On June 17th, 16 WBA members visited Swakane Canyon on a field trip led by Dave Nunnallee. The weather wasn’t ideal, nor was the rough canyon road, but the butterflies were spectacular. All the rain this winter blessed us with a bounty of water in the area, which meant large numbers of butterflies were puddling in the runoff in this canyon. Someone commented that we should have brought chairs and just sat in awe at the changing patterns of colors, shapes and interactions of the different species. In fact, Jo Nunnallee did so and enjoyed watching the show. We saw 31 species including the Dreamy Duskywing, Common Checkered Skipper and Arrowhead Blue, new species for several people. A new butterfly was detected for this area on our trip, the Pacuvius Duskywing. It was a great day for viewing wildlife in this beautiful area, camaraderie, and, of course, the butterflies.

Watch Al Wagar’s videos of the trip….

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