It was a bit early and cool for our first two trips, May 4 to Deception Pass and May 11 to Frenchman Coulee, with only 7 and 8 species seen, respectively, and not many of them. But it was clear and beautiful at Deception Pass, and at French- man Coulee, Cliff Hassell gave a great orientation and explanation of the Ice Age floods that carved the landscape.

Butterflying perked up greatly for our conference at Goldendale, covered elsewhere, and the Mananstash Ridge trip was outstanding with Dave Nunnallee taking us to a number of mudding spots with lots of puddling parties and good num- bers for many of the 33 species seen.

For the June 29 “Fourth-of-July” count on Chumstick Mountain, Murphy’ Law was in full operation: three people missed signals and thus the trip, and we had thundershowers instead of the sunny weather and 80-degree temperatures that were forecast. Then, log- gers had intentionally blocked the road the Derby and Swakane Canyon groups needed to reach our planned rendezvous at the summit. At the little stream and ponds in lower Swakane Canyon, two carloads of young men were already shooting across the ponds.

With butterfly nets no match for rifles and shotguns, we nevertheless ran them off. (Actually, when they learned it was an important area for us, they very kindly moved a quarter mile down the road.) Despite Murphy and all the quirks, the ten participants new or nearly new to butterflying all had a great time. Our stats for the day were an estimated 604 butterflies of 35 species seen, with over half of these on the Entiat route.

A twist on the traditional Butterfly on the Nose photo. Loke the spaniel, with a sulfur. Photo by David Branch, her owner, at Quartz Mtn.

Some 10-12 participants in the Inland Northwest Land Trust Butterfly Walk saw 18 species of early summer butterflies on June 15, including the less common Cedar Hair- streak, not yet officially recorded for Spokane County. This lakeside habitat in Mt Spo- kane’s foothills offered some good day moths, too, including the Elegant Day Moth.

It was another great day for the 4th of July Butterfly Count at Little Pend Oreille NWR. One particular species of note is the Dun Skipper. This is the not only the first county record but only the second confirmed record for the species for Eastern Washington. Thanks to everyone for participating and thanks to John Baumann for getting the ID confirmed with Jon Pelham at the University of Washington’s Burke Museum. By the way the 32 species and 10 observers compares to 25 species seen by 5 observers last year. Everyone had a great time again and we are tentatively planning on Saturday July 12, 2014 for next year.

Those of us who banded together for the Audubon Butterfly Walk on July 13 at Mt. Kit Carson were rewarded by much more than the sightings of lots of interesting and beautiful butterflies and moths, mountain scenery and even some very good bird sightings: we met a really fun bunch of people. Members of the group found butterfly numbers reduced com- pared to last year but still quite varied. In addition, there were some really interesting day moths.

Quartz Mountain, July 20, was again a great trip, with butterflies out in good numbers, especially Fritillaries, Checkerspots, Fire- rim (Milbert’s) Tortoiseshells, and Blues, but enough others for a final count of 42 species seen. From the top we had gorgeous views of Mts Adams and Rainier and the valleys below.

Bean Basin was a stiff, uphill hike for the two miles we covered, with 15 of us (including all five of the Jameses) spotting 24 spe- cies. The weather was perfect and butterflies were out in good numbers, especially blue coppers, fritillaries, checkerspots, several species of blues, halfmoon hairstreaks, and Lorquin’s admirals.

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