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