Our Natural Adventures

Category: Nature

  • June 1, 2025 – Breakneck Hill – Southborough, MA

    June 1, 2025 – Breakneck Hill – Southborough, MA

    Based on a report we saw on the Massachusetts Butterfly Club Google group page, we decided to go to Breakneck Hill today. We had never been and it is only an easy hour drive from home. Our target species were Silvery Blues and Northern Cloudywings.

    The weather was questionable. Although somewhat sunny, it was very windy and the temps were only in the mid 60’s. If nothing else, we would be able to check the place out and plan future trips.

    Breakneck Hill

    As soon as we got there, we found a Peck’s Skipper and another unknown Skipper laying low in the grass away from the wind. This was to become a common theme throughout the walk. The report we read said “more than 400 Little Wood Satyrs”. We know the people who reported that very well, so we had no reason to doubt it, but couldn’t imagine it. Within about a half hour of arriving, we knew it was an undercount of the amount flying there! They were everywhere. At times, we walked through clouds of them and did our best to not step on them. It was insane.

    Little Wood Satyr

    The location is, like it says, a hill. There are several trails going up and down the hill so it never gets boring.

    One of the views on the hill

    We were able to get a good lay of the land and ended up with several species seen in the end. We saw: Little Wood Satyrs, American Coppers, Silvery Blues, Hobomok Skippers (unexpected), Zabulon Skippers, Peck’s Skippers, one Tiger Swallowtail flyover, one Spring Azure, one Northern Cloudywing, one European Skipper, 2 Tawny-edged Skippers and a few dozen Baltimore Checkerspot caterpillars (photo above). A great day considering most of them weren’t flying much other than the Wood Satyrs.

    Silvery Blue

    Northern Cloudywing
    Female Zabulon Skipper and Male Hobomok Skipper
    European Skipper
  • May 30, 2025 – New and old locations

    May 30, 2025 – New and old locations

    We did something different today and decided to go to a place I found on Google Maps that looked good from the map but had no real previous reports of butterflies, most notably on iNaturalist.

    The location was Westville Conservation Area in Taunton, MA. Upon arrival, we were greeted with what could be the narrowest entry gate we have ever encountered. I wasn’t sure if the car would make it into the tiny parking lot (maybe 4 cars?). It did and luckily there was enough space to back into a spot for an easy exit later on.

    Westville Conservation Area parking lot

    Once we were settled in, we began to explore this wonderfully maintained property! The paths were wide and were all extremely low mowed grass. This was quite a treat compared to most of the places we visit. What we think was a Spicebush Swallowtail flew over the parking area when we started our walk which we thought was a good sign.

    Walking the trails is quite easy. They are lined with plants of various types. Vetch, Milkweed and other future flowering plants were abundant, but so were a lot of invasives, mainly bittersweet and roses. Although that is unfortunate, it seems like the place will still be nice throughout the butterfly season. There is a river that runs through the property and the bridges over the wet areas are brand new and perfectly stable. Did I mention it was a treat to walk around here?? 🙂

    One of the river areas on property

    We did see quite a few species of butterflies as well, although the numbers of individuals wasn’t overly impressive. Peck’s Skippers, Tawny-edged Skippers, Little Wood Satyrs (many), American Ladys, and a Cherry Gall Azure were all here. Dragonflies, Damselflies, and Ebony Jewelwings (photo above) are also abundant, especially in the wetter areas as would be expected.

    I think Tawny-edged Skipper for this. iNaturalist says Crossline. On vetch.

    There are many reasons for us to return to this property which will hopefully be revealed in a later post. Future butterflies should be abundant. We’ll see…

    From there, we went to an older area that we have walked before to see if the Silver bordered Fritillaries were flying yet. It is called the Great River Preserve in Bridgewater, MA. Although we didn’t see any Frits (it is a bit early still), we found a few common species such as Red Admirals, Peck’s Skippers, Pearl Crescents, Sulphurs and a mating pair of Viceorys which was the butterfly highlight of this location for sure.

    Mating Viceroy butterflies

    We also ran into quite a few Bobolinks. I had never seen such a bird since I generally pay no attention to the feathered friends out there. It is an interesting, almost goofy looking bird.

    Male Bobolink

    If you are in Bridgewater, you can’t end your day without a meal from Chatta Box. It is some of the greatest Thai food around! We are usually a hot mess by the end of the day and get it as take out. I am sure the staff appreciate that!

    The weekend looks like iffy weather all around with rain Saturday and possible sun, but colder temps Sunday, so we’ll see what we can find!

  • May 28, 2025 – Francis Crane WMA

    May 28, 2025 – Francis Crane WMA

    We took a quick trip to Francis Crane Wildlife Management Area in Falmouth, MA today since it was supposed to be cloudy and instead it was sunny! Not an ideal day with quite a stiff breeze going on, but temps in the upper 60’s and sun, and we are going SOMEWHERE!

