Author Archives: CBSAdmin

Cowpens National Battlefield and Blue Wall Preserve, SC – April 16-17, 2016

Doug Allen was our trip leader for both days. In attendance on Saturday Were: Dennis Forsythe, Jeff Kline, Paul Seibert, Sherry Robertson and Dave Kastner. April 16 started at Cowpens National Battlefield followed by a walk to Thicketty Mountain and then a walk at Caroland Farms. April 17 began at Doug’s neighbor’s in Inman, SC followed by a trip to Blue Wall Preserve. In attendance on Sunday were: Jeff Kline and Dave Kastner.

April 16
Cowpens National Battlefield (Cherokee County)

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail 15
Spicebush Swallowtail 1
Sleepy Orange 1
Red-banded Hairstreak 8
Spring Azure 1
Azure species 10
Eastern Tailed-Blue 5
Pearl Crescent 8
Variegated Fritillary 2
Carolina/Intricate Satyr 7
Satyr species 1
Silver-spotted Skipper 1
Juvenal’s Duskywing 8
Sachem 1
Skipper species 1

Thicketty Mountain (Cherokee County)

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail 6
Spicebush Swallowtail 1
Pipevine Swallowtail 2
Black Swallowtail 1
Falcate Orangetip 2
Red-spotted Purple 1
Northern Cloudywing 2
Hoary Edge 10 (Cherokee County Record)
Silver-spotted Skipper 1
Juvenal’s Duskywing 6
Sleepy Duskywing 12 (Cherokee County Record)
Duskywing species 1
Common Roadside-Skipper 1 (Cherokee County Record)

Caroland Farms (Spartanburg County)

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail 2
Spicebush Swallowtail 2
Zebra Swallowtail 2
Swallowtail species 1
Sleepy Orange 1
Juniper Hairstreak 1
American Lady 4
Red Admiral 1
Carolina/Intricate Satyr 3
Juvenal’s Duskywing 2
Skipper species 1

April 17
Doug Allen’s neighbor, open field and roadside (Spartanburg County)

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail 14
Clouded or Orange Sulphur 8
Pearl Crescent 2
American Lady 1
Variegated Fritillary 1
Red-spotted Purple 1
Carolina/Intricate Satyr 3
Juvenal’s Duskywing 1

Blue Wall Preserve (Greenville County)

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail 73
Spicebush Swallowtail 2
Swallowtail species 4
Orange Sulphur 1
Azure species 3
Eastern Tailed-Blue 1
Eastern Pine Elfin 1
White M Hairstreak 1
Pearl Crescent 8
Carolina/Intricate Satyr 6
Silver-spotted Skipper 10
Juvenal’s Duskywing 7
Dreamy Duskywing 1
Duskywing species 11
Zabulon Skipper 2

Marty

Midlands Chapter – Peachtree Rock, Lexington, SC, March 19, 2016

On March 19, the Midlands Chapter went to Peachtree Rock in Lexington , SC. The site had had a recent burn and the sand-myrtle (Kalmia buxifolia) that would have been in bloom had been destroyed. Along the burned over trail they saw a dozen or so small brown butterflies, possible Duskywings of unknown type as they were very quick and always on the move. At the northern edge of the road of the recently acquired property that had been spared of the burn they spotted some Common Buckeyes. Jerry Bright lead the trip and created the following list:

March 19, 2016
10:00 A.M. – 2:20 P.M.
Temperature – mid 60’s to low 70’s
Participants – Jeff Kline and Jerry Bright
Distance walked – ~ 4.5 mi (GPS)

1 – Eastern Tiger Swallowtail female dark form
4 – Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
4 – Brown Elfin
1 – Red Banded Hairstreak
5 – Common Buckeye
12+ – Duskywing sp.?

Dave & Marty Kastner
Blythewood, SC
Richland County

Midlands Chapter – Carolina Sandhills NWR and Cheraw State Park, April 3, 2016

It was sunny with a light breeze. The temperatures ranged from 54 degrees at 10:00 to about 65 degrees around 3:30. Some of us butterflied until around 5:00. In attendance were Dennis Forsythe, our leader, Bobbie McKutchen, Bud Webster, Jim Tobalski and Dave and Marty Kastner.

