Falcate Orangetip Field Trip

[jhimmel at connix.com]

This was sent to me by Thomas Dodd who led a butterfly trip to West Rock for his 
Massachussetts organization.  Thought some of you'd be interested.  Don't 
forget, the CBA has a trip going there next Saturday(10AM) led by Larry Gall.

John Himmelman



Hi folks,

We had a field trip to West Rock Ridge State Park in New Haven, CT today 
(4/25/99 10:30AM-2:45PM - 55F at start - perfect cloudless day!). Cathy Dodd, 
Dave Small, Dolores Price and myself attended. We walked into the park from 
the Wintergreen Lake entrance (I hadn't been in this entrance before). We 
decided to just walk a dirt road to the ridge beyond a water tower. We found 
a Box Turtle (pretty cool!), Am Toads singing, and a couple Wild Turkeys. We 
also saw a few Spring Azures and Juvenals Duskywing - but no Orangetips.
We then drove to the main entrance (a mile or so south on Wintergreen Ave) 
and walked the paved switchbacks to the ridge. Good numbers of Yel Rump 
Warblers and Ruby Cr Kinglets were seen. Not too much for butterflies were 
found until we got to a fork in the road near the top. We went to the right 
and searched the fields and saw a few species of butterflies, but most 
species were found following the road to the left. We found 1 female Falcate 
Orangetip along the road here! It was not flying much, so we all got good 
looks at it. Initially it was observed nectaring on some violets. Our search 
for others (especially a male) was not successful. At the top we also found 
Gray Hairstreak, Juniper Hairstreak, Brown Elfin, numerous Mourning Cloaks 
and then 3 Tiger Swallowtails following the ridge line. A few raptors (Br 
Wing Hawk, Merlin, Kestrel, RT Hawk and TV) were also seen. A very successful 
trip!

Spring Azure (form unknown) 12
Spring Azure (form Marginata) 1
Juvenals Duskywing 10
Cabbage White 4
Gray Hairstreak 3
Eastern T Blue 2
Mourning Cloak 10
Juniper Hairstreak 2
Tiger Swallowtail 3
Brown Elfin 1

regards,
Tom



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John Himmelman
Killingworth, CT USA
jhimmel at connix.com
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