Species Lists Wanted
Some of you may be aware that Jon Pelham is feverishly working on a database of all of Washington’s butterfly species. We have included a map of all known California Tortoiseshell records as an example of what Caitlin LaBar is producing from the database.
As butterfly season approaches, we would like to ask all of our members to make note of the species that you are seeing and send that information to Jon.
In order to place your sightings precisely on the map, he needs the following:
– Date
– Coordinates: the latitude/longitude coordinates can easily be obtained with the built-in Compass app on an iPhone, other apps for Android or iPhone, or a standard GPS. You can also use Google Earth to find your coordinates if you are able to pinpoint your exact location.
– Location description: provide a short description of the site for the database and for verification of the coordinates (sometimes numbers are accidentally transposed). For example: “Swakane Canyon, Chelan County” or “Forest Road 1200 near Silver Star Mountain, Clark County”
– Butterfly name, if you are uncertain of the ID, include a good photo or two.
Ultimately Jon and Caitlin are planning to create a Butterfly Atlas for Washington.
Send your Species Lists to Jon at: zapjammer@comcast.net