Leonard's Skipper
Clay Taylor
CTaylor at swarovskioptik.com
Tue Sep 4 09:45:05 EDT 2001
All -
To echo Steve's findings -
For about the past four years, I have been promising John Himmelman that
I would write an article for the CBA Newsletter about the "Bluestem Trio",
and how locations that harbor Cobweb Skipper or Dusted Skipper in the spring
often yield Leonard's Skipper in the fall. Every Cobweb spot I have found
in CT subsequently has Lennies, and many of the Dusted spots as well.
He's right - a savannah type grassland is what I was clumsily trying to
describe in my pervious post.
46!!!! Way cool! Where is the location? (you can contact me off-list
if you want).
Clay Taylor
ctaylor at att.net
----- Original Message -----
From: "Steve Walter" <SWalter at nyc.rr.com>
To: "CT-Leps" <CTLEPS-L at lists.yale.edu>
Sent: Monday, September 03, 2001 7:41 PM
Subject: Re: Leonard's Skipper
> 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
>
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