LOTS of butterflies (and some other insects too)

 I have several posts planned about my experience at the Biggest Week in American Birding; however, I'm already interrupting that to talk about a recent, fabulous day of butterflying.

For several years now, my wife and I have been joining butterfly counts sponsored by the North American Butterfly Association. These counts are similar to the Audubon Christmas Bird Counts. Except they are in the summer instead of around Christmas. And of course, looking for butterflies, not birds. So maybe not all that similar. But in each, teams go out defined areas year-after-year and count all the individuals they can find and identify. 

This year, our first count was at Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge. We were on the Jericho Ditch team with two others and had the opportunity to drive along some of the ditch roads. It was an overcast day which kept the heat down to just hot, instead of oppressive like much of the rest of the week had been. 

A mix of Eastern tiger swallowtail and Palamedes
swallowtail butterflies in the parking lot

The great butterflying started as soon as we entered the parking lot. Knowing it would be hot and sunny, I started towards the corner that has the best chance for shade throughout the day. But two crowds of butterflies were puddling on the ground blocking access. So I let them do their thing and settled for one of the sunny spots left for the humans. The puddling gave us about 30 individuals across 5 species to kickstart the count. When we returned to pick up lunch, the count was up to around 80 individuals. We had to rely on bird count estimates of a flock instead of counting individuals. You block off what is about 10 individuals and map that across the whole flock to get the estimate. Not something you normally need to do for butterflies.

Our team started the day on Hudnell Ditch and the butterflies kept coming. There was a regular stream of Palamedes and about half as many tiger swallowtails. And then there were the great purple hairstreaks all over the blooming cleatha. This was a new butterfly for me and I definitely saw my fill of this gorgeous insect.  

The wings are a dark black with bits of iridescent blue on the forewing when closed and near the body on the hindwing. Near the body there are multiple red spots. The tails of the wings turn outwards and have a mix of white and blue markings. The body is mainly black with white spots but the abdomen is a bright orange. 

Great purple hairstreak

Great purple hairstreak showing the orange abdomen

The flared out tail bits are quite unusual; this is the first species I remember seeing that in. When the butterfly was on the back side of flowers it led to some interesting views.

The tail of the great purple hairstreak looking list the head of another bug

Also on our list were red-banded hairstreaks, several Horace's dustywings, and a nice variegated fritilary.

Red-banded hairstreak

Horace's dustywing

Variegated fritilary

We ended the count with 20 species identified and over 250 individual butterflies counted. 

But the day wasn't just butterflies. We also saw several cool non-butterfly insects. First up was this robber fly that impersonates a bee: a southern bee-killer.

Southern bee-killer (a robber fly)

There were several dragonflies. I was able to photograph a few for identification. [Guess dragonflies might be my next identification rabbit hole.]

Widow skimmer

Eastern pondhawk

We also saw a nocturnal lepidopteran, better known as a moth, hanging under a wing right next to the car at one of our stops. It is a very striking moth.

Pink-striped oakworm moth

Pink-striped oakworm moth

And let's not forget the birds that were around. I didn't get any photographs but there were several prothonotary warblers moving around throughout the day. A male hooded warbler came in really close and gave us great views while feeding. White-eyed vireos were calling as was a yellow-billed cuckoo. And at the very end we saw a prairie warbler working high in the trees.

It was another great day out counting butterflies. And I only have a few dozen fly bites to show for it ☺Next post I will return to the amazing festival birds.