Man of Many Interests

Trumpet Creeper

American Germander

Hoary Edge

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

Northern Metalmark

July 6, 2013
On Saturday July 6 I took a break from wildflowering (not really) and spent some time lepping (butterflying).  As the title of this blog post implies, I am a man of many interests.  Sometimes I view this as a curse rather than a blessing, although I know deep in my heart that it is the latter which is true.  I just never seem to get a restful moment because I am always pursuing an interest.

On this day, the other interest was the annual Athens County Ohio Butterfly Count, a project tied to the North American Butterfly Association's July 4th butterfly count project.  This year I had a whole new set of counters, including some students from the Athens Middle School Science Club.

Of course, I could not totally ignore the wildflowers, and at our first stop, the Ohio University research garden on West State Street, I added two new species, Trumpet Creeper and American Germander.  But this day was officially for butterflies.  We had quite a few Cabbage Whites and Orange Sulphurs, to be expected considering the weedy nature of the site.  But when we arrived at a prairie reconstruction project along the bike path that parallels the Hocking River, we began to pick up some new species, including Great Spangled Fritillary, Zebra Swallowtail, and Tiger Swallowtail.

Our second stop, after a yummy and nutritious lunch at Wendy's was The Ridges.  By the end of our time at The Ridges, most of the counters were tired or had other obligations.  So I went on alone to the final stop, Trimble Community Forest near Glouster.  At this site I added several new butterfly species including Spicebush Swallowtail and Hoary Edge.  But the prize of the day was toward the end of my visit at Trimble.  The excessive amount of rain leading up to the count had left the trail up the side of a hill very muddy.  Coming down the hill proved to be a rather treacherous adventure.  Nearly at the bottom of the hill, my right leg started to slide out from under me.  I ended up with my left hand in the mud supporting me and my face grimacing in pain.  I had been having some trouble with my right knee for two years, but this summer had proven to be especially hard on the knee.  Sliding down the mud encrusted hill on it proved about more than it could handle.

As I stood cursing the hillside, a small brown butterfly briefly appeared before me, sitting on Ox-eye Daisy.  My initial thought was a metalmark, but in Ohio those are quite rare, and I did not get that good of a look.  I was able to relocate the little guy on a nearby maple leaf.  Nearby!  Perhaps 20 feet away.  Metalmarks are notorious for being very aware of their surroundings.  I knew that any movement on my part would most likely accomplish at least one of two things: me falling in the mud again, and the scaring away of the butterfly. With the camera, I zoomed in as close as I could without sacrificing all resolution and snapped a picture, which not worthy of any photo awards, but good enough to confirm the bug as a Northern Metalmark.

Wounded but excited by my metalmark find, I limped back to the truck.  The day had yielded 32 species of butterflies, considerably better than I was expecting, since excessive rain tends to keep butterfly numbers down and it had rained for several days prior to the count.  However, the best part of the day was turning young people on to the beauty and excitement of butterflies!