Hello Tunza Eco-generation family! It has been a while since I have posted an article last month. July has been very busy week for me since I was on a break, I was out in Nature Center every day. I wanted to share events I participated this week one by one. I understand that posting bunch of articles at once can be overwhelming, but please be patient to check all. Enjoy!

Last Saturday, I was participating in a butterfly count. To briefly explain, I am under a butterfly counts program that runs across the entire North America region to share the data with hundreds of thousands of experts and volunteers across the country. The information gathered through tremendous amount of dedications will allow countless people to check out the accurate distribution and population sizes of all the species counted. Butterfly counts usually assign volunteers specific spots to focus on. These counts will allow specific data to be collected to figure out butterfly population change to keep up with health and living pattern of the butterflies.

Common Butterflies I usually spot includes blue species, Sulphur species, skipper species, and swallowtail species. I would like to share some interesting ?distinguishing marks? they have that fascinate me. Starting with Skipper family, Fiery Skipper and Sandhill Skipper are almost identical except that they have different dark spots. While Skippers are found near small flowers, Blue families are found along the bushes. They are so small that many people confuse them with moths, but remember, butterflies' antennae and seating and flying patterns are all different! Cabbage white are one of the most common butterfly we can spot pretty much anywhere while males have one black spot, female has two. Also, the wing color may vary within the generation while first generation is more pure white, third generation may have yellow and green tints.

Lastly, before I end this report, I wanted to demonstrate why butterflies matter to us. Because butterflies are very sensitive to their surroundings, they can be great indicators of our biodiversity. Thus, through doing butterfly count and identifying any sudden changes-for instance, climate change or pollination- environmentalists can not only save butterfly population but also conserve entire environmental system. Butterflies and moth together will make up around one quarter of all named species. Without butterflies, food chain will break and scientists will lose good model to study impacts of different environmental challenges around us.

Here is a good quote from Butterfly Conservation that explains the importance of butterfly count: conserving butterflies will improve our whole environment for wildlife and enrich the lives of people now and in the future. I hope more people realize that huge portion of butterfly populations are under threat. Please pay attention to butterflies more!

References from: Butterfly Conservation (http://butterfly-conservation.org/45/why-butterflies-matter.html)