Our Natural Adventures

Category: Butterflies

May 3, 2025 – Watuppa Reservation – Fall River, MA

We took a trip out to the Watuppa Reservation area in Fall River today. It was a fantastic day to be out. Sunny, mid 70’s or more and just a bit of a breeze.

Our main target species were Hessel’s Hairstreaks. Their host plant, the Eastern White Cedar is in the area so we had hoped they would be as well. Whenever looking for Hessel’s in MA, it isn’t a matter of “we’re going out to find Hessel’s”, but more of “we are going out to an area they should be, but probably won’t be”.

But try, we did. And long story short, once again fail, we did.

Not all was lost though. At first I took us to the wrong area, but there was a powerline cut and those are almost always interesting. This one had several flowering blueberry bushes which are generally butterfly magnets this early in the season. I did find a few nice ones nectaring on them, but nothing TOO special. 3 Eastern Pine Elfins and several Azures.

Eastern Pine Elfin on high bush blueberry

Spring Azure on high bush blueberry

Everything seems to like the blueberry. Several bumblebees and wasps were also on them.

A yellowjacket enjoying some blueberry

I even ran into a mound of Allegheny Mound Ants which I hadn’t seen since my days of working on the military base on Cape Cod. These things are nasty little bastards, but super cool.

A giant mound of Allegheny Mound Ants

Allegheny Mound ants

Well, I decided to turn around and walk the powerline down to where I knew we found some fun butterflies last year. Along the way, I found what was (I thought) a bit strange. Seemingly, two different forms of Spring Azure mating. It looks to me that one is form lucia and the other is possibly marginata?

Mating Spring Azures

At one point, the path ends and it turns into a swampy area. Since I could see where I needed to go about 100 yards or so ahead, I decided (one of my worst decisions in a while) to go through the swampy area to get there. Well… I won’t do that again. I would say that I made it about 3/4 of the way, but not before ending up to my knee of my left leg in some serious muck with every pull up of my leg making it sink further in. I did eventually free myself, but began wondering if I would run into the skeletons of those less fortunate than myself. I ended up turning around and getting out of there.

From there, we ended up driving down to the area we were in last year. This year was a bit different from a butterfly species perspective. Last year, I had a White-M hairstreak. This year there weren’t any in this area but one was seen in the previously mentioned, incorrect area. There were several Azures here though, and a Henry’s Elfin which is always fun.

Summer Azure

Summer Azure (light blue with white veins)

The only look I got at the Henry’s Elfin before it flew off.

Anyways, at this spot, my wife also found a Red-spotted Purple caterpillar on black cherry which is always a fun find.

Other than these few species and a couple of Juvenal’s Duskywings (pictured at top), not much else was found today. It was a great day to be out and about though!

May 3, 2025
May 1, 2025 – Nasketucket Bay Reservation

Took a little time this afternoon to go to Nasketucket Bay Reservation in Mattapoisett, MA to see if I could find Henry’s Elfins since we saw one there last year and were rather surprised by it.

Nasketucket is a nice place for a walk with wide trails, some nectar plants throughout the season and a variety of butterflies all summer long.

The reservation has several different habitats with forest, fields, ocean (if you walk all the way to the end) and several wetter areas with vernal pools.

Nice wide clean trails!

Some of the wetter areas have these boardwalks

I walked around for a while before finding anything interesting today. The weather was nice with lots of sun, but a bit chilly with temps only in the lower 60’s. The first butterfly I saw was an Azure. I am still unsure if this is a Summer Azure or a Spring Azure, form violacea. Since ALL of the Azures here (I saw about 12 or more) were the same, I suspect Summer Azure, but I can’t be sure.

This one was just slightly darker.

Summer? Spring?

Eventually, I came across an Eastern Pine Elfin which wasn’t a surprise. Nasketucket is where I saw my first ever Pine Elfin so I sort of suspected I may see one.

Eastern Pine Elfin

I also spotted (so to speak) a spotted turtle crossing one of the paths! That was a bit of a surprise although I know they are all over this area of the state.

Spotted Turtle

I also saw two different Garter Snakes on the side of the path.

Common Garter Snake

Finally, on my way back, I found what I had come for. A Henry’s Elfin! I had seen something dark fly off on my way down the trail, but on the way back it seemed to be stopping which was awesome! This one seemed to be missing one of the clubs at the end of it’s left antenna. I have never seen that before.

Henry’s Elfin

A little further up the path, I found another one!

Henry’s Elfin

This, along with the one we saw there last year verifies that there is an active population there which is great to know.

All in all, it was a great little walk with a questions remaining (about the Azures) but some answers as well.

