After our weather roller coaster ride with so much cold and wet weather punctuated by unusually warm days, it was a pleasure to get out and have a nice walk at Gibson Park in High Point, Guilford County, NC on Sunday afternoon, April 20, that was actually like a normal spring. The weather was nearly perfect. We began under a sunny sky that stayed that way all day. The wind was a bit gusty at the beginning of the walk, but died down to a pleasant breeze for most of the afternoon.

The butterflies made us work to see them. A sulphur flew by just before the park entrance, probably an Orange Sulphur, as did a Falcate Orangetip. We saw a second Falcate Orangetip in the park. As we walked the woodland trail, stopping at open glades, and then along the greenway, only a few other butterflies made an appearance, including three Eastern Tiger Swallowtails (one a black form female by the parking lot), one Eastern Comma, two Juvenal’s Duskywings, and one Silver-spotted Skipper, so butterflies were a bit scarce. On the other hand, there were dozens of freshly emerged dragonflies. A coincidence? We could hear lots of frogs out in the greenway marsh, including spring peepers, bullfrogs, and cricket frogs.

It’s still early spring here in the Triad, so 10 butterflies of six species isn’t really all that low, particularly for the type of habitats we passed through.

And we had a nice spring walk, of course!

Dennis
—
Dennis E. Burnette
Greensboro, NC 27410
deburnette@triad.rr.com