We were doing a butterfly count at Panola Mountain State Park last weekend when fellow counter Phil Delestrez shouted: “There goes a goatweed leafwing.” He was pointing excitedly to a medium-size, orangish-red butterfly flitting among some hardwood trees.
“The butterfly of the day,” declared our leader, Jerry Payne. He believed it was the first time the species had ever been seen on a Monastery Count, as this particular survey is called.
Delestrez, though, insisted that a goatweed leafwing was seen during the 2001 count. “It made an impression on me, the way a rare bird excites bird watchers,” he said.
For confirmation, he called Jerry’s wife, Rose, who, like her husband, is one of Georgia’s leading butterfly experts. She was in a nearby field looking for butterflies amidst chest-high grass.
“We’ve got a goatweed leafwing,” Delestrez told her via cellphone. Great, she said, but added that Delestrez was mistaken about it being seen in the 2001 count. She said it has never been seen before on a Monastery butterfly survey. She and Delestrez then made a friendly bet on who is right. “I am certain I will win,” she said.
Such is the excitement of a butterfly count.
Although widespread, the well-camouflaged goatweed leafwing butterfly is seldom seen. Unlike many butterfly species, it does not sip flower nectar, preferring instead to feed on sap, rotting fruit, dung and bird droppings.
The Monastery Butterfly Count was started several years ago by the Rt. Rev. Francis Michael Stiteler, abbot of the Monastery of the Holy Spirit near Conyers.
North American Butterfly Association rules call for counters to scour the landscape in a 15-mile-diameter circle, tallying all the butterflies spotted during a single day. The Monastery Count’s center is near Ga. 138 and Ga. 212 in Rockdale County; the circle includes the monastery as well as Panola Mountain.
Altogether, we tallied 59 species — “excellent” for a year when overall butterfly numbers seem to be down, Stiteler said.
IN THE SKY: The Perseid Meteor Shower, visible over the next several nights, reaches a peak of 50 meteors per hour tonight through Monday night. It’s the showiest of all the annual meteor showers. Look to the northeast from 2 a.m. until dawn, said David Dundee, Tellus Science Center astronomer.
The moon will be first quarter on Wednesday. Mercury is low in the east just before dawn. Venus is very low in the west at dusk and sets shortly thereafter. Mars and Jupiter are low in the east just before sunrise. Saturn is low in the southwest at dusk and sets in the west about 3 hours later. It will appear near the moon Monday night.
