Carolina butterfliers,

The Carolina Butterfly Society Triad Chapter hosted a butterfly field trip in the hope that Triangle butterfliers would join us in Cedarock Park south of Burlington in Alamance County, NC. The park is about half way in between the Triad and the Triangle. In addition to several folks from the Triad, we did have two people from the Triangle, as well as one from the Charlotte area and one from Greenville, South Carolina.

It was a nearly perfect day for looking for butterflies. In our area the low numbers of butterflies in 2014 seem to be repeating in 2015 so far, so we didn’t have high expectations. Consequently, when we ended the morning with 68 butterflies of 16 species, we were happy. We even saw a couple of grass skippers, a group that has been scarce this year.
In addition to seeing a reasonable assortment of butterflies, we heard several Wood Thrushes singing, saw an American Toad and heard Cricket Frogs, encountered several species of dragonflies, and even spotted an Eastern Garter Snake. All in all, it was a fun outing.
Below is out butterfly list for the day.

Dennis Burnette

Alamance County, NC, Cedarock Park, 5/16/15

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail 3
Spicebush Swallowtail 1
[Unknown dark swallowtails 2]
Cabbage White 3
Orange Sulphur 2
Sleepy Orange 1
Azure sp 34 (oddly no Eastern Tailed-Blues)
American Snout 2
Silvery Checkerspot 2
Pearl Crescent 3
Red Admiral 1
Red-spotted Purple 5
Hackberry Emperor 1
Gemmed Satyr 2
Carolina Satyr 3
Northern Cloudywing 1
Zabulon Skipper 1
[Unidentified dark grass skipper 1]

Species 16; Individuals 68