Here are the results of the Carolina Butterfly Society field trip to Shocco Creek Game Land, Franklin Co., NC, on
Sunday, April 18. We had only 6 folks show up -- Derb Carter, Randy Emmitt, Jeff Pippen, Mike Smith (Virginia), and Charlie Cameron, plus
myself. With such gorgeous weather -- sunny and 70 to 85 degrees -- we
were surprised more folks weren't here -- hopefully because all the folks who have wanted to see the goodies here were on one or both field
trips in April last year. So -- I'm not leading a trip here next spring.
We found most of our targets, though one -- Mottled Duskywing -- didn't
stay put for most of the group to see, and we missed one other -- Pepper and Salt Skipper. But others -- such as the two other
roadside-skippers, Cobweb Skipper, and Frosted and E. Pine Elfins, gave great looks with excellent photo opportunites! The Dusted Skipper was a
tad early, but only Derb got onto it. (The warmth of the afternoon meant that most butterflies in the powerline were very flighty). Here are the
totals:
Zebra Swallowtail (6)
Pipevine Swallowtail (25) most anyone call recall on a Piedmont day
Black Swallowtail (3)
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (25)
Spicebush Swallowtail (1)
Cabbage White (1)
Orange Sulphur (3)
Sleepy Orange (8)
Frosted Elfin (7)
Eastern Pine Elfin (2)
Red-banded Hairstreak (10)
Eastern Tailed-Blue (70)
azure sp. (5) first brood Summer?
Pearl Crescent (45)
Question Mark (1)
American Lady (15)
Gemmed Satyr (8)
Carolina Satyr (5) + 10 satyrs, not stopping for ID
Silver-spotted Skipper (5)
Sleepy Duskywing (4)
Juvenal's Duskywing (100)
Horace's Duskywing (5)
Mottled Duskywing (2) brief looks for 2 people
Zarucco Duskywing (8)
Wild Indigo Duskywing (5)
Cobweb Skipper (2)
Dusted Skipper (1) only by Derb
Carolina Roadside-Skipper (20) REMARKABLE NUMBER for Piedmont
Common Roadside-Skipper (3) good count for here
Notes: 29 species. I think we had 29 also last year on our higher count. Surprised at the Pipevine Swallowtail and Carolina R-S numbers. As you
might guess, with 5 species of white-spotted duskywings, we had a bunch of them as troubling, so take the numbers of all but Sleepy as best
guesses, though we clearly had all those species.
For dragonflies, we had Swamp Darner, Springtime Darner, Harlequin Darner, Ashy Clubtail, Lancet Clubtail, Twin-spotted Spiketail, Stream
Cruiser, Common Baskettail, Stripe-winged Baskettail (uncommon -- photos), Blue Corporal, Common Whitetail, and Painted Skimmer. It was
too warm for either of the two sundragons, which we had (Selys' and
Uhler's) last year.
Links to pictures from this trip:
http://www.duke.edu/~jspippen/butterflies/frostedelfin.htm
http://www.duke.edu/~jspippen/butterflies/easternpineelfin.htm
http://www.duke.edu/~jspippen/butterflies/cobwebskipper.htm
http://www.duke.edu/~jspippen/butterflies/carolinaroadsideskipper.htm (at
bottom of page)
http://www.duke.edu/~jspippen/butterflies/commonroadsideskipper.htm (at
bottom of page)
http://www.duke.edu/~jspippen/herps/paintedturtle.htm
--
Harry LeGrand
NC Natural Heritage Program
DENR Office of Conservation and Community Affairs
1601 MSC
Raleigh, NC 27699-1601
(919) 715-8697 (work)
FAX: 919-715-3085
e-mail: harry.legrand@ncmail.net
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