yuri_pirogov's Favorites

Colt Creek butterfly count with Linda Cooper, Rob Epstein, and Delia Smith in our party. There were three other parties. We drove mostly unpaved roads in the southern portion of the state park, east to its boundary at the powerline cut (the state park is much larger than I realized; at nearly 6,000 acres!). The weather at the start was sunny and 77 degrees ("feels like" 77) with a light breeze. Deer Flies, mosquitoes, and humidity were non-existent. Owing to the drought, butterfly numbers were mostly low, but we had fairly high diversity (35 species for our party). Multiple records of the same species, especially Southern Skipperling (7 records, plus 22 records of 7 other skipper species) and Carolina Satyr (15 records), represent different individuals. We left at 1602, when the weather was sunny and 90 degrees ("feels like" 90), with a light breeze.

The totals for our party of four -- not all seen by me -- follow:

Zebra Swallowtail -- 2
Black Swallowtail -- 7
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail -- 3
Palamedes Swallowtail -- 4
Great Southern White -- 1
Cloudless Sulphur -- 1
Little Yellow -- 6
Sleepy Orange -- 4
Gray Hairstreak -- 6
Ceraunus Blue -- 4
Gulf Fritillary -- 25
Phaon Crescent -- 15
Pearl Crescent -- 9
Common Buckeye -- 9
White Peacock -- 4
Viceroy -- 4
Appalachian Brown -- 4
Carolina Satyr -- 48
Gemmed Satyr -- 2
Monarch -- 2
Queen -- 4
Dorante's Longtail -- 9
Northern Cloudywing -- 2
Horace's Duskywing -- 2
Zarucco Duskywing -- 2
Tropical Checkered-Skipper -- 4
Southern Skipperling -- 75
Fiery Skipper -- 25
Whirlabout -- 4
Southern Broken-Dash -- 3
Northern Broken-Dash -- 2
Delaware Skipper -- 2
Monk Skipper -- 1
Twin-Spot Skipper -- 3
Brazilian Skipper -- 3 (caterpillars only)

7 hours, 4 miles walked

Birdwise for Polk County, I added one new species (Yellow-crowned Night-Heron) and two new photographed/audio-recorded species (Tufted Titmouse! and Eastern Bluebird).