Two bleary-eyed travelers (Barry Marts and yours truly) took off on a sortie leaving the eastern panhandle at 4:30am this morning to look for potential lifers and FOY’s on the eastern shore of Maryland. We made the best time possible and arrived at our first location north of Whaleyville, MD at 7:50am. We looked in vain for an early King’s Hairstreak but it was not to be. (We will try again in two weeks). During the course of the day it was amazing to us that there were all these nice stands of Milkweed along the sides of the roads and yet there was a relative dearth of butterflies. Sure, Cabbage Whites and Silver-spotted Skippers were seen in good numbers but variety was lacking. We next headed west to New Bridge road SW of Vienna, MD and found some nice blooming Buttonbush. After searching for some time we finally located a Great Purple Hairstreak which was a lifer for me. It was at a distance and muck boots would have been required to get any closer, so the photos leave a lot to be desired. We then went over to DeCoursey Bridge Rd in search of Rare Skipper. We found at least 50+ Broad-winged Skippers but not the main target in almost two hours of searching. Perhaps next trip. Our final stop was Blackwater NWR. We parked at the visitors center and looked for about an hour. The main target was Salt Marsh Skipper. We both took a side of the road slowly walking along when Barry shouted out “Copper!”. My knee jerk reaction was “American?” and he responded “Bronze!”. I said “what?” and a couple of other words not fit for the blog. Indeed, the photons entering the binoculars revealed a stunning, rather fresh male Bronze Copper!. We searched further along the road and located another male within 100 yards. There was plenty of evidence around of its host plant Curly or Water Dock. I couldn’t tell which one. Lifer! Happy campers! You get the picture(:>
* = FOY ** = Lifer **Bronze Copper 2 **Great Purple Hairstreak 1 *Variegated Fritillary 2 *Viceroy 3 *Swarthy Skipper 1 *Broad-winged Skipper 50+
Click on any image below to enlarge.
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