Carolina Sandhills NWR

Black Swallowtail 1
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail 8
Spicebush Swallowtail 9
Palamedes Swallowtail 10
Spring Azure 1
Azure species 10
Pearl Crescent 2
American Lady 3
Common Buckeye 3
Juvenal’s Duskywing 7
Sleepy Duskywing 1
Duskywing species 8
Dun Skipper 1

Cheraw State Park

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail 10
Spicebush Swallowtail 2
Palamedes Swallowtail 12
Spring Azure 1
Azure species 5
Henry’s Elfin 1
Eastern Pine Elfin 1
Pearl Crescent 1
American Lady 17
Common Buckeye 17
Carolina/Intricate Satyr 2
Juvenal’s Duskywing 6
Duskywing species 10

Marty Kastner

Triad Chapter – Bethebara, Winston-Salem, NC March 12, 2016

Triad butterflies,

Given the late notice of our field trip and the cloudy and cool weather forecast, we had a good turn out of 8 people for our first Triad Chapter butterfly walk of 2016. We met at Harriet McCarthy’s butterfly garden in Historic Bethabara in Winston-Salem. The morning actually was both warmer and sunnier than predicted.

Only a few plants were blooming; there were a few early one in the garden and several wildflowers (all non-natives) in the mowed lawn. They were attracting native bees of various species but no butterflies.

We had a nice walk of a mile or a bit more through the historic vegetable garden recreation, around the adjacent settlement grounds, and along the nearby greenway. We saw a Cabbage White, a second white butterfly that was too far away to identify, one Orange Sulphur, two azure species, and an Eastern Comma. Our walk was accompanied by the singing of Upland Chorus Frogs and American Toads.

Attached is a photo of one of the azures that paused long enough for the photographers in the group to grab a few shots. This one is by Ann Walter-Fromson. Any guesses about whether it’s a spring or a summer azure?

Dennis

Azure, Photo taken March 12, 2016 at Bethebara.

Midlands Chapter – SI Group, Orangeburg, SC, September 19, 2015

As usual, it was a hot and mostly sunny day in The Hundred Acre Woods at SI Group. An occasional breeze felt great. Diane Curlee organized our walk and Arthur Sweatman from SI Group was our leader. We had some new folks on our walk. Some of them were Master Naturalists. Attendees were: Diane Curlee, Hilda Flamholtz, Chris Talkington, Kelly Pulaski, Ellen Dounne, Susan Creed, Sally and Dick Work, Pam Floyd, Yvonne Clemmings, Carl Ganser, and Dave and Marty Kastner.

Palamedes Swallowtail 10
Black Swallowtail 1
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail 10 (2 dark females)
Sleepy Orange 19
Cloudless Sulphur 21
Great Purple Hairstreak 4
Red-banded Hairstreak 1
Gray Hairstreak 10
Gulf Fritillary 17
Variegated Fritillary 15
Red Admiral 3
Common Buckeye 14 (+ 2 caterpillars)
Red-spotted Purple 8
Viceroy 2 (1 ovipositing on Willow)
Goatweed Leafwing 8 (+ 20 caterpillars)
Pearly-eye species 3
Carolina/Intricate Satyr 38 (2 mated pairs)
Satyr species 1
Horace’s Duskywing 1
White Checkered-Skipper 4
Least Skipper 2
Southern Skipperling 2
Fiery Skipper 7
Whirlabout 8
Sachem 1
Dun Skipper 7
Zabulon Skipper 2
Clouded Skipper 2
Ocola Skipper 1

