Big Butterfly Year: Glorious Day at The Ridges, Athens

Yesterday was a fabulous day to go butterfly hunting. I made three stops: The Ridges, the Zaleski backpacking trail at SR 56, and Hope Furnace. For the uninformed, The Ridges is where I did my graduate research in botany (mid-90's) and is the former Ohio State Mental Hospital property. Needless to say, a lot of history there. A part of that history is my great, great Uncle Pearl who was a resident of the hopsital and died there. The story, according to Great Aunt Freida, was that Pearl had been committed by his wife. She then ran off and married another guy and died shortly thereafter. According to Aunt Freida, the law at the time was that only the person who signed you in could sign you out, so Uncle Pearl was stuck there. Apparently the hospital administrators allowed him to go fishing in the nearby Hocking River. One day Pearl did not return to his room. His body was found the next morning under the Richland Avenue bridge. He is buried in the "New Cemetary" just above Dairy Lane.
Observed 21 species at The Ridges, including seven new species for the Big Butterfly Year: Common Checkered Skipper, American Snout, American Copper, Tawny-edged Skipper, Little Wood Satyr, Least Skipper, and Hobomok Skipper. Most of these newbies I picked up on the southern section of The Ridges along Cemetary Trail.
At the SR56 stop, I didn't see many butterflies, but amazingly picked up another new species, Viceroy. I do not normally see a lot of butterflies there, but I do tend to see unusual things there. As example, at this site is the only place I have ever seen a Little Yellow.
At the Hope Furnace site, didn't see anything new, other than a large group of bikers belonging to the Christian Motorcyclists Association. Did see one of the largest puddle parties I have ever seen though. I will include a pic here.