    Our main target species were Cloudywings. Northern and Southern regularly appear here, although I suspect that Northern are declining somewhat rapidly at the location for some reason. We also wanted to check out the Cicadas (Brood XIV is emerging this year) and the Baltimore Checkerspot caterpillars to see how they were both doing. Turns out they are doing quite well! There were hundreds of each, so no worries there.

    Cicadas on Baptisia
    Cicada
    Baltimore Checkerspot caterpillar

    We did manage to find some Cloudywings and all were Southern Cloudywings. That was great, but furthers my concern for Northerns. One thing we did find was one Southern looking for a place to lay eggs. It was searching all over and paid no attention to us. When a butterfly does this, it is typically a female looking for a suitable host plant to lay it’s eggs on. This one did find a plant it liked and laid an egg. I was reluctant to change lenses to my macro to get a photo of the egg, but I am glad I did.

    Southern Cloudywing
    Southern Cloudywing egg

    We also managed a few other species on the walk. American Lady, Common Buckeye, Dusted Skippers (photo above) and others were seen. Another halfway decent day in the field and we were only there about a little over an hour!

  • May 27, 2025 – Zabulons are back!

    May 27, 2025 – Zabulons are back!

    We took a quick walk down at the Great Neck Audubon in Wareham today. There wasn’t a lot flying, but I was there to find the early grass skippers and not much else. I was a little surprised to find a Peck’s Skipper right away, even though it is certainly possible for them to be out already.

    Peck’s Skipper

    After a bit more walking around, we found a couple Little Wood Satyrs that are quite common in this location at this time of year.

    Little Wood Satyr

    On the way back, we found a few Zabulon Skippers. These will become quite common in the next couple weeks, but it is always fun to find the first of the year. The females are the best looking, but only the males are out so far it seems.

    Male Zabulon Skiper

    We also found the tiniest Eastern tailed-blue I have probably ever seen, it made the flower of a plantain look big! Photo above.

    A very successful trip all things considered!

  • May 26, 2025 – Cobwebs!

    May 26, 2025 – Cobwebs!

    Today’s adventure took us back to Montague, MA and Ashburnham, MA looking for various species of butterflies. The weather was MUCH better than last weekend with nice partly cloudy skies with long periods of sun and temps in the upper 60’s.

    Shortly after arriving in Montague, we found the first of several Cobweb Skippers. These are a lot of fun since they have a cool pattern and are super small.

    Cobweb Skipper

    There were even enough of them this year that I could have some fun with the photos. I have always loved the face shots, so I did one of those as well.

    Cobweb Skipper

    We even got to see a mating pair of Cobweb Skippers which was nice to see the difference between male and females.

    Mating Cobweb Skippers (male left, female right)

    There were several other species flying there today including Juvenal’s, Horace’s and Dreamy Duskywings, Tiger Swallowtails, one Dusted Skipper, etc.

    From there we headed to Ashburnham to see what we could find. This location is pretty horrible to walk and getting in and out of the location is draining. And to get there and find almost nothing is even more draining! There were a few Azures and Duskywings, but nothing much else flying. We did find one later stage caterpillar, most likely a Red-spotted Purple (as it was on cherry).

    Red-spotted Purple Caterpillar

    After leaving there with almost nothing, we decided to take a quick stop in Leominster to a location we like to check out and managed to get a Canadian Tiger Swallowtail at least.

    Canadian Tiger Swallowtail

    Looking forward to a beautiful day at home in the yard tomorrow. Things should start to show up any day now…

  • May 25, 2025 – Indians!

    May 25, 2025 – Indians!

    Despite the less than optimal weather continuing here in Massachusetts, we took a trip to Myles Standish State Forest today in search of Indian Skippers. The weather was sun and clouds coming and going with temperatures in the upper 50’s. We decided on starting at the gas lines on Bare Hill Road and that made all the difference. Along the way, we were able to find 6 Indian Skippers! One was even cold enough to climb up on my finger for warmth. I find that on these cold days, you can usually coax some butterflies onto your finger if you are patient enough.

    Indian Skipper
    Indian Skipper on my finger

    We continued on to the field that we usually see Indians at but it was really kind of dead there. Very little flying at all aside from dragonflies.

    On the way back to the car, we went through another field to look for a Common Ringlet which are common there at around this time of year. We were rewarded with finding one and a Silver Spotted Skipper!

    Common Ringlet
    Silver Spotted Skipper

    After this, we went over to another field in search of a Dreamy Duskywing. Although they aren’t super common in Myles Standish, we know a field where poplar is common. Being their host plant, it gave us the best opportunity to find one. We did find a couple Monarchs flying around and eventually finally found a textbook Dreamy Duskywing with the white spot and the longer palps. It was a really nice one!

    Monarch
    Dreamy Duskywing

    In all, it was a chilly but rewarding day! Let’s hope tomorrow can be just as good.

