2018 Wings Over White Salmon

The Butterfly Study Weekend

And what a glorious weekend it was. Although it was not the conference that we thought it would be when the Board first decided on the location. We had originally thought of Bird Creek Meadows of Mt. Adams fame being the focus of study. As the spring and early summer progressed, concerns were raised about accessibility to the meadows. There was a devastating fire in 2015 that totally ravaged the western and southern flanks of Mt. Adams. As with many other sites, we had anticipated that as the trees burned off the meadows would flourish and so would our butterflies. Numerous scouting trips indicated that the burn was much more severe than originally thought. The result was that the Yakama Nation had wisely shut off public access to their Tract D of public recreational land. Three scouting trips to the area revealed no butterflies to speak of.

The group gathered for our traditional Friday night introduction brilliantly done once again by David James. We held out hope for a good weekend of seeing about 30 species of PNW butterflies. The next morning we left Mountain View Grange for what looked to be a near 100°F day. We headed west into Skamania county and up off the Columbia River bound for the South Meadow Prairie Complex near the Big Lava Beds recreational area. It seemed we mis-timed our visit as many of the nectar sources had already dried up. As the group spread across the meadows, we found Swallow- tails and Western Meadow Fritillaries. But by far, our best sighting was our young butterfly enthusiasts chasing down numerous species and putting them in netted cages for all to see.

After an hour or so, we caravanned over to Peterson Prairie for lunch, a rest stop, and hopefully some butterflies. The two meadows were filled with several species of fritillaries, wood nymphs, Anna’s Blues, and California Tortoiseshells. The Meadows turned out 34 species of butterflies for our enjoyment. And the young lepidopterists were able to chase down butterflies to their hearts content. As the afternoon progressed and the temperature rose, the group decided to split. Some sought out heat relief, while others went back down to the south end of Big Lava Beds hoping – but to no avail – to find the Golden Hairstreak; as this is the only place in Washington where it occurs. The rest of us headed north into the upper Huckleberry fields hoping to find hill-topping fritillaries.

As we reconvened at the Grange for our dinner we had an opportunity to hear from Mr. Tom Landis, a retired forester from Medford, OR. He spoke about what some of the good folks are doing to help Monarchs along their migratory routes through southern Oregon. His work was super inspirational and we thanked him for his insights.

On Sunday morning, we met in Hood River for a twelve-plus car caravan heading 30 miles south to the Mt Hood Meadows Nordic Ski center. We were able to spread across the flowered ski runs to search for butterflies. We found many of the same butterflies as we did the day before but added the Sonora Skipper, a Two Banded Checkered Skipper, a lot of California Tortoiseshells, as well as Hydaspe and Coronis Fritillaries. But the find of the day was an American Painted Lady (the only Vanessa of the weekend). After lunch we visited Sahalie Falls and, understandably, the folks with the longer trips home departed. We tried a second location along the ridge of Bennett Pass and found many of the same butterflies. After, we were headed back towards Hood River but turned up National Forest Road #44 towards Dufur. We drove for five miles before stopping near the Dog River Meadows and found Western Sulphurs, Mormon Fritillaries, Great Arctics, and more before deciding we were hot and tired. Overall, Mt Hood yielded up 34 species – the same count as Skamania county the day before.

On Monday morning those who could stay embarked on an adventure up to Muddy Meadows on the NW side of Mt Adams. When the group stopped for photos at the Baby Shoes overlook towards Mt. Adams, the east-facing slope warmed up and we found Checkerspots, Purplish Coppers, and Swallowtails out nectaring. Our next photo stop at Big Springs waterfall, also brought out 8 species in a very short order, including a Sylvan Hairstreak. We stopped for lunch at Tahklakh Lake with a gorgeous view of Mt. Adams across the way, all the while accompanied by Tortoiseshells.

Muddy Meadows, a large complex of subalpine meadows, was our final destination. Here we found more Fritillaries, Meadow Fritillaries, Anna’s Blues were numerous, and we noticed many little skippers flitting about. The skippers were a new species to several of us and we spent a good deal of time photographing them and trying to puzzle them out. It turned out that we had found a colony of Mardon Skippers, which are a Washington Endangered Species. In the end, the day yielded 23 species, we headed home and started anticipating the Slate Peak field trip in two weeks to come.

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