Triad Chapter, Carolina Butterfly Society
Butterfly Walk Report
Blue Ridge Parkway, VA
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Meadow Fritillary, a mountain species seldom seen by members of the Triad
Chapter of the Carolina Butterfly Society, was just one of the highlights of
our field trip to the Blue Ridge Parkway on Saturday, September 22, 2007.
Despite the on-going drought, the group of 13 butterfliers tallied 21
species of butterflies and got good looks at other insects as well as
numerous birds.
The original plan had been to check several sites along the northern stretch
of the North Carolina section of the Parkway. However, dismal reports of few
nectar sources and small numbers of butterflies caused us to change our
plans and head for the marginally greener southern Virginia stretch.
Following a suggestion of one of our members, we began our field trip in the
lawns and meadows at the Blue Ridge Music Center. This was an excellent
choice, starting our trip list with 19 species in about an hour. This was
the first place we saw a Meadow Fritillary but not the last.
Our group spent the day working our way past Fancy Gap, Groundhog Mountain,
and Mabry Mill to the turn around point, Saddle Mountain Overlook just
beyond Rocky Knob. Along the way we found several meadows and pastures that
had remained moist enough to support a healthy population of flowers that
attracted hundreds of butterflies. Most of them were the same species that
we had seen at our first stop, but it was thrilling to walk into a meadow
and be surrounded by dozens of butterflies of several different species at a
time. There were so many that we stopped counting the number of individuals
per species. We added American Copper at Saddle Mountain, a life butterfly
for many of our participants.
Our total for the day was 21 species, all in Virginia, not a huge number but
not too bad given the drought conditions of this summer.
Six participants spent the night in a nearby inn and continued butterflying
on Sunday morning. We slowly made our way southwest into North Carolina,
stopping from time to time to look for butterflies. As expected, the number
of both species and individuals was quite low. We ended our weekend at
Doughton Park where we added two additional species for the weekend, one
each of Aphrodite Fritillary and Silver-spotted Skipper.
Butterfly List, VA 9/22/07:
E. Tiger Swallowtail
Pipevine Swallowtail
Cabbage White
Clouded Sulphur
Orange Sulphur
Cloudless Sulphur
American Copper
Eastern Tailed-Blue
Azure sp.
Variegated Fritillary
Great Spangled Fritillary
Meadow Fritillary
Pearl Crescent
Common Buckeye
Red-spotted Purple
Monarch
Horacešs Duskywing
Fiery Skipper
Peckšs Skipper
Little Glassywing
Sachem
Participants:
Bob Baldwin, Nancy Baldwin, John Barlow, Margaret Barlow, Ken Bridle, Luann
Bridle, Dennis Burnette, Lynn Burnette, Sue Cole, Barbara Hughes, Jean
Murdick, Gene Schepker, Lois Schneider.
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