  • May 24, 2025 – Lyman Reserve

    May 24, 2025 – Lyman Reserve

    We led a butterfly walk today for the Wareham Land Trust at the Lyman Reserve. Although the weather wasn’t forecast to be perfect for it, we decided yesterday that we would give it a go. Overall, the weather was better than expected with sunshine, then clouds, then sunshine again throughout the walk and temperatures in the lower 60’s. So yeah, not ideal but not hopeless.

    We did manage to be able to show people some Juvenal’s and Horace’s Duskywings, a Brown Elfin and a Gray Hairstreak. It was our goal to be able to show people some of the early season butterflies that won’t be around much longer, so to us it was a success!

    An old tired Brown Elfin
    I believe this is a female Horace’s Duskywing

    We also saw a few other cool things on the property like a Golden Sweat Bee (photo above), a few Oak Leaf Rolling Weevil pupa, Blue Corporal Dragonflies, something being called a Coastal Graphic Moth and a bunch of Barrens Buck Moth caterpillars!

    Blue Corporal
    Oak Leaf Rolling Weevil pupa, I believe
    Barrens Buck Moth caterpillars
    Coastal Graphic Moth
  • May 19, 2025 Dusted Skippers

    May 19, 2025 Dusted Skippers

    Went on a quick run to Myles Standish State Forest today while the sun was still shining a bit. My goal today was to see if I could find more Frosted Elfins, Wild Indigo Duskywings, Dusted Skippers and Indian Skippers. I was successful with Frosted Elfins right away and ended up finding 5 of them in the hour I was out there.

    Frosted Elfin

    The others were MUCH harder to come by. Wild Indigo Duskywing and Indian Skippers were not found, but it is early yet. They will show up for sure. Dusted Skippers have been reported in the area recently on iNaturalist, so I was pretty sure I would find those. By the time I got to the location that I have seen them before, the sun had mostly gone away and being a rather windy day, I knew I had my work cut out for me. After a while of seeing Duskywings hoping they were Dusteds, and Pearl Crescents (photo above), I saw something flying that looked a bit different. Thankfully, it was a Dusted! In all, I ended up seeing 3 of them.

    Dusted Skipper

    For it being a short outing with less than ideal weather, I was happy with the results. I will return in about a week to see the others!

  • May 13, 2025 – Frosties!

    May 13, 2025 – Frosties!

    I took a quick trip to Myles Standish State Forest today since the weather was super nice in the low 70s and sunny but a bit breezy. It seems like it will be the last nice day here for a few days so I made the most of it.

    I went to the usual spots along the gas line and didn’t see really much exciting for a while. The Elfin activity has really slowed down, but the Duskywings are pretty active. I mainly saw Juvenal’s and Sleepy Duskywings, but also found one Horace’s which was a nice first of the year for me.

    Horace’s Duskywing

    I had dreaded having to walk the entire length of the gas line at Bare Hill Road to get to where the Frosted Elfins sometimes can be found, when all of a sudden I saw something fly towards me that was certainly an Elfin. I waited until it stopped and was able to see that it was a Frosted! I followed it for a bit and got a few photos along the way.

    Frosted Elfin

    There wasn’t much else going on other than one Pearl Crescent which was also a first of the year and a Chipping Sparrow landed in a tree right next to me so I grabbed a few shots of it as well (photo above).

    Pearl Crescent

    Now we wait to see how the weekend weather turns out. It is my birthday weekend this weekend so it had BETTER be nice!

  • May 11, 2025 – Horn Pond Mountain

    May 11, 2025 – Horn Pond Mountain

    Today we took a trip up to Woburn, MA to Horn Pond Mountain to look for Juniper Hairstreaks. The weather was nice in the mid 60’s, sunny and a bit windy.

    We arrived at around 11:30am and began the hike up the hill to the higher, much flatter ground to the area where we know the Junipers seem to hang out around the cedar trees (their host plant).

    Shortly after getting to the area with several smaller cedar trees, we began seeing the Junipers in high numbers! This year seems to have a very large flight of them as the usual numbers are just a few at a time.

    Juniper Hairstreak

    I was also lucky enough to find a very fresh White-M Hairstreak on one of the cedars.

    White-M Hairstreak

    We were joined by friends after just a little while and began searching all of the area for whatever we could find. We found 2 Black Swallowtails (photo above), a couple Eastern Tiger Swallowtails that never stopped flying, Many Juvenal’s Duskywings, a couple Pine Elfins, a couple Painted Ladys, a few American Ladys, a Gray Hairstreak, and what we counted to be more than 25 Juniper Hairstreaks.

    One Juniper was found to be ovipositing on one of the cedars and I was able to get a photo of her and one of her eggs although both photos are less quality than I would like.

    Female Juniper Hairstreak ovipositing
    All I could get of a Juniper Hairstreak egg photo

    We also saw a mating pair of Junipers!

    Mating pair of Juniper Hairstreaks

    One of my favorites was a Juniper that we saw on the road. I really like the blue scales that can be seen in the photo.

    Juniper Hairstreak gathering minerals from the dirt road

    Overall it was a GREAT day for butterflies!