This summer WBA volunteers performed three butterfly surveys at Wolf Haven’s Patrick Dunn Prairie in Thurston County. The last survey for the 2023 season was on August 12, when most flowering plants had senesced. We hope to return once or twice earlier in the spring of 2024 when additional butterfly species and flowering plants are present as our first survey was in late May. The 50 acre mima mound prairie is comprised of prairie grasslands, Garry Oak savanna, and wetlands.

It provides habitat for a variety of prairie fauna and flora, including Golden Paintbrush (Castilleja levisecta), rare and endangered in WA. Mary McCallum, our flora queen, created a list of flowering plants seen on each visit. Our volunteers were focused on the task at hand, and all enthusiastically shared their sightings and knowledge on each visit. As a result, in addition to butterflies and plants, we were able to give Wolf Haven the IDs of a few bees and moths that were detected.

We were respectfully limited in the number of volunteers who could move about in this critical habitat, and only netted when ID was not possible. On our May visit, the Puget Blue, a subspecies of Boisduval’s Blue, Icaricia icarioides blackmorei, were flying. This was a new taxon for most present. We also explored an area bordering nearby Rocky Prairie where we found two additional species not seen at Wolf Haven, but probably fly there. Surveyors participating were Melanie Weiss, Mary McCallum, Cathy Clark, Liz Kuehn, David Droppers, Tanna Knouse, Paulette Murphy. As some of us had not previously visited a South Sound prairie, surveying was enjoyable and informative. Thanks to Regina Johnson, who works at the Mima Mounds Natural Area Preserve, for her updates on what was flying in planning our visits.

Species seen:

Western Tiger Swallowtail, Pale Swallowtail, Cabbage White, Hoary Elfin, Silvery Blue, Echo Azure, Cabbage White, Puget Blue, Lorquin’s Admiral, Mourning Cloak, Common Wood Nymph, Woodland Skipper.

Additional species seen nearby along the border of Rocky Prairie:

Anise Swallowtail, Ochre Ringlet.

A few species on the wing could not be positively identified.

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