A small group of three winning bidders from last year’s conference in Moscow came way back east to take a look at early summer butterflies at a very different sort of habitat in Lincoln, Co. Washington. I met the group in Ritzville Saturday morning early enough that we were able to enjoy two stops in some of our best local scabland habitat: Upper Crab Creek south of Harrington, WA, and Twin Lakes BLM land, about 20 minutes west of Harrington.

Temperatures had moderated from the scorching heat early in the week, and conditions were sunny and breezy. Our 20 plus species included the Ruddy Copper, Euphilotes Blues, the uncommon Silver-bordered Fritillary and an explosion of some 60-70 Painted Ladies at the Upper Crab Creek site. A very early Zerene Frit also appeared. I was delighted to see that the little Silver-bordered Frits have survived the drought so far this year, but their marsh has surely dried almost to nothing. It made my day when we paused to look out over the Lake Creek Gorge as we left for the day, and one our attendees, Maureen Traxler, commented, “You know, this place is really beautiful”. So it is.

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