My fellow butterfly-lovers and I were gloating a little last weekend. We set a new record for the number of butterfly species seen during a day-long count at the 35,000-acre Piedmont National Wildlife Refuge and neighboring Rum Creek Wildlife Management Area in Middle Georgia.

On a hot, sunny day —- ideal weather for the colorful creatures —- we spied 58 butterfly species during about six hours of diligent searching. The number was somewhat surprising in light of the state being in a severe drought for more than a year. The total breaks the old record of 57 species set in 2003 for the annual Piedmont/Rum Creek survey, one of the largest butterfly counts in the South.

The counts provide valuable information on the abundance or scarcity of butterflies —- indicators of a region's environmental health, noted our leader, Jerry Payne of Musella.

The annual Piedmont/Rum Creek count is one of 13 such surveys held across Georgia —- and 500 across North America —- each summer. Similar to Christmas bird counts, the surveys were started in 1975 by the North American Butterfly Association. Volunteers select a count area within a 15-mile diameter and scour it during a one-day census of all butterflies sighted within the circle.

Field notes

Excerpts from notes of last weekend's count:

"Two teams are conducting today's survey —- one at Piedmont refuge and the other at Rum Creek WMA . . . I'm on Piedmont team, also consisting of Jerry Payne and wife Rose, two of Georgia's leading butterfly experts; Phil Delestrez, Sprewell Bluff State Park manager; Carolyn Johnson, Piedmont refuge assistant manager; and the Rt. Rev. Francis Michael Stiteler, abbot at the Monastery of the Holy Spirit near Conyers . . . we call him 'FM' . . .

"We meet at refuge's visitors center at 9:30 a.m. . . . Jerry jokingly warns to keep our counts 'extra honest' because Francis Michael, a Trappist monk, is with us . . . FM says he already has scoured the piney woods around the visitors center this morning and saw cabbage white, buckeye, pearl crescent, red-banded hairstreak and gulf fritillary butterflies flitting about . . .

"We pile into van driven by Carolyn . . . Before we're barely out of parking lot, we're stopping to look at butterflies fluttering along roadside —- sleepy oranges and clouded skippers . . . next stop: an old field, where pink-flowered bull thistles bloom profusely and attract American ladies, hoary-edge skippers, silver-spotted skippers, Horace's duskywings, Eufala skippers, barred yellows and other butterflies . . . 'Good nectar sources,' Rose says of thistles . . . we walk to nearby pond, where among plants at water's edge we see least skippers, Georgia's smallest butterfly . . . Jerry and FM have small debate over how to tell difference between a gemmed satyr and Carolina satyr . . . we pause briefly to pluck some juicy blackberries growing wild in dense thickets . . .

"At another pond's edge we find a blooming buttonbush attracting several butterflies . . . 'Hey, hey, what's this?' shouts Jerry as a butterfly flits across the way . . . it's a gray hairstreak . . . in a swampy area, nearly bone-dry from the drought, we find a Southern pearly-eye perched on a sweetgum branch . . . 'A swamp denizen,' Jerry says of the butterfly, whose caterpillar feeds on switch cane growing abundantly here . . . next stop is near a creek, where we find an American snout and an Eastern comma . . .

"After lunch, we stop at roadside garden in Round Oak community near refuge . . . fluttering among blooms of butterfly bushes are several common garden butterflies —- black swallowtail, Eastern tiger swallowtail (Georgia's official state butterfly), cloudless sulfur . . .

"Back in van on refuge, Phil rides shotgun and peers out windshield for butterflies along roadsides . . . he especially looks for buttonbushes ... their nectar attracts the fluttery insects . . . Several times, Phil shouts, 'Whoa,' which prompts Carolyn to slam on brakes . . . We jokingly tell Phil we're giving him a bumper sticker that says 'I brake for buttonbush' . . . Windshield method pays off —- we find pipevine swallowtails, whirlabouts, variegated fritillaries, Appalachian browns, a red admiral and some skipper species along road . . . Rose is stumped over whether one butterfly is Zarruco duskywing or wild indigo duskywing . . . after peering at it through close-focusing binoculars and consulting field guide, she decides it's the latter . . .

"Prize find of day: a striking zebra swallowtail with turquoise blue stripes on black wings, flitting about a buttonbush . . .

"Jerry has high praise for Carolyn and Piedmont manager Andrew Hammond, who started planting native grasses in meadows and mowing refuge's roadsides only in late August, instead of several times per year . . . new mowing schedule allows many native wildflowers and other plants to thrive along roadsides, thus attracting more butterflies . . . at end of day, our team has 52 species . . . Rum Creek team adds six more . . . Jerry is happy."

In the sky

The moon will be first quarter on Wednesday, high in the sky at sunset, says astronomer David Dundee of the Northwest Georgia Science Museum. Mercury is low in the east just before sunrise. Mars and Saturn set in the southwest less than an hour before sunset. Mars and Saturn appear near the moon tonight. On Thursday evening, they will appear near each other. Jupiter rises out of the east about sunset. Venus can't be seen now.

seabrk@comcast.net