Howard
County Bird Club
A Chapter of the Maryland Ornithological Society (MOS)
Field Trip: Saturday, September 03, 2011
Trip Leader: Smith, Dick
Date of Trip: Saturday, September 03, 2011
Location: Butterflies through Binoculars:
Elkhorn Garden Plot
Details: Trip was to continue to path along poweline
south of Oakland Mills Road. Note that it was pretty much
overcast during the walk (starting at 9:30 a.m.), and then we
decided to end early (around 10:30 – 11:00 a.m.) because of
a threatening thundershower at first, and then no apparent letup
in the clouds.
Number on trip: 17
Birds: Bald Eagle.
Well, it was billed as a butterfly trip...
Lepitoptera
- Butterflies
- Peck’s Skipper
- Sachem (males & females)
- Least Skipper
- Large dark swallowtail species (yellow spots on wing
margin)
- Cabbage White
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- Variegated Fritillary
- Common Buckeye
- Red-spotted Purple (perching on tall bush at parking lot,
just before I left)
- Monarch caterpillar (spotted by Richard Orr, before start of
walk) on milkweed
- Moth
- Checkweed Geometer
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More details: Some of the attendees were wondering what
butterflies really were there and that we might have seen if the
weather had been better, and so I returned and re-surveyed
between 2:15 and 3:45 p.m when the sun was out. Actually, I
covered three sites, with letter codes as follows:
- G – garden plot pathways
- P – paved pathway alongside powerline, Oakland Mills Rd
to Lake Elkhorn
- N – along BGE powerline ROW from Carved Stone (road)
northeast to paved pathway that passes through ROW
Here is my list from that effort:
- Silver-spotted Skipper (1) – N
- Horace’s Duskywing (1) – N
- Wild Indigo Duskywing (1) – P & N
- Least Skipper – all sites
- Fiery Skipper (2) – G (on butterfly bush at parking
lot)
- Peck’s Skipper – all sites
- Sachem – all sites
- Crossline Skipper (2) – N
- Pipevine Swallowtail (1) – N (on thistle along
eastern edge of ROW 2/3rds of way from Carved Stone to paved
pathway)
- Black Swallowtail – G (1 female, ovipositing on young
carrot shoots)
- Eastern Tiger Swallowtail – N (1 male, 1 dark
female)
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- Spicebush Swallowtail – N (1 male, 1 female, on
thistle)
- Cabbage White – all sites
- Clouded Sulphur (1) – P
- Orange Sulphur – several, G & P
- Red-banded Hairstreak (1) – P
- Eastern Tailed-Blue – a few, G & P
- Pearl Crescent (1) – N
- Variegated Fritillary – several, G & N
- Common Buckeye – all sites
- Monarch (1 adult) – N
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