May 31, 2025

By John Baumann, Trip Organizer

When our group of seven WBA members had concluded our search of the “Rustler’s Gulch Trails” near Horseshoe Lake, my first thoughts focused on gratitude for the unique fellowship that WBA creates for us. I’d expect that, like myself, most of us find the experience of solitude in the diverse natural habitats where our Washington state butterflies live to be deeply nourishing, yet I saw that our sense of community is also vital. I looked over our list of sightings that day at the end of the trip, twenty-some species, while high-fiving our other group members, and thought, we are really much stronger and better together.
I’d like to think that I can manage my perimeter with my net deftly enough to catch many a cool bug that dares approach me, but I never would’ve expected to see Cheryl bounding like a gazelle down dusty tire ruts fast enough to track and capture the single, high-flying Christina’s Sulphur we saw that day. Nor would I have expected Hailey to return to her hidden niche along our trails to fetch one of the Two Banded Checkered Skippers she’d seen earlier, so that the sighting of this little sprite, in a jar, could be shared by all of us. Us East-siders do not get to see P. ruralis often at all. No doubt many others also saw and learned much that was new through the sharing that spontaneously arises when we walk together.
This damp, streamside habitat was just turning from spring towards summer season, an ideal time, so that we got to enjoy some of the loveliest insects of the season, including a brilliant, large Northern Checkerspot, several Western Arctic Skippers, a few Lorquin’s Admirals, and some elusive swallowtails, along with a host of fresh Blues, and several worn Elfin species, some of indeterminate identity. We were disappointed to learn that seeming Eastern Tailed Blues that we’d netted were in fact more heavily marked variants of the abundant Western Tailed Blues that must have been there to feast on all the legumes we were finding here. All in all, though, a wonderful experience, all the better to have shared it with friends.

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Feature photo of Horseshoe Lake by Cheryl Bellin