Once or twice a season usually between mid-July and mid-August I’ll go up to the Ricketts Glen State Park area located about 30 miles NW of Wilkes-Barre, PA looking for Tortoiseshells, Two-spotted Skipper, Dion Skipper and Early Hairstreak. On the 16th of July Barry and I made the trip as the weather was supposed to be partly cloudy and near 80 degrees. The weather turned out to be spot on and we found 32 species over 7 hours. A couple of probable Compton Tortoiseshells taunted us as they flew by but never sat down for a real good look and confirmation. However, on the hike to Splashdam Pond Barry flushed up a small lep that initially looked like an Eastern Tailed-Blue. It landed on some nearby grass and upon further inspection turned out to be a very worn Early Hairstreak (they have two flights a season in this area). This rarity uses Beech trees as a host and Beeches are certainly in good supply here. Continuing on to Splashdam we saw a few lingering Bog Coopers. Heavy patches of Milkweed greeted us once we arrived but harbored surprisingly few butterflies. Dion and Two-spotted Skippers were found here. We also found four Satyr species over the course of the day (Northern Pearly-eye, Eyed Brown, Appalachian Brown and Common Wood-Nymph). I’ve included side by side comparison photos below of the Eyed and Appalachian Browns.
Finally, it seems that we can’t go on a trip nowadays without running into a Black Bear. Not that I’m complaining(:> We saw a cub on the road to Beech Lake. This was our third Black Bear sighted in the last two weeks in three different states (VA,MD,PA). The bear sighting was trumped by a large Timber Rattlesnake, one of the few poisonous snakes in our region. We had great time for sure with excellent butterfly diversity.
Click on any image below to enlarge
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