Today (Earth Day) Sunday, April 22, Jim Nottke and Charles Cameron joined
trip leader Sharon Funderburk at Rarebird Nursery in Castalia, NC, for a
scheduled CBS Garden Walk. From 9:30 til 11:30 we toured the nursery area,
adjacent field and a wooded path. There had been a lot of butterflies out
before the Big Freeze, and numbers are just now rebounding;
Pipevine Swallowtail-6,
Black Swallowtail-three 5th instar larva and two younger instars
E Tiger Swallowtail-8,
Clouded Sulphur-3,
Orange Sulphur-4,
Sleepy Orange-2,
Azures-2,
E Tailed Blue-3,
Pearl Crescent-9,
American Lady-9,
Carolina Satyr-9,
Silver Spotted Skipper-2,
Sleepy Duskywing-1,
Horace's Duskywing-2,
Wild Indigo Duskywing-1.
After a brief lunch and bagels and creamcake provided by Sharon, we moved on to the Shocco
Creek Gamelands from about noon to 1:30, where it was hot/dry and showed the effects of
considerable logging, which created large unvegetated areas. The great finds there were
Gemmed Satyr-3 and numerous Pink Lady's Slipper orchids, some in clumps of 6-10.
We also found a few more Pearl Crescents, Tiger Swallowtails (one dark form female), E Tailed
Blue, American Lady and Carolina Satyrs. No skippers on the roadway, but both at the nursery
and the gamelands we had a glimpse of an Elfin-esque lep as it leaped up into a tree never to be found again.
Jim Nottke
Return to Carolina
Butterfly Society Home Page