Antennae Up in the Methow Valley

It’s natural that the Methow Valley should buzz with butterfly fans; Okanogan County boasts more species than any other county in the state. This July saw more flurry than usual, as local Lepidoptera enthusiasts happily welcomed David James and his family when the Methow Conservancy invited him to deliver a “First Tuesday” lecture and lead a field trip.

David’s new book, co-authored with David Nunnallee, was the reason for his visit. On July 10, he explained the painstaking compilation of Life Histories of Cascadia Butterflies to an appreciative audience of over 50 people. The

following day, 20 lucky participants with advance reservations assembled for David’s field trip on the road to Slate Peak.

As always, the entire James family contributed to the trip; Jasmine and Rhiannon netted several species that the group would otherwise have missed. The caravan of cars progressed slowly along the road, stopping for open meadows and a productive seep in the roadbed. Late-melting snowbanks kept the group from attaining the peak; lunch was had at the last drivable parking lot amidst a glory of glacier lilies but very few bugs.

David’s visit attracted attention in the local online news format Methow Grist. Writer Sheela McLean described his lecture, his book, and his work with monarch larvae-rearing at Walla Walla penitentiary. She emphasized the allure of Slate Peak’s Melissa Arctic, and that species’ refusal to cooperate for the larvae book. Probably Methow residents will now be seen lurking in wait at Slate Peak, hoping to capture a gravid female for the two authors. – Joyce Bergen

Summary of 2012 Field Season

After a slow beginning at Schnebly Coulee with Dave Nunnallee (cold and cloudy, few butterflies), Umtanum Ridge, again with Dave (24 species), Snow Mountain Ranch with David Droppers (11 species), and soggy trips at the Wings Over Eden conference, the weather warmed and our field season kicked into high gear.

Chumstick Mountain, June 30. For our annual 4^th of July count, the forecast was 80% chance of thunderstorms. But they missed us and the weather was glorious. Parties attacked the mountain from three routes—Derby Canyon and Eagle Creek from the west and Swakane Canyon from the east. None of us were great at identifying butterflies on the wing, especially blues and frits. But we counted at least 24 species with an estimate of over 500 individual butterflies. – Al Wagar

Spokane area, July 7. John Baumann and Brenda McCracken led a group of more than a dozen people on a short butterfly walk on a new Inland Northwest Land Trust area called the Carder-Hanson Easement. The land is situated overlooking

Lake Coeur D’Alene’s Cougar Bay. Despite blistering heat, the group located nine species of butterflies, including what seems to be North Idaho’s first known colony of the European Skipperling, Thymelicus lineola. – John Baumann

Reecer Creek, July 14. Led by Bob Hardwick, a large group of our members returned to a favorite location, Reecer Canyon. We invited Issaquah Alps Trail Club members on this trip. Dave Nunnallee was interviewed for an article in their quarterly, The Alpiner. Six of their members joined us, and several were beginning to ID some of the butterflies as the day progressed. We were also joined by two home schooled families. This meant we had five enthusiastic young people leaping after our fluttery friends. Thunderstorms had been forecast, but not until 2:00pm, so we left with high hopes and were well rewarded, seeing 41 species at locations which included a variety of habitats and altitudes. The Great Arctic and Lilac-bordered Copper were new to some of us. We saw five species of hairstreaks: Sylvan, California, Half-moon, Behr, and Coral. Right on schedule at 2:00pm the clouds rolled in and it began to thunder. However, it never rained, and we finished the day amazed at our numbers. – Melanie Weiss.

Hurricane Ridge, July 24. The Hurricane Ridge Trip was a joint field trip with the Olympic Peninsula Audubon Society, with 24 of us looking for butterflies, birds and wild flowers along the Hurricane Hill trail and the Obstruction Point Road. The flowers were spectacular, especially the lupines, larkspurs, paintbrush, phlox and lilies. Even though it was sunny the butterflies were still trying to warm up from the previous cool week so not the variety we had anticipated, but 15 species were seen in all including on the road back to the bottom. Being in a national park we were unable to use nets.

The spectacular views with the foreground of flowers make this a very special place. – Idie Ulsh.

Quartz Mountain, August 4. In scouting the trip, Maureen Traxler found the road washed out 10 miles from the summit. Dave Nunnallee described another route, with no guarantee that it wasn’t also washed out. But Maureen said we’d find butterflies en route, even if blocked part way to summit. To our delight, Pine Whites were swarming all over the Ponderosa Pines at our first stop, the Indian John Hill Rest Area. At Gnat Flat butterflies were concentrated on the widely scattered clumps of goldenrod, there being few other nectar sources. As we gained elevation we saw both Parnassians and, at the summit, saw the Thicket Hairstreak (a new find for the area) and the Arctic Fritillary, new to many of us. All told, we found 37 species. Thanks, Maureen. Great trip! – Al Wagar

Sauk Mountain, August 11. Colin Doan led a group of 9 butterfliers up the stunning flower meadows of Sauk Mountain. We netted a variety of bugs along our way including: Clodius Parnassian, Western Meadow Fritillary, Mormon Fritillary, Purplish Copper, Vidler’s Alpine. At the top, hot and hungry, we stopped for lunch and views. After hiking a bit further, we were surprised to find an Arctic Fritillary and a Margined White. Tired, dusty and satisfied with a fine hike, we reached the parking lot and were treated to cold watermelon by Colin and his dad, Paul, a great cap to the day! – Melanie Weiss

Sheep Lake: On September 1, an eager group of butterfliers headed out to Sheep Lake on the Pacific Crest Trail just outside of Mt. Rainier National Park. The air was quite cool, but it warmed as well as we did on the sun-drenched trail. Our enthusiastic leader, Bob Hardwick, was on the hillside netting a butterfly almost immediately. It was about two miles to the lake basin. We saw several species along the way including a Blue Copper, an Arctic Fritillary, and a stun- ning Red Admirable, new to a few of us. The lake basin is surrounded by meadows that rise to high rock faces. We relaxed for lunch, roamed the meadows, and one brave soul went swimming in the lake! Bob noted that the butterflies were not as abundant as in the past, but we kept busy netting additional species including the Great Arctic, the Mariposa Copper, the Boisduval’s Blue. The Great Arctic is found along the dry stream bed each year (odd and even years).

Great Arctics are generally seen in even years, so this is an unusual population. We had a close up view of both the Hoary Comma and the Green Comma for comparison. In all, we saw 14 species! We left this beautiful area thinking it would be good to revisit Sheep Lake next year! – Melanie Weiss

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