Shawnee 8/2

I was able to swing down to Shawnee with some family members and had some good bugs.  I spent a lot of time around sandy springs looking for southern strays, and I had some reasonable luck.  New to the year were variagated frit and sachem.  All in all it was a great day.  Other good butterflies were red-banded hairstreak, hoary edge, gray hairstreak(only the second one all year!), and Carolina Satyr.  Here are the pics:

Red-banded Hairstreak

Sachem

Spicebush Swallowtail

Variagated Fritillary

Variagated Fritillary

Broad-winged Skipper and American Copper

Hello all,
I snuck up to the Oak Opennings to try to photograph broad-winged skipper, which I was unsuccessfull at a week ago, and I had modest success.  After working for two hours in one spot with about 5-6 broad-wingeds I finally got one to sit for a photo.  Also later I ran into this nice American copper, common at Kitty Todd, but always a fun find.  Things are staring to wind down in this big year, and its time to start looking for southern strays.  Hopefully the fiery's, sachems, little yellows, and cloudless sulphurs will start showing up!

Broad-Winged Skipper

American Copper

Stuff from the past two weeks

Hello all,
I haven't been out much lately, but I do have a few pics from the past couple of weeks:  The pics are from Kitty Todd Nature Preserve on July 7th and from Kiser Lake Wetlands in Champaign County on the 9th.
Things are slowing down now, but I still need a few summer species and then hopefully the southern strays will show up!

Acadian Hairstreak, Kitty Todd Nature Preserve

Black Dash from Kitty Todd

Northern Broken Dash, Kitty Todd

Dion Skipper Kiser Lake Wetlands

Dukes' Skipper, Kiser Lake

Horace's Duskywing, Kitty Todd

A side trip to Michigan

Hello all,
I took a day off work Saturday to go fen hopping in Michigan.  I was able to get 3 lifers, dorcas copper, mustard white, and poweshiek skipperling.  It was an awesome trip, though it was definitely the most physically demanding butterflying I have ever done.  None the less here are some pics:

Edward's Hairstreak

Dorcas Copper- A lifer!!!!

Poweshiek Skipperling - another lifer and a really rare species

Mustard White - another lifer, but the only one that wasn't cooperative for a photo

Chalk-fronted Corporal- not a butterfly, but a lifer dragonfly for me!!!

Fen Hoppin

Hello all, this week I was given the opportunity to atlas in the off limits section of Honda of America.  I didn't find any rare birds besides a nice blue grosbeak, but I found a huge colony of Dukes Skippers.  There were at least 30 of them.  I also visited Gramp's fen earlier in the week and had some other cools wetland bugs, so I thought I do a hodge-podge post of the pics.....

Coral Hairstreak

Delaware Skipper

Delaware Skipper, note the black veins in the wing..

Dukes' Skipper, my favorite skipper by far!

Another Dukes'

This is what the Dukes' look like from above

Question mark, note the white question mark

Mulberry Wing Skipper - there are a lot of these at Shively Fen

Striped Hairstreak- I can't figure out if this guy is brand spanking new or if the flash screwed up;ideas?

I hate putting two post on one day, but I have been out atlasing everyday and I have had very little free time lately, so don't miss the metalmark post below!

A tale of two metalmarks

Hello all,
In the last couple of days I have had the great joy of visiting both  Northern Metalmark and Swamp Metalmark colonies in West-Central Ohio.  They are both very rare(especially the swamps), but I thought I'd share a few photos of both in similar poses.



Northern Metalmark on black-eyed Susan



Swamp metalmark on Shrubby Cinquifoil



Northern Metalmark



Swamp Metalmark



Northern Hairstreak

I had this Northern and two others at Lippincott Bird Sanctuary in Lima.  To get there, get off I-75 at the 117 exit and follow 117 southeast past the fairgrounds.  About a half mile on the left you will see the sign for Lippincott bird santuary.  If you get to the old style diner, you have gone too far.  They only seem to come out after 5:30 PM or so.  If anyone needs better directions call me at 937-935-9023.  Also had Long Dashes and Banded Hairstreaks.  All the good stuff was on dogbane right along the main path back to the woods(the path directly behind the information sign).

Northern Hairstreak(A tough find in Ohio!)

Gotta love that "M" maybe I'll get the other "M" hairstreak this summer!

I just can't get enough of this bug!

Karner Blue and random stuff

Hello all,
I thought I'd post a few pics from the past few days and the end of last week.  Here are Karner Blue from Kitty Todd; Hobomok, female Zabulon and Long Dash from Logan county today(went to visit grandpa's and took a short walk with him and Graham and Mom and Dad).  Things are really coming along!

Karner Blue

Hobomok Skipper

Worn female Zabulon

Long Dash

Big Skippers = Big Fun

Hello all,
I decided to head down to Shawnee today after work to look for a very rare butterfly in Ohio.  Linda Romine Called me yesterday to let me know she had found Golden-Banded Skippers in Shawnee St. Forest.  I zipped down there today and was able to refind them and it was a life butterfly for me and a very rare butterfly throughout eastern North America.  Through the course of the afternoon, I found all five of the regular Ohio "Big Skippers."  They are:  Golden-Banded, Northern Cloudywing, Southern Cloudywing, Hoary Edge, and Silver Spotted Skipper.  The only one I didn't photograph was the final one, but I'm guessing you know what those look like:)  I also had my first swarthy skipper and banded hairstreak of the year and a large Black Racer sunning on the road.  Here are the big skippers:


Northern Cloudywing



Hoary Edge

Golden Banded Skipper

Southern Cloudywing

Dusted Skipper

Yesterday The Toledo crew took me out to a few spots to see Dusted Skippers, and though the Karner Blues didn't show up, I was more than happy with the dusted as if was a LIFE butterfly for me. They are very rare in Ohio almost exclusively found in the Oak Openings area. There used to be a few in Southern Ohio, but they haven't been seen there for years. We also had a possible Persius Duskywing, but you pretty much have to dissect them to find the species, and that wasn't about to happen. Here are the Dusted Skipper Pics.
 

Note the white eye-ring and white face



 

Same butterfly, but with the ringflash this time.



Shawnee 5/21/2011

Sorry for the lack of post lately, but all the rain has put a damper on Butterflies the last couple of months. Today I went to Adam's County and Shawnee State Forest and had a really good day. Within 10 minutes of being at Lynx Prairie(the lower end) I had pepper and salt skipper, roadside skipper, zabulon skipper, Northern pearlyeye, and Carolina Satyr. I took a short walk to look for pine elfin, but struck out. Then it off to Shawnee. On the way, I stopped at Sandy Springs Cemetary, looking for Hayhurst's Scallopwing-no luck. I then checked the rest area-no luck. I was about to give up when I turned down the road just east of the rest area and found one on the side of that road. Next I drove up to Shawnee and had southern cloudywing on the way. On one of the back roads, I was able to find a sunning timber rattlesnake, the first I have seen in the wild. I then walked the north end of rd 5, and had pepper and salt, hobomok, hoary edge, and an unknown azure that was probably Appalachian, but oh well I guess I'm going to miss that one this year. Then I checked the spot where I had the dusky azure laying eggs earlier this year and there was a caterpillar on the goatsbeard. Several Red-Banded hairstreaks were around. On poop in the road I found several silvery checkerspots and a least skipper. I think that is pretty much the highlights of the day, so here are the pictures:

Carolina Satyrs












Timber Rattlesnake!

Zabulon Skipper
















Hayhurst's Scallopwing















Hobomok Skipper














Pepper and Salt Skipper










Hoary Edge

















Dusky Azure Caterpillar