This blog post is way overdue… Barry Marts and I spent four days in southern Florida in early April looking for some of the specialties that are only found in the “Sunshine State”. The weather was so-so as a couple of our days were marginal at best. Still, we managed to see some beautiful butterflies and left some on the table (an excuse to go back). Most of our time was spent in Palm Beach, Miami-Dade, Broward and Monroe counties. We also did some birding with notables being: Red-whiskered Bulbul, Swallow-tailed Kite, Short-tailed Hawk, Reddish Egret and Zenadia Dove (at Long Key State Park). There have been less than 10 records in the lower 48 for this dove so it was a real bonus. Butterfly diversity was low (34 species) but some of the ones we did see were fresh off the press and stunning. We saw the following in the locations mentioned:
Notables were: Polydamas Swallowtail, Statira Sulphur, Dina Yellow, Dainty Sulphur, Atala, Martial Scrub-Hairstreak, Bartram’s Scrub-Hairstreak, Eastern Pygmy-Blue. Florida Leafwing, Mangrove Skipper, Hammock Skipper. Florida Duskywing and Three-spotted Skipper.
We missed any of the Purplewings, Pink-spotted Sulphur and a couple others but for this time of the year no complaints. A note on the dorsal shot of Atala, it was missing the left hand pair of wings for some reason. Obiously was not going to last too long under that condition.
Click on any image below to enlarge
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Spectacular photography Matt! Thanks!