Butterflies in short Supply

The Athol Bird and Nature Club used to take the summers off as birds were busy with nesting activities and members headed off for sunny beaches or focused on the home garden. The rising popularity of insect watching as led to a plethora of summer workshops and local trips in search of Butterflies, Dragonflies and other interesting members of the smaller world.

Saturday was one of those workshops. A dozen members and new friends joined Susan Heinricher and I at the Millers River Environmental Center for an overview of butterfly identification and then we were off to a local milkweed filled field for what I had hoped would be some great viewing of our local butterflies.

The flowers were abundant, the butterflies were not. The list included Monarch, Viceroy, Tiger Swallowtail, Great Spangled Fritillary, Common Ringlet, Summer Azure, Silver-spotted Skipper, Delaware Skipper and Little Glassywing. But instead of dozens of each species we only encountered about 20 individual butterflies and those we really had to work for, Perhaps the months of rain and wet weather has stressed our local populations. The best thing about insects if their ability to rebound, Able to lay hundreds of eggs at a time a bad season can be quickly
made up when conditions improve.

A subset of the group not saying "Uncle" traveled to my old stomping grounds of Tully Lake. Sharing the wet spillway meadows with the Disc Golf enthusiasts we quickly found American Copper and dozens of our target species the Bog Copper.
Aphrodite and Silver-bordered Fritillary were added to the days list, but as the group made its way along this wet open meadow a shift to Odonates began to emerge, The Variable Dancer Argia fumipenis, Slender Bluet Enallagma traviatum Calico Pennant Celithemis elisa, Halloween Pennant Celithemis eponia, Common Green Darner Anax junius, Spangled Skimmer Libellula cyanea, and dozens of my favorite little dragonfly the Elfin Skimmer Nanothemis bella

The real star of the show for me were several Eastern Red Damsels Amphiagrion saucium.
These diminutive damselflys have escaped detection locally for both Lula Field and I. Our friend Earle Baldwin has claimed finding them at two local locations (I guess now I'll have to concede and quit giving him grief) At any rate the Odonates saved the day and we wound up with a respectable list of these wonderful creatures...

Today we are off to the Ware River Watershed in Central Mass. This relatively unkown 24,000 acre area is part of the DCR Division of Water Suppy Protection's Quabbin Region. Skies are clearing after yet another rainy night... Who knows what will catch our eye today... Stay Tuned