Elfin City – Sleepy Creek WMA

Posted on April 15, 2016 by admin

The last couple of days have brought new FOYs as I’ve primarily spent my time in the higher elevations closer to home thus far this season. Brown (3) and Henry’s Elfins (4) are on the wing looking really fresh. All of the species were seen ether on the Devil’s Nose hike or the Third Hill Mtn ridge trail. The following were seen: Zebra Swallowtail (FOY), Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (FOY), Cabbage White, Falcate Orangetip (FOY), Brown Elfin (FOY), Henry’s Elfin (FOY), Azure sp., Eastern Comma, Mourning Cloak, Dreamy Duskywing, Sleepy Duskywing, Juvenal’s Duskywing.

(Click on image for full size)Brown Elfin

Henry's Elfin

Posted in Blues, Brush-footed, Duskywings, Swallowtails, Whites and Sulphurs | Leave a comment

South Florida Specialties

Posted on April 6, 2016 by admin

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

Martial Scrub-Hairstreak Ruddy Daggerwing
Statira Sulphur (female) Statira Sulphur (male)
Mangrove Skipper Mangrove Skipper
Hammock Skipper Hammock Skipper
Dina Yellow Dainty Sulphur
Bartram's Scrub-Hairstreak Bartram's Scrub-Hairstreak
Polydamas Swallowtail Atala hostplant: Coontie
Atala Atala
Three-spotted Skipper Three-spotted Skipper
Posted in Blues, Brush-footed, Duskywings, Gossamer-winged, Milkweed Butterflies, Remote Trip, Skippers, Swallowtails, Whites and Sulphurs | 1 Comment

FOY “Spring Brood” Summer Azures

Posted on March 18, 2016 by admin

I had business near my old stomping grounds area of Jefferson County, WV so I thought I’d take a short walk in Shannondale Springs WMA where I had found my first azures last year. I saw two fresh Summer Azures (c. neglecta) on the wing identified by their heavy black maculations on the ventral side when compared to the brown’ish markings of Spring Azure (c. ladon). In flight the bright blue on the doral side was quite apparent. Fresh c. ladon will appear a more purple-blue. Lastly, to my eye the ventral ground color on c. neglecta is lighter than c. ladon which looks dirty to me even when fresh.

This sighting is two weeks earlier than last season. The below images (taken last year) show these differences.

Click on image for a larger size
"Spring" Summer Azure (c. neglecta)
Spring Azure (c. ladon)

Posted in Blues | 5 Comments

Eastern Commas and the Devil’s Nose

Posted on March 8, 2016 by admin

What a beautiful day for a hike! Shadow and I took our first thike to the Devil’s Nose rock formation in Sleepy Creek WWA. This portion of Sleepy Creek is in eastern Morgan County. WV. The trailhead is only 13 minutes from my house. Bob Dean who is one of my birding mentors first mentioned “Devil’s Nose” many years ago as a cool place to visit. I never made it there. However, now that I live so close and see the diversity in habitat there will be many visits in the future. The immediate area surrounding the rock formation and cliffs has a surprising population of healthy Hemlock which is the dominate conifer. Virginia Pine is usually the conifer de jour in the area. There were patches of snow still visible sitting on Rhododendrons lining Meadow Branch which is the creek that runs through the gorge. This small area seems to have a unique microclimate (speculation on my part). The mini-canyon with the cliffs, rocks and trees remind me of Blackwater Falls State Park in the high mountains of Tucker County, WV. Today I saw three FOY Eastern Commas during the hike. I can’t wait to go back.

devils_nose

Posted in Brush-footed | Leave a comment

NC 23rd Approximation now available

Posted on February 29, 2016 by admin

Harry LeGrand and Tom Howard painstakeingly work at updating and keeping butterfly distribution records of the Carolinas in a downloadable PDF form. (An on-line version will be available in a few weeks). The approximation was of great help to Barry and I last season as we traveled three times into the “Tar Heel State”.  This guide, along with help from Harry and others helped us immensely on our quest for target butterflies. It contains wonderful details showing species diversity and trends from the mountians to the piedmont to the coastal plain. Harry has posted the announcment on the Carolina Leps website, part of which is replicated here:

Tom Howard and I are pleased to announce that the latest version
(23rd) of the *Butterflies of North Carolina*, is now completed.

You can see it or download it at:
http://nature123.net/biodiversity.php

The 23rd is the first of the three Approximations on the website.
Note that the Dragonflies and Damselflies PDF and the Mammals PDF
are those from early in 2015 and have not yet been updated. (I am
editing the dragonfly/damselfly PDF now and it will be available
in a few weeks.)  A number of checklists are also available for
downloading on this webpage.

The 23rd approximation contains all of the observations entered
during 2015 by folks on the carolinaleps listserve, as well as all
data entered on eButterfly and on the State Parks' NRID database.
Though no new species were found in NC in 2015, one species was
formally described -- Crystal Skipper (*Atrytonopsis quinteri*) --
and a number of other species had notable range extensions, such
as King's Hairstreak.
...

 

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