The “Keys” to finding butterflies – Schaus’ Swallowtail, Amethyst Hairstreak

Barry Marts, Sarah Smith, Mike Smith and yours truly took a trip to the southern regions of Florida making an initial side trip in the northern part of the state to Suwannee State Park in Suwannee County. At Suwannee we hoped to find and get a photo of Neamathla Skipper. Alas, it was not to be but we did see a probable candidate that got away. Consolation views and photos of Bachman’s Sparrow took its place. We then headed to south Florida and the FL Keys in hopes of finding some of our 6 target species (we ended up with 5). During the next few days we used Florida City as a staging point as we ventured anywhere from Coral Gables down to Big Pine Key which is about 25 miles from Key West. Temperatures and humidity were high (low 90’s and around 78 respectively) so staying hydrated and using bug spray where our main health concerns as we were staying out for hours at a time. Our main target was the endangered Schaus’ Swallowtail and newly colonized Amethyst Hairstreak. The Schaus ST is a Federally protected species whose adult life span is a mere 4-5 days. That’s such an amazing short time to do their thing. Add to that the never ending dangers of human intervention and mosquito spraying that occurs in other areas in south Florida and you can see that we must remain vigilant to ensure future generations get to see this butterfly. We traveled to Dagny Johnson Key Largo Hammock Botanical State Park twice and during those trips we ran into other lepsters hoping to get views/photos of a Schaus’ ST. Browner looking with less yellow overall as compared to Giant Swallowtail the ones we saw only sat for a nanosecond before heading off again. I never did get a photo but we saw 6 during our two trips. We ran into another butterfly enthusiast who was there for a third year trying to get a photo. He was part of a survey party doing counts of the Swallowtail between May and July. Perhaps we’ll have more luck in the photo department next time. Also seen at Dagny was the plentiful Florida Purplewing (another lifer for all of us but Mike). Most of the Purplewings seemed very worn and on the backside of their adult phase.

Another day took us down to Big Pine Key were we found Amethyst and Fulvous Hairstreaks. The Amethyst’s have recently colonized on Big Pine Key. Let’s hope they stick around for many years to come. They are small as far as Hairsteak’s go and when sunset approaches, proceed with courtship displays at the tops of trees (we saw three topping a Pine Tree – photo below) occasionally landing to show their beautiful dark purple dorsal. A bonus bird on Big Pine Key was a couple of Antillean Nighthawks (photo below).

Our final lifer was found at the Fairchild Tropical Gardens which contains a stunning array of Orchids and other plants, scrubs, and trees. After 2 1/2 hours of searching we finally located a Pink-spot Sulphur. Until recently this species had been overlooked because of its similarity to Statira Sulphur or male Cloudless Sulphurs. It turns out that south Florida has been host for them for a while as subsequent searches through existing south Florida butterfly collections have found some Pink-spot’s attributed to Statira. I’m just glad one flew over to us and landed on the underside of a leaf for photos.

Other notables on the trip was Dina Yellow and Shiny Cowbird. All in all it was a gratifying, hot, humid, hard working trip that paid off. We will return!

Click on any image below to enlarge

Amethyst Hairstreak Amethyst Hairstreak
Florida Purplewing Pink-spot Sulphur
Fulvous Hairstreak Antillean Nighthawk
Posted in Brush-footed, Gossamer-winged, Remote Trip, Swallowtails, Whites and Sulphurs | 1 Comment

Carolina Satyr + other FOY’s

During the last five days I’ve picked up a few new leps in the state. The cold, rainy weather gave way to sunny, still cool’ish temps on 5-14 as I returned home from a birding “Big Day” the previous day. During the big day in Mason County, WV I saw a FOY Carolina Satyr and Little-Wood Satyr. On the way home on the Sunday I stopped at a couple of high elevation locations (Thornwood @ 3,000 ft and Spruce Knob @ 4,550 ft). West Virginia Whites were still on the wing in both locations and probable Northern Azure’s (C. lucia) were at Thornwood.

Today on a four mile hike with my dog Shadow in Sleepy Creek, WMA (Berkeley County) grass skippers are beginning to show. FOY’s included Horace’s Duskywing, Indian Skipper, Sachem and Hobomok Skippers. Several Common Roadside-Skippers were also seen. The next couple of months should be fun!

Posted in Blues, Duskywings, Satyrs, Skippers, Swallowtails, Whites and Sulphurs, WV Trip | Leave a comment

Appalachian Azure, West Virginia White

With this exceptional warm weather for this time of year Barry Marts and I ventured to the NE area of Pocahontas County, WV dodging a few rain drops and finding partly sunny skies here and there. We were looking for ‘Appalachian’ Grizzle Skipper in WV which has crashed in the last 25 years due in large part to the Gypsy Moth spraying that has taken place in the mountains since the late 80’s. We struck out with the App Grizzled but found a noticeably large Azure at 3,100 ft. To me, my first reaction was… cool, Blue Copper because the large size reminded me of that butterfly from out west. This was along a road going through a hollow and drainage. Even though 3,100 ft sounds high it’s all relative as the ridge line was about 4,400 ft and the host, Black Cohosh’s avgerage mean elevation in the Appalachians is around 3,200 ft.

It wasn’t very cooperative but did sit briefly (back lit) for a couple of images. Dorsal coloration to my eye was pretty even sky-blue with perhaps the hind wing being touch lighter. Even though this is the the earliest I’ve seen C. neglectamajor it’s not out of the early date range. I’ve found that most timings weather dependent and vary year to year. We also saw about 15 West Virginia Whites during the trip.

Bird migration is in full swing now and many were seen/heard punctuated by this beautiful male Blackburian Warbler:

Blackburnian WarblerAppalachian Azure
West Virginia White

Posted in Blues, Whites and Sulphurs, WV Trip | Leave a comment

Frosty the Roadside Skipper

I took a long lunch and went to Green Ridge State Forest today. The primary goal was to find some of the reported Cobweb Skippers as this is the only of the year they can be seen. Kentucky basketball is not the only “one-and-done” practitioner. Rather, many butterfly species in early spring are univoltine. Olympia Marble, Elfins, Cobweb Skipper, etc. I ended up finding about 10 Cobweb Skippers in various conditions of wear. Also of note was my earliest Common Roadside-Skipper in this area. Very fresh, as it was very frosted. Also spotted was a stunning female Northern Green-striped Grasshopper. I just had to included it in today’s post.

Common Roadside-Skipper
Northern Green-striped Grasshopper

Posted in Remote Trip, Skippers | Leave a comment

Gemmed Satyr, Juniper HS, Pepper and Salt Skipper

Today I ventured to Botetourt County, VA north of Fincastle to a location I had not visited in two years. It’s amazing the difference 150 miles makes in the timing of butterflies. Species that are just emerging near home are ether done or close to done south of here. The wildflowers were beautiful and made for a dazzling background canvas. Partly to mostly cloudy skies prevailed and temps hung around 80 degrees. Butterflies where everywhere and not cooperating much to the chagrin of yours truly. Or, when they did finally sit it was only for a microsecond, bad angle, sun behind the subject, all of the usual ‘why me’ excuses. top billing went to the Gemmed Saytr, a new lep for me in Virginia. It was also nice to see the diminutive Dreamy Duskywing. They have, on average, a later emergence than Sleepy Duskywing and are noticeably smaller. Also, the “chain link” on the dorsal fore wing is typically closed when compared to Sleepy DW. Looks like the weather is going to be more cloudy and wet over the next several days. We need the rain however, so not a bad thing.

The following FOY’s were seen:

   Juniper Hairstreak
   Gemmed Satyr
   Question Mark
   Dreamy Duskywing
   Pepper and Salt Skipper

(Click on any image to enlarge)

Juniper Hairstreak
Gemmed Satyr
Dreamy Duskywing
Pepper and Salt Skipper

Posted in Butterfly ID, Duskywings, Remote Trip, Satyrs, Skippers | Leave a comment