[TN-Butterflies] Claiborne County butterfly run

On Sunday, Doug Bruce, Harold Howell and I made another Butt Dragon Moth-ing 
expedition, this time to Claiborne County in east Tennessee. Our goal was to 
photograph many of the butterflies lacking records for that county, especially 
the 8 more common species that have been identified in most counties in the 
state.
We had a very successful day - and we did manage to find all 8 of those 'easy' 
species: Red-spotted Purple, Monarch, Carolina Satyr, Question Mark, Cloudless 
Sulphur, Orange Sulphur, Hackberry Emperor and American Snout.

In addition to these, we also added the following BAMONA records:
Wild Indigo Duskywing
Common Sootywing
Least Skipper
Black Swallowtail
Cloudless Sulphur
Summer Azure
Silvery Checkerspot
Viceroy
Northern Pearly-eye

...for a total of 17 potential new county records.

Claiborne County does not have a lot of good places to look for butterflies. We 
stopped at a boat ramp, a WalMart drainage pond, a couple small parks 
(dominated 
by fescue) and Lincoln Memorial University grounds. We had some good luck 
walking along a road bordering Cumberland Gap National Park (in Tiprell).
The most interesting story of the day came as we were about to end our time in 
the county. As we were heading back to the car to return home, and somewhat 
disappointed that we still didn't have a couple easy species, an American Snout 
landed on a nearby branch for #16! We had seen one or two flying high up in 
some 
trees earlier, so we knew they were around.
We still didn't have another that we thought would be common. So we made one 
more stop, at a gravel area on the side of the road just inside the border with 
Union County. Literally at the last second, a Hackberry Emperor was found! It 
flew to the back of my neck where it was photographed for BAMONA posterity.
David Trently 
Avian Pursuits Nature Tours 
...come see the real world!
Knoxville, TN 
http://avianpursuits.com/

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