Leonard's Skipper

Steve Walter SWalter at nyc.rr.com
Mon Sep 3 19:41:52 EDT 2001


Let me throw a wrinkle into the theories of Leonard's Skipper habitat.
Yesterday, I visited the best site on Long Island (maybe the best in the
world) for the species. I got a count of 46 (I didn't try as hard as in
previous years). The habitat is dry grasslands adjacent to pine - oak woods
(pine barrens). So obviously, very different from the wetter habitats that
support Joe Pye-weed. Upland Sandpipers and Grasshopper Sparrows nest in the
open grasslands. In between the grasslands and woods is an area of what you
might call savannah. There are scattered pines and some cedars. In between
the trees are grassy areas of varying size. The grasses are low to medium
height. Especially noticable is Wild Indigo (not in bloom at this time, but
the host for Wild Indigo Duskywing and Frosted Elfin) and what I think is
bush-clover (which would be your purple flower - and they do nectar on it).
The second best site on Long Island that I'm familiar with is somewhat
similar (no Uppies or Grasshopper Sparrows), but the purple flower is a
rarity - Blazing Star. This second site sometimes has off the wall numbers
of Frosted Elfin and Cobweb Skipper. The first site on the other hand, is
one of two sites I know of for Dusted Skipper on Long Island. Sounds like
I'm going astray with this, but the point is that we're talking about
relatively undisturbed native savannah type grasslands.

Steve Walter


More information about the Ctleps-l mailing list