28 species
222 butterflies

Marty Kastner

Congaree State Park NABA Count: Calhoun County East – Sept 14, 2015

Date: 14 Sept. 2015
Loc: Calhoun Co. East
Obs: Donna and Dennis Forsythe
Time: 1115-11215; 1400-1600 hours
Effort: 18 mi
Coverage: Purple Martin Marsh, Wise Rd below Ft. Motte, Lang Syne Rd, Lone Star Rd, St Matthews City Park and vicinity
Weather: 70-82 f, clear, N wind
Roadsides and ditches in agricultural areas clean, no habitat for butterflies, Checkered White probably extirpated from area.
Species:
E. Tiger Swallowtail 8 including 1 dark and 1 intermediate female
Spicebush Swallowtail 1
Palamedes Swallowtail 4
Cloudless Sulfur 60
Little Yellow 1
Sleepy Orange 30
Red-banded Hairstreak 2
Gray Hairstreak 2
Eastern tailed-Blue 8
Summer Azure 1
American Snout 2
Gulf Fritillary 25
Variegated Fritillary 20
American Lady 1
Common Buckeye 2
Pearl Crescent 2
Red-spotted Purple 15
Viceroy 1
Monarch 1
Silver-spotted Skipper 3
Long-tailed Skipper 3
Horace’s Duskywing 2
Zarucco Duskywing 8
White Checkered-Skipper 6
Clouded Skipper 1 very worn
Southern Skipperling 2
Fiery Skipper 15
Whirlabout 1
Dun Skipper 1
Ocola Skipper 4
Dennis
—
Dennis M. Forsythe PhD
South Carolina Ebird Reviewer
Emeritus Professor of Biology
[email protected]

Congaree State Park NABA Count: Calhoun County – Sept 14, 2015

Hi All,

Here are our results from the Congaree Bluffs HP portion of the Congaree NP NABA Count.

Date: 14 Sept. 2015
Loc: Congaree Bluffs Heritage Preserve
Obs: Donna and Dennis Forsythe
Time: 1215-1400 hrs
Effort: 1 mi
Species:
E. Tiger Swallowtail 3
Spicebush Swallowtail 1
Zebra Swallowtail 1
Cloudless Sulfur 9
Little Yellow 7
Sleepy Orange 18
Eastern Tailed-Blue 3
Summer Azure 1
American Snout 1
Gulf Fritillary 20
Variegated Fritillary 25
American Lady 2
Red Admiral 1
Common Buckeye 3
Pearl Crescent 3
Red-spotted Purple 15
Hackberry Emperor 2
Carolina/Intricate Satyr 20
SIlver-spotted Skipper 1
Zarucco Duskywing 3
White Checkered-Skipper 4
Clouded Skipper 1
Fiery Skipper 3
Crosslne Skipper 1
Zabulon Skipper 4
Dun Skipper 1

Dennis
—
Dennis M. Forsythe PhD
South Carolina Ebird Reviewer
Emeritus Professor of Biology
[email protected]

Pettigrew State Park, NC NABA Count – Sept 5, 2015

Folks:

Saturday (Sept. 5), nine brave butterfliers defied questionable weather forecasts to count butterflies in the Lake Phelps area in Washington and Tyrrell counties. Though the rain pretty much missed us, and the mostly cloudy skies weren’t much of a factor, the strong NE winds from 12-18 mph made things difficult, especially in the wide open fields north of the lake. It was probably the windiest count we had ever been on.

Thankfully, we split up into 6 parties, so the final tally makes it appear like the count was a great success (45 species is average, and 50 would be a real success.) Though butterfly numbers are up from the past two years, skipper numbers are still low, especially for various wetland species, and some skipper species had presumably already finished their broods by Sept. 5. Thanks to Ed Corey for recruiting folks for the count and helping out; thanks also to Lori Carlson and John Jarvis, to Elisa and Nick Flanders, to Signa and Floyd Williams, and to Salman Abdulali for helping with me. Here are the totals, with a few comments:

Zebra Swallowtail 12
Black Swallowtail 2
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail 57
Spicebush Swallowtail 16
Palamedes Swallowtail 148
Cabbage White 6
Orange Sulphur 194 good count
Cloudless Sulphur 360
Little Yellow 1 rare in the region, and first record for Washington County
Sleepy Orange 707
Great Purple Hairstreak 9 good count
Gray Hairstreak 63 good count
Red-banded Hairstreak 17
Eastern Tailed-Blue 2
Summer Azure 27
Gulf Fritillary 1 rare in the region
Variegated Fritillary 14
Pearl Crescent 176
Question Mark 2
American Lady 4
Painted Lady 1 scarce in NC this year
Red Admiral 32
Common Buckeye 134
Red-spotted Purple 22
Viceroy 25
Southern Pearly-eye 9
Creole Pearly-eye 1
Carolina Satyr 17
Common Wood-Nymph 4
Monarch 5
Silver-spotted Skipper 220
Long-tailed Skipper 1 scarce in NC this year
Horace’s Duskywing 4
Common Checkered-Skipper 12
Common Sootywing 7
Clouded Skipper 5
Least Skipper 74
Fiery Skipper 223
Southern Broken-dash 1
Little Glassywing 1 photo documentation for confirmation; scarce in this region
Sachem 9
Zabulon Skipper 1
Dion Skipper 3
Dun Skipper 3
Lace-winged Roadside-Skipper 2
Ocola Skipper 52

