Field trip report: Butterflies along the Beeline Highway by Ron Rutowski
About a dozen butterfliers travelled up the Beeline Highway on Saturday, March 24, in spite of anticipating very low numbers of butterflies due to the lack of rainfall this winter. The plants certainly showed the effects of the lack of rain with very few blooming annuals and little evidence of new leaves on Desert Hackberry and Chaparral Beardtongue plants. Nonetheless we were not shut out and managed to see 15 species with some notable highlights. We had excellent views of the Yucca Giant Skippers and a Rocky Mountain Duskywing (county record!) in the creek bed in Sunflower Valley, and saw a large number of Brown Elfins foraging on willow catkins. All-in-all a worthwhile trip. Here are the details on the species we saw with rough counts of the number of each in parentheses.
Round Valley (3 species)
Sara Orangetip (3)
Variable Checkerspot (2)
Empress Leilia (4)
Old Sunflower Road (13 species)
Pipevine Swallowtail (5)
Two-Tailed Swallowtail (1)
Dainty Sulphur (1)
Spring White (3)
Sara Orangetip (3)
Brown Elfin (7)
Zela Metalmark (1)
Acmon Blue (1)
Sagebrush Checkerspot (10)
Satyr Comma (2)
Yucca Giant Skipper (2)
Golden-headed Scallopwing (2)
Rock Mountain Duskywing (1)
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