Missouri River - 5/2/02

Mark Walker MWalker at gensym.com
Sun May 5 00:32:15 EDT 2002


On Thursday, May 2nd, I drove west of St. Louis under very dark and ominous
skies.  We had a short rain delay at the Cardinals-Marlins game the night
before (and Luis Gonzales hit his first two home runs as a redbird), but the
worst of the hail/tornado/thunderstorm would hit Illinois just a few miles
to the east that very morning.   
 
This is known as the "Show Me" State, so I decided to take it up on its
proposition.  With only a few hours to work with, I couldn't plan on doing
much driving - so I headed for the Missouri River, about 30 miles upstream
from where it joins the mighty Mississippi.  Originally, I was heading for
the Butterfly House, but the horizon to the west was looking friendlier than
I'd seen it in over 48 hours.  Could I expect to find any leps?  Not likely
- especially since the temperatures had plummeted from near 80 F to in the
mid 50's.  But I'm always willing to be surprised.  It's so much more
pleasant than being disappointed.
 
I ventured off into the forest where things were greening up nicely.  Spring
has sprung in this part of the U.S., and it was looking like a very good
time and place to be a caterpillar.  The cloud-covered sky was starting to
break up, and to my great surprise it wasn't long before I saw a female
Orange Sulphur (Colias eurytheme) bounding about and looking for some action
(I'm not quite sure what sort of action she was looking for, but I supposed
it would have something to do with getting her motor warm and running).
Soon there were more, and eventually even a lone male showed up on the
scene.  I couldn't detect any sort of smile on his face (and, in fact, had
trouble finding his face at all), but I supposed he must be feeling very
happy indeed...
 
By noon there was an abundance of Everes comyntas (Eastern Tailed Blue)
flying about the surrounding pastureland - it appeared that they were
freshly emerged.  There were thousands of them (5,376 to be exact), by far
the most common butterfly on the wing during this cold and rainy day in the
central Midwest.  I took a few immaculate pairs (the females were quite
gorgeous, with several sporting a bit of a blue tint to the otherwise gray
dorsal ground color), but continued to enjoy them as they flew up from the
grass by the dozens.
 
I saw Vanessa atalanta (Red Admiral), Phyciodes tharos (Pearl Crescentspot),
and Calycopis cecrops (Red Banded Hairstreak) also flitting about.
Epargyreus clarus (Silver-spotted Skipper) was zipping around, and a lone
gorgeous female Erynnis horatius (Horaces's Duskywing) was my highlight.
 
There was also a pretty little green spotted Tiger Beetle flying about.  I
brought two of them home as well.
 
I was hoping for more time in this part of the country, but work has got my
chain and it's got precious few links these days.  Seeing anything at all
(and successfully taking off from the airport) was good luck enough.  Next
time I suspect I'll see more, assuming it's still as motivated to "Show Me".
 
Mark Walker
Back at home in Oceanside, CA
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