May 1, 2025
April 28, 2025 Mass Butterfly Club Walk at MSSF

Today I participated in my first of the year Massachusetts Butterfly Club (https://www.massbutterflies.org/) walk at Myles Standish State Forest. We were looking for the usual species, Elfins, Azures and anything else that might show up. We had a great group of people and the weather couldn’t have been better with temps rising into the lower 70’s and sunny! There was a bit of a breeze, but that wasn’t terribly troublesome. This trip was originally planned for Saturday the 26th, but rain delayed it by a couple days.

We started at the Fearing Pond Road end of the gas lines where we were able to find several species including Brown Elfins, Hoary Elfins, Eastern Pine Elfins, American Ladys, and Juvenal’s Duskywings!

The group gathers around a Hoary Elfin

The Hoary Elfin enjoying a bearberry flower

An Eastern Pine Elfin

From here we went over to the Bare Hill Road end of the gas lines and saw much of the same species there. Many participants had to leave after this and a few of us headed over to the Bentley Loop Trail to see if we could find any Eastern Tailed-blues. We did manage to find one (photo at top) along with a few American Ladys that were ovipositing on what appears to be Sweet Everlasting, one of their host plants.

Sweet Everlasting

American Lady ovipositing on Sweet Everlasting

All in all a great day!

April 28, 2025
April 25, 2025 – Myles Standish scouting

I took a rather quick trip to Myles Standish State Forest to scout out the Elfin population, having seen reports from other parts of the state. I finally found them in their usual locations. The weather was to change to clouds, so I went out early when the temps were already in the upper 60’s and the sun was filtered a bit but shining.

The gas line is still the place to go to find Elfins. Both ends of it seem to be equally active most years. This year seems to be starting about the same as most. Brown Elfins and one Hoary Elfin were found today. Every location I went to had several Spring Azures as well. Two Juvenal’s Duskywings were also seen, one at each end of the gas line.

I also went to Doctor’s Pond Road quickly and found one Brown Elfin along with a baby Painted Turtle and a bunch of Six-spotted Tiger Beetles (photo above).

Hoary Elfin

Brown Elfin

Juvenal’s Duskywing

Baby Painted Turtle

April 25, 2025
April 24, 2025 – The yard is alive!

So, not a lot to report today, but it seems that our yard is alive again with butterfly and bird activity!

After a really nice day outside with full sun, upper 60’s (or higher) and little breeze, I shouldn’t be surprised what I found this afternoon. Walking around with the dog, we came across an American Lady butterfly on dandelion. I only had my phone on me so I got a blurry shot of it before it took off. Usually they come back. This one didn’t. A crappy pic is better than no pic… sort of.

American Lady (believe it or not)

Thinking it may come back, I went in and got the camera. A short while later, I was very surprised to see an American Copper! Not that is is really THAT early for them, but my records over the past 5 years has them only showing up this early in 2022 (also April 24th) and most not until the beginning of May.

American Copper

Later on I saw something zip through the yard and I had a feeling it was our first hummingbird. It eventually came down to the feeder. A male ruby throated hummingbird for sure! Always fun to see them return.

It’s always great to see the yard come back to life after a long winter!

April 24, 2025
April 22, 2025 Atwood Reservoir

I took a quick lunch time trip to Atwood Reservoir in Carver, MA based on a tip of a Henry’s Elfin that I saw on iNaturalist. It was a nice day in the mid 60’s and quite sunny with very little breeze. I had also never been and wanted to see if the swamp area was (hopefully) white cedar. Long story short on that one, it isn’t white cedar. I also didn’t find any elfins. Two strikes. However, the location is a nice quick walk around cranberry bogs and a large reservoir which has plenty of things to observe.

Parking is off of Meadow Street in Carver. It turns out that I parked across the street from the entrance, but I am not sure that it matters.

Where I parked

Actual entrance across the street

The path is initially quite narrow going alongside a river.

After a while it opens up into the cranberry bogs and from there on it is a bog road for a path.

Along the way, I saw a few Spring Azures flying around but the sun was in front of me (bad for photography) so I walked quickly down the path and then walked back slowly since the sun was at my back (much better photos).

Spring Azure

The reservoir is nice with the typical species being seen along it like swans, turtles, frogs, and probably a snake or two (although I only found a snake skin).

Mute Swans

Painted Turtles

There were several tiger beetles along the path which turned out to be bronzed tiger beetles.

Bronzed Tiger Beetles (I am guessing male and female?)

In all, the location is neat and not a complete strikeout, but I don’t see it as a huge butterfly location. I may check back later in the year though as there are alders and maples there which may mean harvesters… or not. In total, the walk was 1.5 miles or so and very flat.

April 22, 2025
April 19, 2025 MSSF and Lyman Reserve

Today we went out looking for Azures, Elfins, etc. We started the day at the gas lines on Bare Hill Road in Myles Standish State Forest. It was warm (upper 60’s) and sunny, but the winds were pretty heavy. We did manage to see several Spring Azures as expected, but no Elfins yet. Should be any day now.

