July 9, 2022

Washington has had a rollercoaster ride this butterfly season with a lengthy cool, wet beginning, then hot hot hot weather beginning in July. Upon scouting the French Cabin Creek area the week prior to the scheduled trip, few flowers were seen and only two Pale Swallowtails were detected. In general this season, many locations have been two weeks behind in plant and insect emergence. Rather than heading to French Cabin Creek, participants were invited to visit Reecer Canyon instead. With sites at elevations from 2,900 ft. to 5,500 ft., butterfly sightings seemed promising. And we were not dis- appointed. Tall Buckwheat was abundant at the lower sites, while Northern Buckwheat and Sulphur Buckwheat were seen further up. At the highest site, the meadow was flush with the lavender of allium blooms. Our enthusiastic WBA members detected 26 species by day‘s end. While we had a good diversity of species, the abundance was lower. Coronis Fritillaries were sighted in good numbers at all elevations on their altitudinal migration from the senesced shrub steppe. Also seen were: Mountain Parnassian, Lilac-bordered Copper, 5 Blue species, 4 Swallowtail species, Hoffmann‘s and Snowberry Checkerspots, Julia‘s Orangetip, Large Marble, Field Crescent, and others. We all agreed that being together in the field once again with other WBA members, some we hadn‘t seen since 2019, topped off the day‘s outing.

Follow-up trip to French Cabin Creek July 21, 2022

Several of the Reecer trip participants took me up on an offer to visit French Cabin Creek two weeks later. We were delighted to find flowers and butterflies in good numbers. The dirt road had received a dousing of water from road graders working in the area. This resulted in nice puddling activity. 25 species were seen including the Indra Swallowtail and 4 other Swallowtails, Edith‘s Checkerspot, Snowberry Checkerspot, Hoffmann‘s Checkerspot, Zerene Fritillary, Great Spangled Fritillary, Two-banded Skipper. The entertainment of the day was a mated pair of Snowberry Clearwing Moths attempting awkwardly to nectar. It was a grand day in the field for all.

Watch Al Wagar’s video of the trip.

All photos by Melanie Weiss.

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