Total: 46 species

Harry LeGrand
Raleigh

Forsyth County NABA Count – August 22, 2015

For our annual count preliminary numbers, we now have 49 species and 607 butterflies. I’ve been through all of my images but will send a couple off to Harry L for confirmation. But I don’t think the numbers will change much more. We apparently missed a couple that were around (folks sent me photos from Reynolda Village on Sunday of a Juniper Hairstreak and a Long-tailed Skipper which we missed). We also found no Anglewings which doesn’t surprise me. They have been scarce since early summer. One short power-line cut which is mowed once a year in Bethabara, provided some of my favorites, Swarthy, Crossline, Tawny-edged, Dun, and Delaware Skippers mixed in with a lot of Sachem.

We covered mostly western (Tanglewood), northwestern Pfafftown, Bethabara, and Bethania areas. We didn’t have enough personnel to cover Tanglewood and parts of Walnut Bottom Bethania Saturday. A couple of our butterfliers were missing on vacation. Maybe next year!

At any rate, these are very good numbers for here for any time of the year, especially in a poor butterfly season. Thanks to all who participated, even a couple of pop-in helpers contributed to the cause.

Good Count,
Gene S

North Buncombe NABA Count – Aug 20, 2015

Count held Thursday, August 20, more than two weeks later than previous counts. Weather was great; mix of sunny, partly cloudy, cloudy, five minute sprinkles. High in low 80s.

This ties our 2012 high count of 55. We had three BFs new to count (Sleepy Orange, Zarucco DW, Tawny Emperor), and missed two (Silvery Checkerspot and Hayhurst Scallopwing) that we had on all previous counts. Sachem, SSS, ETB, and Pearl Crescent numbers were high counts. Our total individual count was highest ever at 2626.

We had 9 participants, six walking Sandy Mush gamelands and 3 driving other areas. Big thank you to Doug Johnson, Joe Tomcho, Vin Stanton, Simon Thompson, Nancy Cowal, Janie Owens, Ruth Young, and Sue Perry.
Compiler – Gail Lankford

Pipevine ST – 3
Black ST – 9
Tiger ST – 46
> Spicebush ST – 13
> Cabbage White – 23
> Clouded Sulphur – 7
> Orange Sulphur – 19
> Cloudless Sulphur – 33
> Sleepy Orange – 1
> Little Yellow – 5
> Am. Copper – 1
> White M HS – 1
> Gray HS – 10
> Red Banded HS – 3
> ETB – 208
> Summer Azure – 9
> Gulf Fritillary – 1
> Variegated Frit – 25
> Great spangled Frit – 20
> Meadow Frit – 4
> Pearl Crescent – 426
> Question Mark – 5
> E. Comma – 2
> Am. Lady – 4
> Red Admiral – 10
> C. Buckeye – 65
> Red-spotted Purple – 16
> Viceroy – 7
> Hackberry Emperor – 2
> Tawny Emperor – 6
> No. Pearly-eye – 40
> Gemmed Satyr – 9
> Carolina Satyr – 14
> C. Wood-nymph – 4
> Monarch – 3
> SSS – 382
> Hoary-edge – 9
> So. Cloudywing – 1
> No. Cloudywing – 2
> Horace DW — 3
> Wild Indigo DW – 27
> Zarucco DW – 1
> Common Checkered Skipper – 3
> Common Sootywing — 1
> Swarthy Skipper – 14
> Clouded Skipper – 4
> Least Skipper – 20
> Fiery Skipper – 5
> Peck’s Skipper – 3
> Tawny-edged Skipper – 5
> Crossline Skipper – 14
> Little Glassywing – 3
> Sachem – 1127
> Zabulon Skipper – 22
> Dun Skipper – 26