Big Butterfly Month

May 14, 2025

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in Conservation/Research/Surveys, Field Trips, G’num Messages & Columns, Observation Records/Record Keeping

A WBA Community Science project

June 20 through July 20

WBA is having a statewide, month-long butterfly count this summer, the first year for this WBA community science project. Let’s see how many butterflies everyone observes around the state. You can document butterflies from your yard, while camping, hiking, at a park, or wherever you may find yourself throughout Washington. It is easy to participate.

First, create an account on iNaturalist either using the phone app, downloaded from the Play Store, or through the web on a computer.

iNaturalist

Then join our project on iNaturalist:

Big Butterfly Month Washington State

For those new to iNaturalist, we have provided a link to a short page on “How to Sign up for an iNaturalist Account”. There is no charge.

How to Sign up for an iNaturalist Account

Take a photo of a butterfly with your cell phone or camera and upload it to iNaturalist. Once it’s uploaded, you’ll need to check a box to include your observation in our project, which should show up as an option towards the bottom of the creating observation page. If not, make sure you joined our project. There are 3 different versions of the smart phone app, plus the web interface used by desktop or laptop computers. You may use any, or all! There’s an Android version, and for iPhones there’s a Classic and a New version. Directions will vary slightly between all the different versions. The web version only allows you to upload one photo to initiate the observation, and then you add any others, while the smart phone apps allow you to add multiple photos at once. You also get the option with the phone apps to select photos from your gallery, or taking a photo through the app. Once you have a photo uploaded, the app can suggest an identification, if you have cell reception. First off, iNat can be wrong, so don’t take its suggestion as absolute truth. Second, if you don’t have reception, you’ll have to add the identification later. Third, if you don’t have Location turned on, iNat won’t know what to suggest. Many people like to use a real camera to photograph their butterflies and then upload through the web interface on a desktop, where they have an internet connection and access to their field guides to verify identifications. More thorough directions click the link below.

How to Make an Observation

You’ll need to make sure that you gave iNat permission to access your location iNat observations need to have a GPS location and a date. The phone app makes it easy to upload your photo while in the field, but if there is a problem or you are using a real camera, images can be uploaded at home on a desktop computer. If you’re uploading from a camera that does not record GPS location, you can add that manually in the web interface. An observation without a location or a date will not be added to our project, since it’s limited by both location and date. You may post as many sightings as you wish (of different butterflies!) on as many days as you like within the date range above. The project will close after that date. Acknowledgement will be given for any county records and Species of Greatest Conservation Need (SGCN) that participants observe. Post whatever you find and we will make the final determination of any records or sightings. You must be signed up for our project to receive recognition. Your accomplishments will be announced on our website and in the G’num. Join us for our first year of this citizen science adventure!