On Saturday morning, Aug. 27, 2016, under a sunny sky and in humid weather at Reynolda Gardens in Winston-Salem, NC, seven of us counted the following butterflies in about an hour and a half:

Pipevine Swallowtail – 2
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail – 13 (incl. 2 black form)
Black Swallowtail – 1
Cabbage White – 2
Cloudless Sulphur – 1
Sleepy Orange – 1
Azure species – 2
Pearl Crescent – 1
Red Admiral – 1
Common Buckeye – 1
Silver-spotted Skipper – 10
Spread wing skipper species – 1
Clouded Skipper – 1
Fiery Skipper – 20+
Little Glassywing – 1
Sachem – 30+
Dun Skipper – 1
Ocola Skipper – 4

Total species: 18

There were so many skippers that they were uncountable. Not only were there a lot of them, they were moving constantly, so an exact count was impossible. The vast majority were Sachems followed by many Fiery Skippers.

Despite the high humidity, we had a great time in a beautiful garden setting. Thanks to Barbara Cullen for organizing and leading our group.

Posted for the Triad Chapter by Dennis Burnette, Greensboro, NC

15 people walked around the Butterfly Garden, the Community Garden, and the Medicinal Garden for an hour and a half under VERY muggy conditions this morning as the temperature rose from 77 to 84, with RH in the upper 90s and calm wind.

Plenty of butterflies, but not much diversity. Nectar sources were mainly zinnia, tithonia, and phlox.

20+ Eastern Tiger Swallowtail 20% dark form
1 Cloudless Sulphur
2 Sleepy Orange
3 Eastern Tailed Blue
3 Pearl Crescent
1 American Lady
1 Red Spotted Purple
1 Monarch
8 Silver Spotted Skipper
3 Horaces Duskywing
2 Clouded Skipper
10+ Fiery Skipper
10+ Sachem
20+ Zabulon Skipper

Jim Nottke

Twenty-four of us (a great turnout!) took a butterfly walk in the Greensboro Arboretum on Sunday afternoon, July 10. This was a joint outing with the T. Gilbert Pearson Audubon Society of Guilford County. We had moderate success finding butterflies for this time of year, and everyone seemed to have a good time. The weather was quite cooperative with temperature in the upper 80s and a sunny sky with a light breeze.

Butterflies have been a bit scarce in the Triad lately, presumably because the recent dry weather may have caused plants to stop producing nectar. Recent rain seems to have turned that around. We were successful in finding eleven species of butterflies, including three Monarch butterflies, at least one of which was a female. We searched through many milkweed plants along the creek but didn’t find any caterpillars. Maybe she’s laying eggs now and we’ll find caterpillars in a week to 10 days.

We were able to find Pawpaw trees, the host plant for Zebra Swallowtail butterflies, that had fruit on them, a first for many folks. Unfortunately, that particular species of butterfly was a no-show, however. One of the nicest sightings was a very fresh and colorful Red Admiral butterfly sipping nectar from Purple Coneflower. See the attached photo.

Below is our list for the afternoon.

Dennis
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Dennis E. Burnette
deburnette@triad.rr.com

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Greensboro Arboretum, Guilford County, 7-10-16

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail 8
Cabbage White 7
Gray Hairstreak 1
Eastern tailed-Blue 3
Silvery Checkerspot 1 (new for the Arboretum)
Red Admiral 1
Monarch 3
Silver-spotted Skipper 3
Juvenal’s Duskeywing 4
Fiery Skipper 4
Sachem 5
Unidentified skippers – about 6

The Carolina Butterfly Society Triad Chapter sponsored a field trip to Pilot Mountain State Park in Surry County, NC, on Saturday, June 25. We had a congenial group of 9 participants.

The weather was very comfortable for us humans, although possibly not so much for the butterflies. Although it was mostly sunny for the first hour and a half, the sky became hazy and then overcast later in the morning. The temperature ranged for around 73 to about 78, an unusually cool morning for this time of year.

We found only nine butterflies of six species. The list is below. We speculated that the low numbers are influenced by the on-going drought in this area, which is likely to have reduced the nectar availability. We also wondered if the natural midsummer decline in some butterfly species that are between broods already has begun.

Although it was a butterfly walk, we saw other things of interest. In the dry meadow at the base of the mountain access road we saw two species of dragonflies, 1 Widow Skimmer and 2 Eastern Amberwings, all females. In addition, we were happy to see two blooming native plants that we don’t often see, the native orchid Nodding Lady’s Tresses (Spiranthes cernua) in the meadow and a small native of the lily family, Yellow Star Grass (Hypoxis hirsuta) on the top of the mountain.

The birders in the group saw or heard quite a few species of birds but nothing unusual or unexpected, and we saw two different spotted Whitetail Deer fawns, one in the meadow and one in the mountaintop picnic area.

Despite the low number of butterflies, it was a very nice outing!

Here is the butterfly list:

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail 1
Spicebush Swallowtail 1
Eastern Tailed-Blue 3
Azure sp 1
Red Admiral 1
American Lady 2

Dennis
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Dennis E. Burnette
deburnette@triad.rr.com

On Sunday afternoon, April 24, the Triad Chapter of the Carolina Butterfly Society held a butterfly field trip to Occoneechee Mountain State Natural Area in Orange County, NC near Hillsborough. The day was dry and sunny with temperatures in the upper 70s. We had announced the trip on Carolinaleps so in addition to Triad members we also had participants from the Triangle and as far away as Greenville, NC. We expect to have more field trips closer to the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill area this summer. Everyone is welcome.

We had hoped to see Brown Elfins. We were aware that this was a bit late but had seen them near this date at that site in previous years. Alas, we missed them this year. Lori Carlson made up for that by spotting and photographing Dusted Skipper nectaring on Creeping Charlie near the parking area. We ended the afternoon with 18 species of butterflies. The list is posted below.

Occoneechee Butterfly List, April 24, 2016

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail 24+ (numbers uncountable in woodlands)
Spicebush Swallowtail 1
Cloudless Sulphur 1
Eastern Tailed-Blue 1
Azure sp 1
Variegated Fritillary 1
Pearl Crescent 2
Anglewing sp 1
American Lady 5
Common Buckeye 1
Red-spotted Purple 1
Carolina Satyr 3
Silver Spotted Skipper 7
Hoary Edge 1
Duskywing sp 1
Sachem 3
Zabulon Skipper (female) 1
Dusted Skipper (Seen and photographed by Lori Carlson)

Total species: 18

Dennis
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Dennis Burnette
Greensboro, NC
Guilford County
deburnette@triad.rr.com