Barry Marts and I made a couple of trips over the Labor Day weekend. One was this past Saturday to the Soldier’s Delight NA serpentine barrens in Baltimore county, MD and the other was to Garrett county on Monday 9-7. In the eastern parts of WV and central MD the moderate drought is really noticable now with most weeds and grasses along roadsides browned out and snapping in half to the touch. Less butterflies are on the wing. In the mountains of western MD it is another story with things looking more lush and green with abundant flowers due to lower temperatures and more rainfall. The trip to Soldier’s was in search of the late season Leonard’s Skipper. This beautiful skipper which is a Bluestem Grass specialist can be found on the trails or nectoring on the fairly common Laitris (genus) flower we call Blazing Star. Leonard’s rich, reddish-brown ground color is easy to spot. The dorsal side is stunning with various hues of yellow, red, black and green. We were able to locate 8 of these skippers along with 16 Red-banded Hairstreaks and several Crossline Skippers (among others). Later in the day we went to the Kenilworth Aquatic gardens in Washington, DC. We arrived late and missed some of the reported species others had seen a few days earlier. Hightlights there included Appalachian Brown and Ocola Skippers (one of which was captured in-flight (see below)).
On Monday the 7th we ventured away from the heat of the lowlands into the mountains of western MD in hopes of seeing some butterflies in the Nymphalidae family which will be over-wintering until next spring. Fresh Gray Commas were found along with a 24 Eastern Commas (in various conditions), one Mourning Cloak, American Copper and a couple of Harvesters. Comparison photos below show the dorsal and ventral differences between Eastern and Gray Commas. Even though the Harvester image is not very “natural” it is unique with its reflection from the car. We finished up with a visit to Cunningham WMA which was very quite save for good numbers of Monarchs.
Click on any image below to enlarge
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