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…
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 SkipperIndian 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 RingletSilver 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!
MonarchDreamy Duskywing
In all, it was a chilly but rewarding day! Let’s hope tomorrow can be just as good.
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 ElfinI 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 CorporalOak Leaf Rolling Weevil pupa, I believeBarrens Buck Moth caterpillarsCoastal Graphic Moth
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.
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 ElfinThe Hoary Elfin enjoying a bearberry flowerAn 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 EverlastingAmerican Lady ovipositing on Sweet Everlasting
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 AzureTrailing 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 flyTachinid FlyPalm WarblerWhat 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.
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!
Our Natural Adventures 