West Virginia Butterflies

Armchair lifer after all these years…

Posted on February 4, 2016 by admin

I love the outdoors! Most every obsession I’ve had has been something outdoors with the exception of singing, which can be done outdoors(:>. Hiking, backpacking, camping, astronomy, birds and butterflies. All outdoors. I’m disconnected, refreshed, calmed, nourished and excited all at the same time. That’s what being outside does for me. I was going through images from a backpacking trip I took with some friends back in late July/early August of 1999. I reminisced of friends I no longer see and of some on this trip that are now gone. Life is so fleeting is it not? Photos were taken with an early digital camera boasting an incredible 1.3 megapixels. The experience was the most fun and uplifting of my outdoor life. We spent two weeks hiking on the John Muir Trail in the central Sierra Nevada. We hiked 130 miles though pristine forests, canyons, around snow collection lakes, under 14,000 ft spires and across rock strewn “moonscapes”. Acclimation to lower oxygen levels took a few days but soon we were handling 12,000 ft passes with relative ease. One beautiful scene was from McClure Meadow, basking in alpenglow after sunset one evening. This is in Kings Canyon National Park:

(click on images for larger)

I took many, many images of scenery and wild flowers. Imagine my surprise today to find a somewhat poor photo of a butterfly among the hundreds of images. How did I never notice that before? Immediately, I was going through the field guides. Based on the greenish ground color on the dorsal and ventral sides and the small white hindwing cell spot (partially blocked by a blade of grass) the only candidate is the Sierra Sulphur which is endemic to the central Sierra Nevada. A lifer all those years ago before I really even gave butterflies a notice. A pleasant surprise 16 years later. Think I need to go through other photos from previous trips now…

Posted in Remote Trip, Whites and Sulphurs | 3 Comments

First butterfly of 2016 – Mourning Cloak

Posted on January 3, 2016 by admin

I’ve recently moved to a community that is adjacent to the Northern area of Sleepy Creek WMA. We live at 815 ft. elevation and the trailhead into the WMA is 3 mins away. A hike of 15-35 mins will take you up into mixed hardwoods and Blueberries galore from 1,400-1,700 ft. I took my dog Shadow for our first venture and coming back we found a Mourning Cloak flying at 1,300 ft. with temps in the 40’s. I hope this is a sign of new discoveries in the spring. Happy and healthy New Year to all!

Posted in Brush-footed | Leave a comment

Crystal Skipper described…

Posted on December 1, 2015 by admin

After several years it’s more offical now for the Crystal Skipper. (Atrytonopsis quinteri). See:

http://images.peabody.yale.edu/lepsoc/jls/2010s/2015/2015-69-4-275.pdf

Wikipedia notes: The Crystal Skipper (Atrytonopsis quinteri) is a newly identified butterfly (family Hesperiidae) that is found only along a 30-mile (50 km) stretch of barrier islands in North Carolina. The skipper was first discovered in 1978 and the official paper describing it as a full species was published in 2015.

The Crystal Skipper is endemic to Bogue Banks and Bear Island in North Carolina, USA. Bogue Banks is approximately 25 miles long and Bear Island is about 3.5 miles long. The skipper is also found on several human-made dredge spoil islands within the vicinity of these two natural barrier islands.^[2]

Bear Island, part of Hammocks Beach State Park, is completely undeveloped and has the largest skipper population. The second largest population is at Fort Macon State Park, on the eastern end of Bogue Banks. The remaining populations are smaller and scattered between these two state parks.

Click to enlarge – Taken at Fort Macon SP, NC 05-03-2015

Posted in Skippers | 2 Comments

Lower Rio Grande Valley

Posted on November 10, 2015 by admin

A much belated posting due to many factors but it’s here at last. What’s not to like about spending a week in the best area of the lower 48 for butterflies? That’s what Barry Marts and I did between Oct 31st and Nov 7th. Some expected species were in short supply while other more typically rare species were being seen. That’s the way it goes right? You play the cards you’re dealt. Mix in a great company (other lepsters from Maryland; Rick Borchelt, Tom Stock and Jim Brighton to name a few) were also down in the area at the same time) and some birds and you have the perfect recipe to go into saturation overload.. The only negatives for the whole trip were darkness and having to sleep.

We spent the entire week in the lower valley visting (east to west) Boca Chica (part of the Rio Grande Valley NWR), Resaca de le Palma SP, Estero Llano Grande SP, Santa Anna NWR, NABA National Butterfly center, Bentsen SP and Falcon SP. We missed a few excellent finds like the first U.S. record of Shadowed Hairstreak (Tom and Rick got to see this) at Hugh Ramsey Park and a Frosted Flasher at Santa Anna NWR. But, when all was said and done Barry and I counted 2,554 individuals of 104 species. Barry noted 80 lifers! and I saw 17. A PDF of where we had our first sightings: First Sightings TX Nov 2015. The photos presented below are mostly of new ones I saw on this trip. If you’d like to see other photos from previous trips check: South Texas 2014. Our top 5 species from a numbers perspective were Queen (412), Laviana White-Skipper (216), Fiery Skipper (151), Sickle-winged Skipper (116) and Tropical Checkered-Skipper (113). We plan on returning this November. We hope that some of you can join us. You won’t regret it!

Of course bird watching was tied into the trip and we had some notables like a Northern Jacana at Estero Llano SP and others shown here:

Click on image to enlarge…

On a personal note the following were lifers for me:

Giant White                Curve-winged Metalmark
Mexican Fritillary         Crimson Patch
Pale-banded Crescent       Silver Emperor
South Texas Satyr          Guava Skipper
Coyote Cloudywing          Brown-banded Skipper
Turk's-cap White-Skipper   Saltbush Sootywing
Pale-rayed Skipper         Double-dotted Skipper
Purple-washed Skipper      Evans' Skipper
Violet-banded Skipper

Barry provided the photo of the South Texas Satyr, a recently described species:
South Texas Satyr

Click on image to enlarge…

Posted in Blues, Brush-footed, Duskywings, Gossamer-winged, Metalmarks, Milkweed Butterflies, Remote Trip, Skippers, Whites and Sulphurs | 1 Comment

Meske’s Skipper

Posted on October 15, 2015 by admin

One last trip within the region occurred last weekend. Tis a sad time as the butterflies will slowly disappear and go into diapause until next season. A local example of a late season species is Leonard’s Skipper which emerges in late August – early September. Then, there are species with late season flights such as the rare (for North Carolina) Meske’s Skipper. Its northern range extends into North Carolina with the fall flight from late September through October. Barry Marts and I headed down to Weymouth Woods Sandhills Nature Preserve in Southern Pines in search of this skipper. Weymouth Woods is a unique window onto the longleaf pine forests that once covered millions of acres in the southeastern U.S. In five hours of searching spread across two days we found two individuals. Other more southern species (than our immediate area) also found included Gulf Fritillary (2), Clouded Skipper (67), Sleepy Orange (28), Fiery Skipper (51), Ocola Skipper (49), and abundant Cloudless Sulphurs. This trip was the last of our many, many great regional sorties. I’ll send out a year recap posting next month.

Click on any image below to enlarge