Almost a King’s Hairstreak, Dion Skipper

Upon further review the supposed King’s Hairstreak look more like a worn Striped Hairstreak. Too much enthusiasum and previous heartbreaks biased me. The wide banding appears better for Striped. A trip in the early morning rain awaited Barry Marts and I on Saturday the 11th. The hope was that the forecasted rain would clear earlier than expected in Worcester county, MD. By the time we had reached the eastern shore it was obvious on the radar that the rain would not clear the far eastern sections of Maryland until noon so we opted to go north for a while where it would clear out earlier, namely to Deleware. We arrived at Prime Hook NWR around 9:00 am. There were sprinkles around but we could see blue sky to the north working its way south at a snail’s pace. After checking out the mudflats for shorebirds along Broadkill Beach road we dabbled along the road on the way over to the the main section of the NWR. We located some nectoring plants and soon found many Broad-winged Skippers, one which was ovipositing on its host phragmites:

From there we drove to the refuge headquarters. There was a surprising amount of Milkweed in full bloom near the headquarters and as soon as the Sun started to break through it was teaming with butterflies. Sixteen species were seen in about a hour with the highlights being several Monarchs and a stunning Red-banded Hairstreak:

After another hour walking the local fields we decided to head to Worcester county, MD in search of King’s Hairstreak. This was a fifth trip looking for this species over the past couple of years. We arrived to a steady rain. Yea(:< The rain did not stop until after 2 pm. Finally the Sun was poking our every now and again. After ahour plus of searching we finally flushed something out of the wet grasses. It was a somewhat tattered Striped Hairstreak.  The initial impression and the location totally threw me off. Thanks to Barry for bringing reality to this blog post. Perhaps next year. Finally, it was on to Dorchester county were roadside Button Bush is recovering in some locations from the roadside destruction of last year. Notable species here were Viceroy, FOY Common Buckeyes and a FOY male Dion Skipper.

7-11  Prime Hook NWR, De

2  Silver-spotted Skipper
6  Least Skipper
5  Sachem
12 Broad-winged Skipper
2  Black Swallowtail
2  Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
4  Cabbage White
1  Clouded Sulphur
4  Orange Sulphur
2  Red-banded Hairstreak
2  Eastern Tailed-Blue
3  Monarch
1  Red-spotted Purple
4  Pearl Crescent
1  American Lady
9  Red Admiral  

7-11  Worcester county, MD

1  Spicebush Swallowtail
3  Summer Azure
1  Monarch
1  Striped Hairstreak
2  Pearl Crescent
5  Red Admiral

7-11  Dorchester county, MD

45 Silver-spotted Skipper
2  Wild Indigo Duskywing
4  Least Skipper
3  Sachem
1  Dion Skipper 
1  Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
2  Summer Azure
2  Cabbage White
1  Viceroy
2  Common Buckeye
6  Red Admiral

Click on any image below to enlarge