The Austin 4th of July butterfly count had an all-time record number of species (63), all-time numbers of observers (25), and all-time high individual adult butterflies count (820).

We were lucky to have a day without rain, which has been rare lately in Austin. We've already had a year's worth of rain in the first 6 months, and the lush vegatation showed it.

We saw nothing terribly rare, just most of the regulars. Highlights were: 6 Great Purple Hairstreaks; the first Zebra that I'd had seen in Austin this year (they arrived in Zilker Garden about a week ago); 20 - 30 emperors at the bananas at the botanical garden, as well as 100 + elsewhere; huge numbers of Bordered Patches, with numerous caterpillar on Ragweed and one female laying a mound of eggs as we watched; good studies of Red-spotted Purples laying eggs on Cherry and of an early instar caterpillar; Viceroys at three different sites; and six White-striped Longtails, a skipper that was very rare until about 3 years ago.

Misses: Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Least Skipper, Rawson't Metalmark, Ceraunus Blue, Large Orange Sulphur, more satyrs

I used to think that 60 species was possible in Austin. Now I wonder about 70!

• Pipevine Swallowtail 28 adults; 1 caterpillar
• Black Swallowtail 10
• Giant Swallowtail 9 adults; 3 caterpillars
• Spicebush Swallowtail 2 adults; 3 caterpillars
• Cloudless Sulphur 3
• Lyside Sulphur 4
• Little Yellow 20
• Sleepy Orange 30
• Dainty Sulphur 6
• Southern Dogface 3
• Checkered White 1
• Great Purple Hairstreak 6
• Juniper Hairstreak 6
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 6
• Gray Hairstreak 25
• Mallow Scrub Hairstreak 1
• Marine Blue 1
• Reakirt's Blue 16
• Fatal Metalmark 5
• Calephelis species 1
• Snout Butterfly 1
• Gulf Fritillary 15
• Zebra Heliconian 1
• Variegated Fritilary 7
• Bordered Patch 64 adults; 285 caterpillars
• Phaon Crescent 22
• Pearl Crescent 16
• Vesta Crescent 24
• Texan Crescent 50
• Silvery Checkerspot 1 adult; 30 caterpillars
• Theona Checkerspot 1
• Question Mark 30 adult; 4 caterpillars
• American Lady 2
• Painted Lady 2
• Red Admiral 3
• Common Buckeye 44
• Red-spotted Purple 4 adults; 1 caterpillar
• Viceroy 5
• Tropical Leafwing 2 adults; 2 caterpillar
• Goatweed Leafwing 3
• Hackberry Emperor 20
• Tawny Emperor 40
• Emperor species 150
• Satyr species, non-Common Wood Nymph 2
• Common Wood Nymph 1
• Queen 2
• Laviana White-Skipper 1
• Silver-spotted Skipper 7
• White-striped Longtail 6
• Northern Cloudywing 3 adults; 3 caterpillars
• Texas Powedered Skipper 4
• Horace's Duskywing 25
• Funeral Duskywing 6
• Common Checkered-Skipper 5
• Desert Checkered-Skipper 1
• Scallopwing species 1
• Clouded Skipper 5; 2 caterpillars
• Orange Skipperling 1
• Southern Skipperling 16
• Southern Broken-Dash 3
• Fiery Skipper 7
• Sachem 2
• Dun Skipper 26
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 2
• Eufala Skipper 4

Total Species: 63
Total individuals: 820

Observers: Lauren Bauer, Valerie Bugh, Robert Corbin, Manley Cullers, Dan Hardy, Mary Holland, Marianna Hobbs, Tim Hissam, John Kelly, Kathy McCormack, Derek Muschalek, David Millard, Lowe Johnston, L. Johnson, Mike Quinn, Mary Helen Quinn, Roxie Rochat, Jean Martin, Laura Southwick, Marvin Lewis, Jeff Taylor, Blake Vickers, Miriam Vaughn, Gary Waggerman,and Scott Young.