Barry Marts and I had a wonderful two days trying to locate “one and done” spring univoltine species and other earlier flyers. The plans were altered on each day depending on the weather which was marginal on Friday (mostly cloudy with some peeks of Sun and 60 degrees) and much better on Saturday (partly sunny with temps between 60 and 70). On Friday we spent the entire day in Maryland starting out at Green Ridge State Forest and found our lifer Cobweb Skipper (Hesperia metea) in the power line cut off of Orleans-Oldtown road. This uncommon to rare skipper uses Little and Big Bluestem grasses as its host. Other then that it was very quiet so we decided to shoot back over the Frederick City Watershed in hopes of sunnier skies. While the skies were slightly improved it was still cool but we managed to find 2 Brown Elfins (Callophrys augustinus) just south of the “tower group” in the small power line cut.
Saturday’s trip was to Pendeleton County, WV and ended in Hardy County. We spent the morning at Brandywine Lake which produced our first of year (FOY) Orange Sulphurs (Colias eurytheme) and a young Timber Rattlesnake. Going south from Brandywine I made a wrong turn onto Miller road which ended in about three miles. However, the wrong turn was the “right” turn as we found our lifer Dreamy Duskwing (Erynnis icelus) along the way. To my eye it was noticeable smaller than the Juvenal’s (Erynnis juvenalis) and Sleepy Duskywings (Erynnis brizo) we have been seeing all spring up to this point. I’ve included a Sleepy Duskywing image for you to compare. Other than the slightly smaller size Dreamy Duskywings post median band of gray scales on the upper forewing appear to be wrapped by black scales (chain link apperance) with some filled in completely as opposed to the Sleepy Duskywings gray scales pretty blended together and not separted by black, especially toward the leading edge of the forewing. After high fives we drove to Reddish Knob road and found some good south facing hillsides full of various rock cresses and came across one with Carolina Vetch in bloom. “Silvery Blue” we thought and stopped the car. No sooner had we gotten out of the car when a small, dark butterfly came down and landed right in front of us. An Eastern Pine Elfin! (Callophrys niphon) which was a lifer for me. It did not stay long enough for a photo but I’ve included one here that Barry took last week in MD. We continued working the hillside until we got to the Carolina Vetch and found 4 Silvery Blues (Glaucopsyche lygdamus). By this time the clouds started rolling in so we headed up to Moorefield, WV for some food. As we finished it was getting rather late (5pm) but looked like the Sun was trying to come out again. We went up to the McNeil tract of South Branch WMA and started searching some of the Red Cedars for Juniper Hairstreak (Callophrys gryneus). After 15 mins or so we located 4 flying about the top of a Cedar Tree. Lighting was not good for photography so I’ve included an image from last year. This was a lifer for Barry. All in all a great time for sure.
Two day species list: * = FOY
Zebra Swallowtail Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Cabbage White Falcate Orangetip Clouded Sulphur *Orange Sulphur *Brown Elfin *Eastern Pine Elfin *Juniper Hairstreak Eastern Tailed-Blue Azure sp. Silvery Blue *American Snout Mourning Cloak *American Lady *Dreamy Duskywing Sleepy Duskywing Juvenal's Duskywing *Cobweb Skipper
Click on any image below to enlarge.
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