Our Natural Adventures

Tag: bugs

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 30, 2025
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 28, 2025
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 27, 2025
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 26, 2025
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 24, 2025
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 13, 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 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