Eastern Neck NWR

Fresh off a great day of butterflying during Saturday on the Loudoun county, VA count Barry and I headed to Kent county, MD in search of more coastal species and the possibility of southern irruptives. Although the NWR, which is on an island, is only 6 or 7 air miles from the Bay Bridge it takes a good hour to get from the bridge to the island unless you have a boat. From various vantange points you can see the Bay Bridge, Kent Narrows bridge, Francis Scott Key bridge and the city of Baltimore across the bay. Seeing all of that water makes it hard to imagine that the 180 mile long Chesapeake Bay’s average depth is only 22 feet! We spent four hours around the immediate area of the butterfly garden. The predominant nectoring sources now are some false Sunflowers, Ironweed and Joe-Pye Weed. Out of the thirty species seen half of them were skippers (Open-winged and Grass). Notables were Common Buckeye, Fiery Skipper and both Broken-Dashes.

7-11  Eastern Neck NWR, MD

76 Silver-spotted Skipper
8  Horace's Duskywing
1  Common-checkered Skipper
1  Swarthy Skipper
1  Least Skipper
5  Fiery Skipper
1  Peck's Skipper
1  Northern Broken-Dash
2  Southern Broken-Dash
38 Little Glassywing
2  Sachem
1  Delaware Skipper
17 Zabulon Skipper
6  Broad-winged Skipper
2  Dun Skipper
59 Zebra Swallowtail
17 Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
6  Spicebush Swallowtail
2  Cabbage White
3  Orange Sulphur
5  Gray Hairstreak
7  Eastern-tailed Blue
2  American Snout
2  Variegated Fritillary
25 Pearl Crescent
4  Red Admiral
1  Common Buckeye
1  Viceroy
9  Monarch
6  Red-spotted Purple

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