ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, June 24, 1996 TAG: 9606240125
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN OUTDOOR EDITOR
It is a Saturday morning and Roger and Mary Dalton are roaming the hilly meadows of Botetourt County, counting the winged creatures they see soaring on the hot, humid June air.
Roger Dalton, who is president of the Roanoke Valley Bird Club, grabs a field guide from his pocket to help identify a colorful species that has been spotted.
``Whoops! Wrong book,'' he said, pulling a bird identification field guide from his pocket.
It is butterflies, not birds, that the Daltons and several companions are observing.
Butterfly watching, or butterflying, as its advocates call it, is among the newest and fastest-growing pursuits of amateur naturalists.
About two-dozen people have become part of a newly organized club, called the Woodpecker Ridge Nature Center Butterfly Club, said its founder Mike Donahue of Roanoke. It is the first butterfly club in the state associated with the Virginia Butterfly Society.
Butterflying, Donahue said, is about where birding was 15 years ago.
``If you looked back about 15 years, you'd see the same interest level, the same approach, the same excitement that people had for birding,'' he said. ``Most of them are new to it and they will depend on their guidebooks and will be a little reluctant to speak out and say, `I saw a such and such.'''
Sometimes it pays not to say much of anything about the fact that you have been chasing butterflies - with a net - as they rise, dance and dip across flowery meadows. Lacking mainstream status as an outdoor pursuit, butterflying can get stamped with ``odd bird'' status.
Marshall Daniels of Franklin County said he occasionally hears the jokes and jeers at work. It was much the same when birding got started. He has been into butterflying for a little more than a year.
``I think just about everybody involved in the butterfly club right now is involved in the bird club, but it is a small total number,'' said Roger Dalton.
When you think about it, butterflying is a natural extension of interest in birds and wildflowers, said Mary Dalton.
``We have been in the bird club and the wildflower club for several years, so we got interested in butterflies because lots of times we would be out and the birds would get quiet,'' she said.
When bird activities go slack during the heat of the day, the energy of butterflies is at its peak. Sunshine is a prerequisite for flight. It warms the wings and muscles of these cold-blooded creatures, pumping flamboyancy into their life. Suddenly they become wildflowers with wings.
Unlike the pursuit of many other wildlife species, watching butterflies does not force you to get up before daylight or make a lungs-searing climb up the side of a mountain.
You can watch them in the creek bottoms, where mud puddles provide butterfly baths, and on the sunny hillsides, where the milkweeds grow. Or you don't have to leave your house at all if you plant a butterfly garden, as the Daltons are doing at their Roanoke County home.
``We can get to the point that we can look at them and not have to go out into the poison ivy to search for them,'' Mary Dalton said.
Getting out, however, is an important part of butterflying, especially around the Fourth of July, when clubs and individuals take part in a national count under the wings of the North American Butterfly Association. It works like the Audubon Christmas Bird Count, Donahue said. Observers catalog every species they spot in prescribed 15-mile circles. Counts have been completed in Botetourt and Rockbridge counties and a final one is set July 13 and 14 at the Peaks of Otter, Donahue said.
``With a little bit of effort, we should be able to get about 90 species,'' he said. ``If we hustle a little bit, we probably will be able to get 100 species.''
Among the notable finds so far was an American Copper and Appalachian Brown.
No longer is it a common practice to pin butterflies in displays. They are considered wildlife, living organisms worthy of conservation.
``We practice catch-and-release,'' Donahue said.
Nets are used to examine species that merit a closer look. From the net they go into a plastic jar for positive identification, then they are released. If you want to photograph them, you can place the jar in the refrigerator for a time and they will be docile when you remove it, Dalton said.
LENGTH: Medium: 90 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: BILL COCHRAN/Staff. 1. Roger and Mary Dalton are birdersby CNBturned butterfliers who planted a butterfly garden in their yard. 2.
Marshall Daniels is hot on the tail of a butterfly in a Botetourt
County orchard during the Fincastle count which turned up 40
species. 3. Roger and Mary Dalton are birders turned butterfliers.
They have planted a butterfly garden in their backyard. 4. CINDY
PINKSTON/Staff. One of the largest butterflies is the swallowtail,
the state insect. color. Graphic: Chart: Butterfly basics. color.