2025 by Ron Rutowski
CAZBA led the 2025 fall butterfly count at the Boyce Thompson Arboretum on Saturday, September 6. Although we had only 5 participants in the count this year, we managed to get it done. All our usual locations were counted: the grounds of BTA, the Picketpost Trailhead, Queen Creek (aka Apache Tears) riparian area, the town of Superior, Oak Flat, and Upper Devil’s Canyon. Up to the time of the count the monsoonal rainfall in the count area had been disappointingly low. So, we did not expect to see high numbers of butterflies and the results met that expectation. The compiled tallies revealed that we saw only 83 individuals in 15 species, but there have been previous years when we have seen fewer. Most abundant were Sleepy Oranges and Empress Leilias, and there were notable sightings of Tailed Oranges by Marceline VandeWater on the grounds of BTA. For more details, please attend the 2025 summary of Central Arizona counts that will be presented by Ron Rutowski on Saturday, October 18. The time and place for that summary is here: https://cazba.org/Events_view.aspx?Eventid=3295. Hope to see you there!
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