Folks:
The Croatan National Forest count was held yesterday, Aug. 25. It
started out as most others, with me deciding not to have a count unless
we started to find numbers. That is because Randy Emmitt backed out at
the last moment, leaving just Will Cook and myself to count. Randy, who
unfortunately was down in the area on Saturday to do some leisurely
photography (he should have come down Sunday and not Saturday, to get
both photography and counting in together), told Will that our usual
Arogos Skipper spot was nearly devoid of flowers and that he saw no
Arogos. Thus, I told Will that if we didn't start out the day with
Arogos or a lot of butterflies, we'd just have fun (not worrying about
finding a lot of species) and not conduct a count.

We spent only 10 minutes wading thru flower-less savanna -- not that way
because of drought but because the last controlled burn was in spring
2000 (2000 and 2001 had lots of flowers). Savannas don't flower much 2
or more years after a burn. We did get a Little Metalmark and
Tawny-edged Skipper, and got quickly out of there. (The Arogos are
probably there, but just sitting in grasses -- absence of fire for two
years certainly doesn't destroy the colony, but sure makes it difficult
to spot them if they aren't perched on flowers).

We skipped our usual second stop, a very good forest service road with
mistflower, in order to travel north to work a powerline where Randy had
claimed 7-8 Arogos Skippers the day before. Will and I figured he was
seeing Delaware Skippers, as Arogos isn't known from there but only from
the previous spot and is one of NC's rarest butterflies. We spent about
3-4 hours working various places along the powerline. Portions had
recently been burned, and Liatris (blazing-star) was everywhere. I don't
think we had any new county records for Craven, but we did get one VERY
nice butterfly. And, as we kept picking up things along the way, and
starting seeing record Fourth of July count numbers for a few things, we
decided to tally up in mid-afternoon, quitting at 2:30 (I was pooped
after 2 straight days of 95-100 degree heat, and nothing was flying
around the dirt roads and edges). Supposedly a cold front passed
Saturday night, but it was still 90-95 degrees, hardly any wind, and a
bit humid -- great for the butterflies but draining on me! (Will even
had time to stop off in Lenoir County on the way home and add some
county records, according to his carolinaleps posting.)

Here's the tally -- all in Craven except the first stop; almost all
things were found in the powerline:

4 Black Swallowtail
18 E. Tiger Swallowtail
6 Spicebush Swallowtail
250 Palamedes Swallowtail
1 Orange Sulphur rare here
300 Cloudless Sulphur
8 Little Yellow
15 Sleepy Orange
3 Gray Hairstreak
2 Red-banded Hairstreak Great Purple should be around
1 Summer Azure
1 Little Metalmark didn't spend time in habitat
6 Variegated Fritillary
4 Pearl Crescent
1 Red Admiral
60 Common Buckeye
1 Viceroy
10 Carolina Satyr
40 Georgia Satyr national record? Not that awesome of a total,
really
5 Common Wood-Nymph
4 Monarch
4 Silver-spotted Skipper
3 Southern Cloudywing
8 Zarucco Duskywing all patrolling males, very fresh
30 Swarthy Skipper
1 Southern Skipperling
8 Clouded Skipper
10 Fiery Skipper
1 Tawny-edged Skipper
1 Whirlabout
4 Southern Broken-Dash
12 Delaware Skipper
1 BERRY'S SKIPPER previously found in the powerline, but new for the
count
1 Dun Skipper
1 Lace-winged Roadside-Skipper didn't spend time in its favored spots
4 Carolina Roadside-Skipper
2 Eufala Skipper
100 Twin-spot Skipper national record; powerline is full of them!
6 Ocola Skipper

Total -- 38 species. Not bad for a "non" count, just working a
powerline for most of the day! Will photographed a small orange skipper
in the powerline that he thought might be an Arogos, but looking at the
photo on the back of his camera, I didn't think it looked right.
Hopefully, he'll have for folks to view and comment on. As I saw a
Delaware in the powerline there, I think it could have been a somewhat
worn and runt Delaware male. (Will has a great shot of an Arogos from
the Carteret spot on his website --

--
Harry LeGrand
NC Natural Heritage Program