John Jarvis and I conducted our first butterfly ID class for children at Few’s Ford (Eno River State Park, Orange County) followed by an hour long butterflying session. The class was made up of two families and seven kids ranging in ages 3-10.

Though the peak of the butterflies at the site had passed, the children were able to see many Great Spangled Fritillaries, and a very tame Juniper Hairstreak perched on a daisy, as well as the easily sighted Azures and Eastern Tailed Blues. All of the kids quickly caught on to spotting butterflies and moths in the environment. One of the older children, Alexander, called out to us he saw a butterfly and it turned out to be an elusive Anglewing. A new world of exploration had been opened up to them. By the end of the hour’s walk I teased them by asking if they would be up for doing it for six hours as we always need participants for butterfly counts. While there wasn’t a lot of enthusiasm for the duration, many were interested in helping for a couple of hours.

Together we saw the following butterflies:

American Lady 6
American Snout 6
Anglewing sp. 3
Azure sp. 7
Carolina Satyr 6
Great Spangled Fritillary 18
Gemmed Satyr 2
Juniper Hairstreak 5
Eastern Tailed Blue 8
Tiger Swallowtail 6
Spicebush Swallowtail 3
Silvery Checkerspot 5
Sulphur sp. 2
Zabulon Skipper 6
Zebra Swallowtail 1

~ Lori M. Carlson