Well, I'm in a suburb of Tampa, FL if you know where that is. We get a lot if international visitors which still surprises me. I volunteer at the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) in the butterfly exhibit every Sunday which is why you'll see awesome photos every weekend from my adventures there. In just the past month or so I've met people from Estonia and Albania at the museum! Pretty cool.
And yes, living in a subtropical climate has its benefits. You kind of get the best of both worlds. We're at the very Southern reach for some butterflies of North America and at the very Northern reach for some butterflies that are more Central and South American. Also, in the 20th century we had some species move in from the islands due to increased trade. For example, this year I finally identified the Monk Skipper in my yard. Turns out it's only been here since the 1960s, but since it uses palm trees as a host, it made itself quite at home in Florida. I've heard some butterflies have even been blown in from hurricanes!
The downside is that we keep attracting people who want to live here and as a result, developers keep trying to pave over everything. There's a huge rally going on in Miami on Saturday to save a habitat known as Pine Rocklands. It is only found in Florida and a few Caribbean islands. It hosts a lot of endangered species including butterflies like the Bartram's Hairstreak and the Florida Leafwing which were just added to the endangered list in September. Plus, we can have some wacky weather so you never know if you're going to have a really mild winter like last year or if you're going to have a surprise frost in November. One thing you can count on is that it will pour buckets every afternoon in the summer! Tampa holds the record for the second highest amount of lightning strikes on earth (some place in Africa has us beat). Then there's the yearly threat of hurricanes. But it's home and like the butterflies I raise, I am a native (which is rare in these parts).
I like that the internet has brought us all together from across the globe so we can see what's going on in other places in the world and learn more about other species. We also have another Australian, Glen, but I read over on the orchid forum that he had surgery (I think on his foot?) so I imagine that's why he hasn't posted much lately.
