I spent another long weekend in southern Florida in a fruitless search for the Key West Quail-Doves that have been seen in Long Key State Park since last fall. So, the backup plan was to seek out some butterflies and hopefully pick up a few south Florida specialties. Diveristy is not great until later in the spring but the year round residents offer much reward. It was partly to mostly sunny with temps pushing 90 degrees each day. I visited the following locations over the course of three days:
Navy Wells Nature Preserve near Florida City
Everglades National Park (Pinelands and Flamingo)
Tree Tops county Park in Davies, FL
Burt Aaronson county Park (Ruddy Daggerwing Nature Center west of Boca Raton, FL)
Mounts Botanical Gardens (West Palm Beach)
Each location held the prospect of a south Florida specialty or two. I managed to find 34 species and 8 of those were lifers so it was well worth the effort. I would recommend however that for peak diversity that you visit during May-June and August (during the cool weather(:> ). Florida Duskywing, Three-spotted Skipper, Baracoa Skipper, Obscure Skipper, Martial Scrub-Hairstreak, Bartram’s Scrub-Hairstreak, Ruddy Daggerwing and Malachite headline the list. I got photos of all the lifers (shown below) except for Bartram’s-Scrub Hairstreak which would not stay still long enough for a photo. I’ve also included a couple of extra images. The Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak is the south Florida specific sub-species (Strymon istapa modesta)
Click on any image below to enlarge
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