Folks,
Ralph Preston and I covered Macon County on Friday we did get an earlier
start than Harry and his group. We started out looking for blooming Yellow
Ladies Slippers that Ralph had seen earlier in the week along a forest road
near Wayah rd. After finding the wild flowers we saw what might have been a
dark form female Appalachian Tiger Swallowtail (Pterourus
appalachiensis) it was very fresh large and a good a bit different than
what one would expect for the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail. Next we found a
closed forest road that looked promising we walked it about 1/2 mile and
found a fair number of Tawny Cresents, a Slivery Checkerspot, many Mimic
Crescents and Pearl Crescents. After that we ran in to Harry's team and we
checked out another old gated road I knew of, it was a lot better than I'd
remembered it as we counted 12 Tawny Crescents along the mile or so we
walked. Now it was warmed up a bit more and we drove to Wine Spring Bald
and checked it out, not much except 2 Red Admirals and a few duskywings,
just too chilly up there. Then we drove down forest road 735 to make it
back to hwy 64, we found only one good spot in about 14 miles, the only
American Lady of the trip was found there. It was getting late and we
checked another spot for Dusky Azure and we found one very worn one that
posed for photos, a Little Wood Satyr also made its appearance.
Here's the list for Friday in Macon County under partly cloudy and chilly
conditions
Pipevine Swallowtail (Battus philenor) 10
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus) 10
Appalachian Tiger Swallowtail (Pterourus appalachiensis) 20
Spicebush Swallowtail (Papilio troilus) 8
West Virginia White (Pieris
virginiensis) 2
Eastern Tailed-Blue (Everes comyntas) 8
Dusky Azure (Celastrina nigra) 1 lifer for me! Clay County
Variegated Fritillary (Euptoieta claudia) 2
Silvery Checkerspot (Chlosyne nycteis) 1
Pearl Crescent (Phyciodes tharos) 60
Mimic Crescent 80
Tawny Crescent (Phyciodes batesii) 22
Question Mark (Polygonia interrogationis) 1
Mourning Cloak (Nymphalis antiopa) 5 clusters of cats
American Lady (Vanessa virginiensis) 1
Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta) 2
Red-spotted Purple (Limenitis arthemis astyanax) cat on Basswood
Little Wood Satyr (Megisto cymela) 1 Clay County
Silver-spotted Skipper (Epargyreus clarus) 15
Dreamy Duskywing (Erynnis icelus) 20
Juvenal's Duskywing (Erynnis juvenalis) 15
Hobomok Skipper (Poanes hobomok) 6
Zabulon Skipper (Poanes zabulon) 2
Then on Saturday Ralph and I joined the main group in mid morning in Clay
County here's the list of what we saw when not with the main group. Then
later we covered some small stops along hwy 64 and found a fresh American
Copper. We ended the day at the greenway where we re joined Tom's team
(well not Tom he was napping in the van)
Pipevine Swallowtail (Battus philenor) 2
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus) 8
Appalachian Tiger Swallowtail (Pterourus appalachiensis) 20
Spicebush Swallowtail (Papilio troilus) 6
West Virginia White (Pieris
virginiensis) 3
Orange Sulphur (Colias eurytheme) 1
Cloudless Sulphur (Phoebis sennae) 1
American Copper (Lycaena phlaeas) 1 fresh in Macon County along hwy 64
Eastern Tailed-Blue (Everes comyntas) 10
American Snout (Libytheana carinenta) 1 Ralph found and photographed
Variegated Fritillary (Euptoieta claudia) 1 Macon at the Greenway
Silvery Checkerspot (Chlosyne nycteis) 1 Macon at the Greenway
Pearl Crescent (Phyciodes tharos) 20
Mimic Crescent 25
Tawny Crescent (Phyciodes batesii) 2
Mourning Cloak (Nymphalis antiopa) 5 clusters of cats
Viceroy (Limenitis archippus) 3
Carolina Satyr (Hermeuptychia sosybius) 4
Silver-spotted Skipper (Epargyreus clarus) 15
Dreamy Duskywing (Erynnis icelus) 6
Juvenal's Duskywing (Erynnis juvenalis) 15
Peck's Skipper (Polites peckius) 1
Sachem (Atalopedes campestris) 4
Hobomok Skipper (Poanes hobomok) 4
Zabulon Skipper (Poanes zabulon) 2
Pepper and Salt Skipper (Amblyscirtes hegon) 2
Cheers,
Randy Emmitt
Rougemont, NC
www.rlephoto.com
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