Between Storms

Clear Creek near flood stage.

Harvester

Summer Azure

Brutal storm this morning.  Lots of rain, lightning, thunder.  Thankfully nothing like what happened in Joplin, MO.  Weather report was calling for bad storms later today so I ran over to Clear Creek after finishing chores and the sun came out.  For a short trip (only two hours) I did pretty well.  Thirteen species, 102 individuals, and three new species for the BBY, one of which there was no guarentees of seeing this year.  The best of the three, the Harvester, is a cool butterfly, in that it is the only butterfly in North America that is carnivorous.  The caterpillar stage feeds on Alder aphids.  The other two newbies were Wild Indigo Duskywing and Summer Azure.
  Clear Creek was as high as I've ever seen.  In places it was just a foot or two from the road.  Also, in places it had covered the trail, but as the afternoon went on, the river started to go back down.  So, on the trip out in places I was having to jump from one side of the trail to the other, not the case on the trip back.
  As I am typing this the weather radio has gone off, announcing a severe thunderstorm warning for tonite.

Marie Desonier Nature Area



south entry to the Oak Ridge loop trail



beaver pond

Mushrooms.  I forget what these orange ones are called.

Amber-winged Spreadwing

Pepper and Salt Skipper

Carolina Satyr

  Had a chance to run down to Marie Desonier Nature Area in eastern Athens County before my son and daughter's band concert this afternoon.  I really do like Desonier.  It has a wide variety of habitats, including early succession, mature woods, wet woods, beaver pond, etc.  The only aspect I don't like is the last mile of the road which is gravel, which is a little tricky with a street bike.  Today the parking lot was actually clean!  Usually there is a handful of beer bottles laying around.
  The first half (north, I think) of the two mile loop trail had great wildflowers and fungus.    The back half of the loop is the better butterfly and dragonfly habitat.  Saw a new damselfly, the Amber-winged Spreadwing, at the beaver pond.  I was also surprised by the large number of moths that were active.  Got no moth pictures.  Uncanny.  I think they were very perceptive of the sound of the lens extending on the camera.  I would turn on the camera and away they would fly.
  As for butterflies, saw 13 species with two new bugs, the Carolina Satyr and the Pepper and Salt Skipper.  Got to watch a Pipevine Swallowtail lay eggs on pipevine.  Was very surprised not to see Red Admiral or Comma as the habitat there would be great for these.  Even made a second trip down the trail along the creek thinking maybe it had been a little early my first trip through.  I was also hoping I may find Red-banded Hairstreak.  Found one at Desonier last year on May 10, but no luck this 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.

Pearl Kline r.i.p.

former Ohio State Mental Hospital

Little Wood Satyr

American Copper

puddle party at Hope Furnace

The Ridges

  A total of 23 species for yesterday.

Pre-Rain Dash

Today was supposed to be motorcycle maintenance day.  Changed the oil first thing this morning, and then was shceduled for a 10AM front tire replacement at ASK Suzuki in Lancaster.  Sadly the father of the mechanic there passed away last night which means no new tire today.
  So, instead I took advantage of the short-lived sunshine and went to the Big Pine rapelling area in Hocking County.  Big Pine is NOT known as a butterfly hotspot, but I wanted to go someplace different, and didn't want to waste my limited sunshine driving, so I stayed close.
  Even though I didn't not get any new species for the BBY, I did enjoy the visit and saw some cool stuff.  The Big Pine area is known for huge puddle parties of swallowtails and today was true to form.  At the entry into the parking lot was a puddle party of roughly 20 swallowtails, all Tigers except for a lone Spicebush.  There were also several Juvenal's Duskywings puddling in the parking lot.
  Perhaps the most exciting find was when I got back to the parking lot and noticed a puddling moth!  Had never witnessed that before.  And this moth was new to me.  Obviously some sort of sphinx, but which one?  Turns out to be Nessus Sphinx.  Did some research to find it had never been reported to BAMONA from Hocking County, so a county record to boot!  In fact, very few moths have been reported to BAMONA from Fairfield or Hocking counties (we live right on the line).  I may need to go through moth lighting pics from the last two years and report some more county records.  Some folks had tried to convince me to add moths to this year's efforts and I initially poo-poo'ed it.  I may be rethinking that decision!

Swallowtail puddle party

Spicebush Swallowtail

Nessus Sphinx

  Today's species list: Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Spicebush Swallowtail, Juvenal's Duskywing, Pearl Crescent, Meadow Fritillary, Eastern Tailed Blue, Comma, Question Mark, and Silver-spotted Skipper.