Euro Skippers

[Peary D. Stafford, Jr.]

	I had read about the huge concentrations of European Skippers 
possible at times but wasn't prepared for what happened as I went to 
check out some fields at Steep Rock yesterday.  Driving up a dirt 
road, suddenly there were skippers everywhere, puddling in the road, 
swirling about and nectaring on every flower visible along the side 
of the road. At one point I was sort of engulfed in an orange cloud 
and actually had to stop driving in order to avoid committing 
Skippercide.  There had to have been tens of thousands of the little 
beasts in one stretch of about 100 yards.
	Toward dusk we went into the fields to see if there was a communal 
roost somewhere and couldn't find one.  It appeared as if they had 
all dispersed throughout the field, as anywhere you looked there were 
a dozen or so just attached to stems about 6-12 inches down in the vegetation.