Abort, Abort, Abort!

Murphy has discovered where the project lives. Yesterday's much-anticipated silver-bordered fritillary release had to be aborted. Here Vincent expresses all of our frustration as we give up on the endeavor. The storm clouds in the background are only part of the reason. Here is what you can't see from the picure:

• It took over 2 hours to get to this spot from downtown Chicago. We were trying for a very late day release. Traffic was, therefore, horrible, and certain unnamed mambers of our party became lost.
• The field behind Vincent ranges between ankle-deep and knee deep in water. Not only did we all get very wet feet and legs, all of the caterpillar food plants that were previously scoped out are under a couple of feet of water at the moment.
• The storms that caused all of this have been doing a lot of damage here in the upper Midwest. Some of it has involved signifncant injuries, property damage, and even loss of life. We have all been lucky, but it can be difficult to remember that when the worst mosquito outbreak in over a decade is draining you dry.
  

So where do we go from here? The butterflies that were to be released have been put in flight cages in the lab to breed and create at least one more generation that can be released in September. Fewer than half of the chyrsalides that we have in the lab have emerged, and there should be plenty of adult butterflies for us to try again with next week. There is higher ground near this picture with plenty of host plants, so we should be OK with just some minor re-adjustment to the plan. I'm also learning a new value of blogging. During frustrating times you can comfort yourself by knowing that the story will make a good blog entry.