At this location, I always check the puddle in the parking area for any activity. It is a good place to find Duskywings puddling if there are any around. Today there were a couple Azures and a few Paper Wasps there.

Spring Azure in mud puddle.

Northern Paper Wasp in mud puddle.

Just a reminder that when you are out at Myles Standish (and anywhere for that matter) we share the area with people with a variety of interests. Hunters, birders, butterfliers, horse riders, etc. Today we saw a couple of horse riders along the trails. It’s nice to see everyone enjoying the land.

Horse riders along the trails

From here we decided to go to Webster Springs Road to check along the gas line at that end in hopes that the wind would be less. On Wester Springs, it wasn’t bad at all but the gas lines in the area were just as bad as the other end. We did manage to get a few Azures there and noticed that the Mayflower is blooming. One of the Azures even struck a pose with it’s wings open for us! This is sort of unusual.

Spring Azure

Trailing Arbutus, aka Mayflower

From here we decided to try Doctor’s Pond Road to see if any Elfins would show themselves there. I thought this was the area that they were burning the other day, but it wasn’t. I was also pleasantly surprised to see that the cutting down of much of the vegetation they did last year didn’t really change the area that much. It’s all part of the land management, but I always worry when I see clear cutting like I did.

Doctors Pond Road.

The road had several Azures and Hover flies and other flies along it. When boredom from lack of butterflies hits, I turn the camera to other living things. I even got a couple of Palm Warblers which I had never heard of.

Some sort of hover fly

Tachinid Fly

Palm Warbler

What must have been a very large deer

On the way back to the car, we saw some flight pattern going on that finally wasn’t a fly or an Azure. It turned out to be a Juvenal’s Duskywing! It’s nice to see them early like this. We have found that the Doctors Pond area is generally a good place for Duskywings.

Juvenal’s Duskywing ventral view

Juvenal’s Duskywing dorsal view

From here we decided to give Lyman Reserve in Wareham/Plymouth a try. I had heard that there was a recent controlled burn there and wanted to see how much they did. It seemed to either be a half-hearted attempt at a controlled burn or there may be some other reason to burn so lightly, but it didn’t appear to us to have done much good. However, we know very little about the ins and outs of controlled burns so we leave that for the experts.

Lyman Reserve

We did see several Azures here but nothing else. The sun had been replaced by clouds and it was much cooler here than in Myles Standish. We did a bit of walking around, but called it a day after this. It is a nice place for a walk though.

Lyman Reserve

Overall, today we saw 68 Azures and 1 Juvenal’s Duskywing at Myles Standish and 8 Azures at Lyman. Not a bad day!

April 19, 2025
April 17, 2025 – First of the Year!

Took a solo trip to Myles Standish State Forest today to see what might be flying. I expected to see the Spring Azures and hoped to see an Elfin or two.

Note: Ticks are out! I did find one black-legged “deer” tick trying to crawl up my pants when out there. Keep an eye out!

Myles Standish State Forest entrance

At first, I went to the headquarters and over to East Head Pond to see if the Cooters were there. These are fun turtles to see basking on the logs there. There were a few, which was good to see.

Red bellied Cooter

The first butterfly location I went to was the gas line at Bare Hill Road and Kamesit. This location is well known for it’s elfins, especially in May. Today, there were no elfins to be found, but I did see 4 Spring Azures! First of the year for me in Massachusetts. Always exciting to get the season started. I also saw a mating pair of Oil Beetles that I thought were interesting.

I have decided that after taking a year off from it due to a separated rib, I will be taking out the macro lens again. This generally requires me to be in some awkward position laying on the ground or doing some wildlife photographers version of an Army crawl with onlookers wondering if I am ok, but I like the overall look of the photos. If my winter hamstring injury holds up (so far so good!) I will probably continue this throughout the summer.

Spring Azure, form marginata

Oil Beetles

After this, I decided to try the other end of the gas line off of Fearing Pond Road. This location is also quite good for Azures and Elfins. Both sides of the road are good spots.

Left side

Right side

I was able to find 6 more Spring Azures on the left side of the road and 3 more on the right side. Two of them were “puddling” right next to each other.

From here I moved on to a small road off of Upper College Pond Road called Webster Springs Road. Walking the road takes you to another location along the gas lines that is productive for Elfins come May. Today, there were 3 Spring Azures there, but not much else.

Webster Springs Road

One thing I encountered out there today was a prescribed burn. These are quite important to keep the area as a nice pine barrens and to keep wildfires from being able to get out of control. It looks destructive, but it is helpful!

One thing that annoys the hell out of me is the amount of trash that people feel the need to throw along the paths in this forest. I always carry a trash bag and do my best to pick up what I can. It is always a good idea to take along a trash bag in your pack just in case. Today I put mine to good use.

They didn’t even leave a full cold one for me.

Don’t Litter!

April 17, 2025