Dear lepsters,
We all had a great time on the inaugural Carolina Butterfly Society
foray to Clay and Macon Co May 12-14. The weather advice was right
on- good weather on Friday and Saturday, and a rainout on Sunday, so
a bunch of people were able to get to Franklion by 11:00 am on Friday
and butterflied in Macon, Co.
Joining me in the car were Bob and Nancy Baldwin, Beth Brinson,
Charlie Cameron and Jim Notkey. Beth was invaluable for her
knowledge of the area, and she helped guide us to some wonderful
locations. We went back to winter as we drove to above 5,000 ft on
Wyah Bald, and the went to a Tessertee Farm, a Nature Conservancy
property along the Little Tennessee River, and then to the Coweta Lab Road.
The ID's of a couple of species are imprecise and lumped, because we
were not familiar with mimic crescent, and only counted a single
cooperative mimic crescent that allowed us to get down on the ground
and stare at the underside of its antennal clubs. Consequently the
count for Pearl Crescent are certainly a mixture of pearl and
mimic. Similarly, most of the tiger swallowtails were in flight, and
we lacked the confidence (and expertise) to separate the tigers.
All in all, it was a nice day with 22 species seen.
Pipevine Swallowtail 4
Eastern Tiger/Appalachian Tiger 44
Appalachian Tiger 1
Spicebush Swallowtail 3
West Virginia White 2
Clouded Sulphur 1
Orange Sulphur 1
Eastern Tailed-blue 3
Summer Azure 2
Silvery Checkerspot 4
Pearl/Mimic Crescent 122
Mimic Crescent 1
Common Buckeye 1
Carolina Satyr 44
Monarch 1
Silver-spotted Skipper 18
Sleepy Duskywing 1 (very worn, enjoyed riding
in the car rather than flying)
Juvenal's Duskywing 5
Zarucco Duskywing 1
Common Sootywing 1
Least Skipper 10
Zabulon Skipper 9
On Saturday we spent a small amount of time on Rt 71 heading to Deep
Gap which in prior years had been very productive. Unfortunately,
after road improvements, the shoulders were planted with fescue, and
so we saw 7 tiger- swallowtails, 2 SSS. 1 spicebush swallowtail, and
one zabulon skipper.
Several of the group also butterflied around the Microtel in Franklin
and added 2 Sachem and 1 SSS to the Macon County Tally.
You'all missed a fun weekend on the foray. It provided an
opportunity to see some beautiful country and learn from some of the
most skilled b'flyers in NC, Derb Carter, Will Cook, Harry LeGrand,
and Jeff Pippen. Being out in the field with them was a real pleasure.
Tom
Tom Krakauer
Bahama, Durham County, NC
tkrakauer@mindspring.com
http://home.mindspring.com/~tkrakauer/
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