Four of us traveled out to the Green Ridge State Forest area in Allegany county, MD hoping that the Northern Metalmarks seen last year had emerged. It was a brisk, cool morning (rarely do you say that for July 4th) with temps in the upper 60’s upon arrival. We walked along the road until eagle eye Bev spotted one up on the shale hill in the Sun about 15 ft above the road sitting on Woodland Sunflower. The ones we saw were very striking and fresh looking. Metalmarks have that crisp look like they have been etched with metal inlay. We searched another 20 minutes and found four more. There will be more in the coming days. After tooling around GRSF for another hour we then headed out towards our next destination, Cranesville Swamp in extreme eastern Preston county, WV. The swamp is shared by Maryland on its eastern edge. Reminiscent of a Canadian landscape 500 miles further north this unique environment is protected and managed by the Nauture Conservancy. Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources describes the swamp as a “boreal peat bog relic.” Formed 15,000 years ago during the last Ice Age, Cranesville keeps its cool due to its unique geology and location nestled in a mountain valley.
On the way we stopped at Keyser Ridge for some norishment. It was 1:15 in the afternoon, sunny, the wind was blowing and the tempaerature was 64 degrees… on July 4th! Gotta love it. Upon arriving at Cranesville we quickly found our first Appalachian Brown of the season as well as the sought after Bog Coppers along the boardwalk. In addition Great Spangled and Aphrodite Fritillaries were seen. In addition, a beautiful Coral Hairstreak was basking on ferns hoping for rays of the Sun to find its way through the 75% cloud cover. On the way home we stopped very late in the afternoon at Finzel Swamp. Not much was flying but we did see a Baltimore Checkerspot. We tallied 27 species on this great day to be outdoors.
FOY's Bog Copper 5 Coral Hairstreak 1 Northern Metalmark 5 Aphrodite Fritillary 3 Baltimore Checkerspot 1 Appalachian Brown 1
Click on any image below to enlarge.
 |
 |
 |
 |