Carolina Butterfly Society Midlands Chapter
Trip report
Aiken Gopher Tortoise Heritage Preserve
August 9, 2014

The Carolina Butterfly Society Midlands Chapter held a walk at Aiken Gopher Tortoise Heritage Preserve in Aiken County, SC. The weather prediction was not good, calling for 50% chance of rain in the morning and 60% chance in the afternoon. Irvin Pitts was our leader and decided not to cancel. Five of us took our chances and attended – Jerry Bright, Dennis Forsythe, Jeff Kline, Jock Stender and Dave and Marty Kastner. We began at 9:45 walking in the rain with umbrellas for the first hour and as expected, we saw nothing. When the rain stopped, it wasn’t long before the sun came out and we began seeing butterflies. We stayed until around 2:30.

Spicebush Swallowtail 4
Palamedes Swallowtail 4
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail 1
Sleepy Orange 1
Little Yellow 3
Ceraunus Blue 11 (not a county record, but a nice surprise)
Eastern Tailed-Blue 1
Variegated Fritillary 1
Common Buckeye 3
Red-spotted Purple 1
Southern Cloudywing 2
Wild Indigo Duskywing 22
Zarucco Duskywing 3
Duskywing species 14
Fiery Skipper 1

Marty Kastner