We were finally able to visit the Nemasket River Village Archaeological Preserve together! It is a place I wrote about a couple weeks ago when I scouted it one afternoon. The weekends have been so terrible this spring that we haven’t had a lot of adventures together, so it was nice to finally be at it again.
The day turned out to be quite nice weather-wise. I am not quite sure of the temperature, but it was comfortable, upper 60’s probably and mostly sunny.
The first time I scouted the area, I found a lot of Long Dash skippers, so I expected to see a bunch again today. There were less than I had expected, but the skipper activity was quite high along all of the trails with a few surprises thrown in.
We saw Cabbage Whites, Peck’s Skippers, Long Dash Skippers, European Skippers, Least Skippers, Zabulon Skippers, a few Red-banded Hairstreaks and a Monarch! We also were able to see a couple Red Admiral caterpillars on False Nettle.
I also spotted a Garter Snake (photo above) which was perched up in the high grasses. I’m still not sure how it was keeping itself up there.
The place is a bit of a gem that seems to be lightly visited, so it will most certainly be a place we check out throughout the season.
Red-banded HairstreakMonarchLeast SkipperCabbage WhiteMating European Skippers
I went to a couple places in Middleboro, MA today to see what I could find. I don’t go there often, so I waited for a nice warm and sunny day. It was well into the 70’s and sunny, although hazy from the Canada wildfire smoke, I’m told.
The first place I went to was the Peter Oliver House which has trails behind it that lead to the Picone Farm fields which the town just recently bought. I had hoped for Least Skippers in the fields, but no luck with that. It is a little bit early, but I have seen them at this time in years past. As soon as I got on the trail, I came across a female Zabulon Skipper. A good sign, I thought…
Well, the rest of the trail, including the beginning portion where we see Red Admirals pretty regularly, had nothing. When I got to the field, I wasn’t overly impressed either. What usually has a lot of skippers at the very least, had only a few Tawny-edged Skippers and a couple Zabulon and Peck’s Skippers. I did have one Monarch flyover and found what iNat is telling me is an Argus Tortoise Beetle (photo above). Not much to speak of.
Tawny-edged Skipper
On the way back, I took a different side trail which is something that they have cut out since the last time I went.
The two trails with the new one to the right.
This trail led to a different part of the field. As I got to the end of it, I did have a Red-spotted Purple fly over and land near me which was great since it was the first of the year for me.
Red-spotted Purple
In that part of the field, there was much of the same as the other part. A couple skippers and not much else.
From here, I went over to the Oliver Mill area to see what might be there. One Peck’s Skipper. I’m out.
I remembered there was a spot that is relatively new to the public nearby. It is called the Nemasket River Village Archaeological Preserve.
The area immediately looked cool with a lot of fields and nicely mowed paths.
I started up the trail and immediately saw some skippers which were a lot brighter orange than others I had seen. I assumed correctly that these were Long Dash Skippers. I saw several of them along the sides of the trail. They are a nice looking skipper and probably using the Vetch that is throughout the fields as a host plant. Just a guess.
Long Dash on vetch
I didn’t come across a lot of other species here, but the area looks to be certainly worth a revisit in the near future. I did find Zabulons, Peck’s, Pearl Crescents and a Common Ringlet. I also found one Baltimore Checkerspot caterpillar. That was a nice surprise.
We’ll see what tomorrow brings. The temperature is supposed to be well into the 80’s for the first time this year. Maybe it will pop out some nice new species!
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 CloudywingFemale Zabulon Skipper and Male Hobomok SkipperEuropean Skipper
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 ovipositingAll 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
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 blueberrySpring 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 AntsAllegheny 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 AzureSummer 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!
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.
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 parkedActual 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 SwansPainted 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.
Our Natural Adventures 