West Virginia Butterflies

Late November butterflies

Posted on November 24, 2014 by admin

Had an Orange Sulphur and a Painted Lady in the yard today. Temps were near 70.

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

If you ever get a chance to go to south Texas make sure you allocate some time for the dizzying array of leps that frequent the Lower Rio Grande Valley (LRGV). No less than 325+ species have been found which represents the biggest concentration of species in the lower 48. The wife and I ventured there last week for 4 1/2 days out of which we only got in 2 1/2 days of observing because of rain. Temps ranged from 52 to 80 during our stay. Since this was my first buttery specific trip to the LRGV we stuck to the best locations and didn’t target species at all. It was fantastic!! Butterflies were pretty much everywhere. We ran into fellow regional lepster Billy Weber at Resaca De La Palma. He had driven all the way down from PA. It was great to catch up with him and put a face on the other end of butterfly Listserv postings. We also ran into Jim Brock (Kaufman North American field guide) and spent some time butterflying with him and the small group that was travleing together with him. In our 2 1/2 days we ended up with 80 species and I added 44 to my life list. The size, shape and variety is astounding. Sizes ranging from the Western Pygmy-Blue to the large Heliconians. We can’t wait to go back again. Butterflies are year round in the valley but the best butterfying is from late September until early December. I’ll refrain from the lifer list as most will be posted below in the extensive photo section. The rarest sighting of the trip was a stray Common Bluevent at Estero Llano Grande State Park. Species are presented mostly in the chroncological order that they were seen. Hovering over an image will show the species:site # where seen matching one of the sites listed below.

Butterflies from a previous south Texas birding trip can be found at:
Previous Rio Grande trip

You can see Rick Borchelt’s excellent travel witeup to the area in Aug, 2013 at:
Rick Borchelt 2013 Lover Rio Grande Valley trip

Sites:
1) Quinta Mazatlan
2) Falcon Dam State Park
3) National Butterfly Center (Mission,TX)
4) Bentsen State Park
5) Old Hidalgo Pumphouse
6) Resaca De La Palma State Park
7) Sabal Palm Audubon Sanctuary
8) Estero Llano Grande State Park

Click on any image below to enlarge

Posted in Blues, Brush-footed, Duskywings, Gossamer-winged, Metalmarks, Milkweed Butterflies, Remote Trip, Skippers, Whites and Sulphurs | 3 Comments

Late season present – Ocola Skipper

Posted on October 28, 2014 by admin

Here in the eastern panhandle of WV we are in the scarce regional range of Ocola Skipper. On this record breaking day (low 80’s) I was totally surprised when I scanned the Butterfly Bushes in the yard to find an Ocola Skipper. I ran (yes, ran) to my truck, got the camera and was able to take some photos. This was a new WV species for me and is a great way to close out a fantastic year. Also present were several Painted Ladies, a couple of Orange Sulphurs, Cabbage Whites, and very worn Sachem. In a few days there is a chance of some snow flakes so I’d expect the remaining butterflies to take a big hit when that occurs.

Posted in Skippers | 1 Comment

Harper’s Ferry battlefield

Posted on October 8, 2014 by admin

I visited the North Schoolhouse Ridge battlefield near Harper’s Ferry during a long lunch early this afternoon and found the fields were been cut. Too bad they can’t alternate plots and cut every other year. It would save resources and perhaps help the wildlife. I found eight species on the wing despite the stiff breeze. Things are winding down but I’m still hopeful we’ll get a couple of south wind days to bring up a Cloudless Sulphur or two into the eastern panhandle.

  Common Checkered-Skipper    2
  Sachem                      7
  Cabbage White              15
  Clouded Sulphur             5
  Orange Sulphur             34
  Monarch                     2
  Variegated Fritillary       3
  Common Buckeye              5

Posted in Brush-footed, Milkweed Butterflies, Skippers, Whites and Sulphurs | Leave a comment

Brazilian Skippers, Long-tailed Skipper, Clouded Skippers

Posted on September 28, 2014 by admin

Barry Marts and I took a more southern tragectory on Sunday and headed towards southeast Virginia. The orginal goal was to go to the Great Dismal Swamp in hopes of finding a couple species more common in that area and perhaps get lucky with some southern specialties. After a less than exciting report from Don Schwab (thanks Don!) we opted to go to the 155 acre Norfolk Botanical Gardens first and then possibly go onto the swamp. We never left the gardens. Butterflies were everywhere and so plentiful that the Monarch and Fiery Skippers were in the abundant category. In my opinion this location (which BTW contains 2,600 rose plants) has the best butterfly garden I’ve seen in the mid-atlantic region thus far. There is incredible diversity of plant species expertly maintained so there is always something in bloom all year round. After checking out the variety of Lantana’s around the visitors center we began our trek towards the butterfly garden. We stopped at every nectoring spot along the way and within 5 minutes found our first of seven Brazilian Skippers for the day. This heavily marked species is the 747 of the skipper fleet. Easily seats 500 parasites or more. Just a huge butterfly as far as skippers go. That was the first of two lifers for Barry (the other being Long-tailed Skipper). Upon reaching the gardens we spotted a female Dion Skipper still in decent shape. This was quickly followed by many Fiery Skippers and the first of our ten Ocola Skippers. Over the course of the next 6 hours we walked to some of the other areas of the park but always came back to the butterfly garden. Other notables seen were Cloudless Sulphurs, Sleepy Orange, a couple of Palamedes Swallowtails which would not still down for a photo (lifer for me) , Clouded Skippers and a Long-tailed Skipper. Twenty six species were seen. Barry now has seen a remarkable 125 species in the immediate region (NJ,PA,DE,MD,DC,WV) for the year. We are looking forward to the next time we visit this location, it was awesome.

** = Lifer
 * = First of Year

  Silver-spotted Skipper      3
 *Long-tailed Skipper         1
  Horace's Duskywing          2
  Wild Indigo Duskywing       1
 *Clouded Skipper             2
  Least Skipper               3
  Fiery Skipper              50+
  Sachem                     17
  Dion Skipper                3
 *Brazilian Skipper           7
  Ocola Skipper              10           
  Black Swallowtail           5
  Spicebush Swallowtail       3
**Palamedes Swallowtail       2
  Cabbage White              12
  Orange Sulphur              6
 *Cloudless Sulphur          12
  Sleepy Orange               8
  Red-banded Hairstreak       4
  Gray Hairstreak             2
  Eastern Tailed-Blue         1
  Monarch                    85+
  Variegated Fritillary       3
  Pearl Crescent              5
  Common Buckeye             17
  Painted Lady               13

Click on any image below to enlarge