Barry Marts and I headed out to Charles and Prince George’s county, MD on Sunday in hopes of picking up some southern irruptive species. Our first location was Friendship Farm Park close to Nanjemoy Creek. We had been there in the spring when the Dogbane was about to explode and now coming back in the later part of September the Dogbane was replaced by Wingstem. The temperature at 10 AM was already in the upper 60’s and with the forecast calling for mid-upper 80’s we knew it was going going to be a banner day for whatever leps were still on the wing. After 15 minutes in the Wingstem I located an Ocola Skipper (the first of two for the day). This was a lifer for me! We proceeded to walk the Blue and Gold paths combining them for a long loop. Sachem were abundant and a number of other skipper species were flying but showed various signs of wear. The first of four Carolina Satyrs was seen along the Blue trail followed quickly by a Gray Hairstreak and Northern Broken-Dash. A grouping of seven Sleepy Oranges was flying in one meadow area and one of them only sat down once so a backlit shot was all we got. Eastern Tailed-Blues were plentiful. After a quick lunch in La Plata we headed up to the butterfly garden at the Plummer House in Lothian. The Lantana was teaming with skippers, mostly Sachem. Here we found our second Ocola Skipper, a few Fiery Skippers, some worn Southern Broken-Dash. We spotted our only Eastern Tiger Swallowtail of the day in the garden. A great day indeed with 29 species. As the season winds down I can reflect on a good diversity although numbers of some species were down. My regional species total YTD is 110. Barry has seen 116 species.
** = Lifer * = First of Year Silver-spotted Skipper 7 Swarthy Skipper 1 Least Skipper 5 Fiery Skipper 4 Tawny-edged Skipper 1 Sachem 100+ Crossline Skipper 3 Northern Broken-Dash 1 Southern Broken-Dash 3 Dun Skipper 1 Ocola Skipper 2 Eastern Tiger Swallowtail 1 Spicebush Swallowtail 2 Cabbage White 4 Clouded Sulphur 2 Orange Sulphur 2 Sleepy Orange 7 Eastern Tailed-Blue 24 Summer Azure 2 Red-banded Hairstreak 4 Gray Hairstreak 2 Monarch 3 Variegated Fritillary 3 Great Spangled Fritillary 41 Pearl Crescent 5 Common Buckeye 6 Painted Lady 5 American Lady 1 Carolina Satyr 4
Click on any image below to enlarge
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |