Diane Curlee’s Mom’s Property
Neeses, SC
6/21/08
When I got up on June 21, I was sure we would not have a good day of
butterflying. It had rained recently and rain was predicted in the morning with
thunderstorms forming in the afternoon. I called Diane who lives one hour and
forty minutes from my home in Blythewood. She told me that it was not
raining, but it was overcast. Radar showed rain within a couple of hours of Neeses
where Diane lives. We decided not to cancel our walk and that we would just
discuss butterflies if it rained. This walk was important to our chapter
since we had a photographer from Southern Living Magazine and some children from
a 4-H group attending our walk. The writer from Southern Living Magazine
who was originally scheduled to come with the photographer was unable to make
it. We will make sure that he has information about our chapter and our walk
for the article he will write for the South Carolina People and Places section
of Southern Living. When I arrived in Neeses, the sun was shining and it
stayed that way for our walk which ended around 12:30. The hard rain came
when we were in a restaurant eating lunch around 1:30. Before the walk began,
Diane taught the children and newcomers about identifying butterflies in the
field. She also discussed a little about where we were located: on the
boarder between the coastal plain and the sandhills, on a ridge between two rivers:
North Fork and South Fork of the Edisto River. Diane also talked about
watersheds. During the walk she pointed out poison ivy and oak, frogs,
tadpoles, plants and sedimentary rocks as well as butterflies. The lessons were
informative for all. We walked in a hay field (owned by neighbors, Archie and
Clark Stillinger) and down a dirt road through some other land areas to a
pond (owned by Polly Davis, Diane Curlee’s mom). In the field we were elated
to find Checkered White butterflies and their host plant mustard. Another
great find was the Eufala Skipper right in Diane’s front yard on the lantana. In
attendance were: Angel Bates, Debra Wade, MyCierra Cooke, Lisa Saxon, Drey
Snider (all from the 4-H group), Nicole Carrico, Elaine Stonecypher, Elise
Hanlan, Diane Curlee, Johnny Hardaway, Sudie Daves, Dave Kastner, Marty Kastner
and Gary Clark (Southern Living Photographer). Below are the butterflies we
saw:
2 American Lady
18 Variegated Fritillary
22 Common Buckeye
4 Tiger Swallowtail
2 Gray Hairstreak
1 Fiery Skipper
1 Palamedes Swallowtail
2 Horace’s Duskywing
5 Checkered White
1 Snout
1 Orange Sulpher
1 Gulf Fritillary
3 Sleepy Orange
1 Sachem
2 Eufala Skipper
1 Red Spotted Admiral
Total:
16 Species
67 Butterflies
Checkered White
Eufala Skipper
Eufala Skipper
Sleepy Orange
Variegated Fritillaries Mating, Wings Closed
Variegated Fritillaries Mating, Wings Open
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