Wildlife gardeners are noticing a significant explosion of Red Admiral butterflies moving north this year. And some naturalists are reporting hundreds of these butterflies passing by within just a few minutes. This amazing sight has even been noticed by the news networks, and our team member Pat Sutton was interviewed by Phaedra Laird of NBC 40 WMGM-TV about why we are seeing such a huge migration this year.
Jack Connor has also been documenting the amazing observances of large numbers of migrant Red Admirals. And Donna Long has also written about the Red Admiral irruption.
I first discovered this phenomenon this week by reading my twitter stream, as you can see by just a few of the tweets I saw:
From @AboutInsects:
Had a few red admirals bonk into my helmet during my bike ride yesterday. Not very good at evasive action, are they?
From @Tom_Reed
red admirals and question marks streaming in from the ocean at stone harbor point.
probably a 4:1 ratio of admirals to q-marks.
the rate of butterflies per minute had been around 100, but is closer to 200-250 over the last 5 minutes. amazing sight.
From @bug_girl
More coverage of the incredible red admiral butterfly migration this spring http://ow.ly/aLCtS
From @nbc40wmgm
RedAdmiral butterflies invade region in mega flight http://fb.me/v9TGSzxR
From @RickShort21
http://twitpic.com/9ha3bh - Large swarms of redadmiral butterflies have been spotted in Utica NY
From @cbgarden
You’re not seeing things! There are more red admiral butterflies in CLE this year, and our expert explains why:
From @aquilaaquila
RedAdmiral (Vanessa atalanta) flight estimated in millions by eButterfly! http://www.ebutterfly.ca/ and
Red Admiral butterflies nectar at rotting fruit
So why are we seeing such an explosion of Red Admiral butterflies migrating north this year? To answer this, we first need to understand the life cycle of the Red Admiral.
My favorite source of information about butterflies is Butterflies of the East Coast: An Observer’s Guide by Rick Cech and Guy Tudor. From this guide I learned that Red Admirals overwinter as adult butterflies, but that they withdraw from the northern parts of the east coast to the Carolinas and south, although some may linger in the north through the winter. In the spring these butterflies move back north to repopulate wildlife gardens and natural areas throughout the northeast.
According to Cech and Tudor, mega flights of Red Admiral butterflies have been recorded about once every 10 years (1981, 1990, 2001) And now, apparently in 2012.
Since we experienced such a mild winter this year, it’s likely that those lingering butterflies not only survived the winter, but are thriving. Southern migrants are returning with a bang not seen in this magnitude since 2001.
So, how do we support these beautiful butterflies in our wildlife gardens? Adult Red Admirals feed on sap and decaying matter, but are also fond of nectar. From my friend Pat Sutton I learned to put out shallow dishes of fruit, and have been blessed to have swarms of these butterflies visit my garden.
But we cannot just provide food for adult butterflies. We also need to add host plants for the females to lay their eggs on, which in the case of the Red Admiral is nettles. You’ll want to add them in an out of the way section of your garden, and you’ll need to wear gloves when working near this plant, but you will be providing a much-needed resource in attracting Red Admirals to your wildlife garden.
Have you noticed huge numbers of Red Admirals this year?
Carole Sevilla Brown lives in Philadelphia, PA, and she travels the country speaking about Ecosystem Gardening for Wildlife. Check out her new free online course Ecosystem Gardening Essentials, 15 free lessons delivered to your inbox every week.
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About Carole Sevilla Brown
Well that explains why so many are in my garden. They are feasting on the dandelion nectar since I have not been able to weed and they should love the nettles that are in the meadow. They have been hanging around since mid April here even through the freezing nights in late April.
Donna Donabella recently posted..Gardens Eye Journal-May 2012
It’s been a pleasure to see so many red admirals, but I really look forward to the beautiful newly hatched butterflies to come. The caterpillars are welcome to all the nettles they can eat!
This is so cool!
I saw one with my daughter in Asheville, NC a few weeks ago. I’d never seen one before, but I was not looking THAT hard, either.
We were not quick enough to get a pic, but we had a nice ID session wth a field guide later that day. The book did not have it so it showed her how to search google images.
She’s 7 and eats this stuff up. Me too.
Best,
DB
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we’ve had them flying over our house continuously for about a week now – great fun. will try to leave out some fruit for them. we also had our first monarch laying eggs on the milkweed a little over a week back.
I haven’t seen any great flights of them, but they are all over the yard… I would think that there are at least 2 or 3 dozen at any given moment. I’ve seen vertical “columns” of 5 or 6 ‘sparring’ with each other a number of times.
Thank you for the information. I’ll be digging up some nettles from a friend’s farm today to support these butterflies. When I put out the kitchen scraps in the compost bin, I’m not covering them. I’ve seen a few red admirals enjoying a corn cob.
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There are large numbers here in Clayton, NY. A few weeks ago they were everywhere. It was a magnificent sight. There are still many in my garden. My compost pile must be a favorite diner. I often find Commas there as well.
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Carole – interesting – I have seen more Red Admirals this year than ever before and was thinking it was because I’ve been allowing more of the stinging nettle to remain on the edges of our farm. Stinging nettle is an introduced plant and not native so I try not to let it get too uncontrolled (it spreads vigorously in moist soils) but clearly it’s helping maintain Red Admiral butterfly populations..! I’m wondering whether Red Admirals will use any of the other wild nettles – not all of them sting…
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I have seen many of them here in western Ny and I would like to plant a host plant for them, but where would I find a nettle?….Michelle
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Michelle – I am pretty sure that the Johnny’s Seed company sells Stinging Nettle seeds in its “Herbs” category…http://www.johnnyseeds.com/
Ellen Sousa recently posted..NWF and ScottsMiracle-Gro? No!
Thank you..they do have it..sun/shade and where I won’t hurt myself..Hmmm….Michelle
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We have had a lot of Red Admirals in the last two weeks here in Northern DE. My daughter (4) and I delighted in her being able to stand still and have them land on her. Having little moments like that make gardening even more exciting for little ones…
Happy to have come across the news of the population explosion through the blog! Thanks!
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