Thursday, May 18th, marked the conclusion of our 3rd annual butterfly class, “Finding Inland Northwest Butterflies”, at the Act 2 program of Spokane community colleges. 10 people attended the class, and made a 3 hour field trip along the Little Spokane River into Rutter Canyon, where we located 10 species of butterflies, including three hairstreaks, three blues and two swallowtails. We also saw two pairs of silver blues mating. Our more experienced birders were able to identify several Lazuli Buntings as well! Regrettably, the tiny “mascot” that was hatched shortly before the conclusion of the class has not survived: I tried to nurture the tiny first instar larva of an Anise Swallowtail we had been able to watch ovipositing near our class building a few weeks ago, but the little fellow proved to have no appetite for the fresh Gray’s Lomatium leaves he’d been laid upon.

The following Sunday, Brenda and I returned to the same Rutter Canyon locale with a group from the Native Plant Society. These folks knew their plants and birds, but had never studied butterflies much, and made very attentive students in the field. This trip revealed a greater diversity of Blues, and the low elevation population of Common Alpine had also begun its flight. In all, we located 16 species, and again found the lovely Lazuli Buntings. Both of these groups of students were amazingly adept using their nets, and learning to identify our various butterfly species. Although our diversity this season significantly decreased from last year, we are still finding lots of interesting butterflies in this ever-changing habitat, now in its second season recovering from fire.

Friday, May 19, Melanie Weiss led a “flash field trip” up Waterworks Canyon near Yakima, to replace one that was cancelled due to poor butterflying weather the previous weekend. Cold, hail, lightning, drizzle—all bad. Friday was great though, with temperatures in the 70s, and bright sunshine blinding the Westside butterfliers who have endured near-daily rain since late January. Seventeen species of leps were spotted that day, including Indra Swallowtails, Large Marbles, and a Common Sootywing. To say nothing of the bighorn sheep (50-100, depending on who was counting) and the Lazuli Buntings.

Then on Saturday, June 3, Melanie led another group across the swinging bridge over the Yakima River to Umtanum Canyon near Ellensburg. Great butterflying weather again, and nearly 20 species spotted. Many blues again, including Acmon Blues; 4 species of yellow swallowtails; Purplish Coppers, oodles of ringlets, a Perseus Duskywing, and one lonely Sheridan’s Hairstreak nectaring on pineapple weed. Mary McCallum brought a kid’s bug jar that was received with some amusement at first, until people realized how well the magnifier in the lid works. The incessant rain on the Westside, between the Waterworks Canyon and Umtanum field trips, had switched binary-fashion from All On to All Off so the Westsiders were a bit better acclimated to the hazy-bright sunshine, and we were glad to see Jim Reed emerge from the record snowbanks of Klickitat. No bighorn sheep, but Mary saw a gopher snake, Reg spotted dace (fish) in the creek, and there were plenty of Cedar Waxwings, Yellow-breasted Chats, and more Lazuli Buntings.

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