This is the 29th year for the Fourth of July butterfly counts, started by the Xerces Society and now sponsored by the North American Butterfly Association. They are modeled after the Christmas bird counts, using a fifteen mile diameter circle, which should not overlap other count circles.

This is the first year for the Mercer count, which will be sponsored by WCAS just as the Princeton and Trenton Christmas bird counts are. The Center of the circle will be in Ewing Park, and it will extend northward to Princeton, and along the New Jersey side of the the Delaware, to include the Trenton Marsh in the east and Washington Crossing Park in the west and many other excellent sites such as the Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed in between.

The count will be held on Saturday July 19. Persons interested in participating in the count should contact me at frank.bader@verizon.net or 609-279-0881. Please give me some indication of your experience and skill in identifying butterflies, including skippers (the LBJ's of the butterfly world) so I can match beginners and novices with more experienced butterfliers.