Interesting coincidence. On the way back into Tennessee from an out-of-state vacation on Sunday, I stopped by Indian Creek in Jefferson County and was surprised to find this Carolina Satyr nectaring (see attached photo). It flew from this perch to a cluster of Lespedeza flowers, where it appeared to continue nectaring. ~ Doug ----- Original Message ----- From: Bart Jones To: tn-butterflies@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ; Jim Johnson ; Donna Ward Sent: Monday, September 12, 2011 11:17 PM Subject: [TN-Butterflies] Clifton Bend Fall Count Hi Everyone, Here are the results from Saturday's Clifton Bend Fall Seasonal Count. We had an absolutely beautiful day to count with lots of species and individuals. The highlight was catching a big fall irruption of Red-banded Hairstreaks which seemed to be on almost every Verbesina virginica plant, LITERALLY! We had a final total of 148 Red-bandeds! Also, with high counts were Cloudless Sulphurs and Sleepy Oranges. Another highlight was a county record Ocola Skipper. One interesting observation was a Carolina Satyr nectaring on the Verbesina. I think that is the first time I've ever seen a Satyr nectar. I've seen Common Wood-Nymphs occasionally take some nectar in the fall, but not Satyrs. Top nectar plants were Verbesina virginica (Frostweed or White Crownbeard), Vernonia gigantea (Ironweed), Prairie Dock (Silphium terebinthinaceum), Rosinweed (Silphium latifolium), Slender Blazingstar (Liatris cylindracea), Rough Blazingstar (Liatris aspera), Fall Thistle (Cirsium altissimum), and Late Thoroughwort (Eupatorium serotinum). I am having trouble getting the online form to accept this count, so I apologize for not having the neat "report" format that I usually send out. Pipevine Swallowtail - 39 Black Swallowtail - 2 Eastern Tiger Swallowtail - 39 Spicebush Swallowtail - 13 Cloudless Sulphur - 208 Sleepy Orange - 337 Juniper Hairstreak - 2 Red-banded Hairstreak - 148 Gray Hairstreak - 12 White-M Hairstreak - 3 Eastern Tailed-Blue - 31 Summer Azure - 10 American Snout - 11 Monarch - 13 Gulf Fritillary - 17 Variegated Fritillary - 13 Great Spangled Fritillary - 14 Silvery Checkerspot - 2 Pearl Crescent - 58 Common Buckeye - 52 Question Mark - 5 Eastern Comma - 1 Painted Lady - 1 Red-spotted Purple - 42 Viceroy - 8 Goatweed Leafwing - 1 Hackberry Emperor - 44 Tawny Emperor - 4 Gemmed Satyr - 2 Carolina Satyr - 6 Common Wood-Nymph - 1 Silver-spotted Skipper - 44 Southern Cloudywing - 1 Horace's Duskywing - 2 Common/White Checkered Skipper - 6 Swarthy Skipper - 5 Clouded Skipper - 32 Least Skipper - 4 Fiery Skipper - 18 Sachem - 14 Northern Broken-Dash - 2 Little Glassywing - 2 Dun Skipper - 10 Lace-winged Roadside-Skipper - 2 Ocola Skipper - 1 Unknown Skipper - 3 Unknown Hairstreak - 3 Unknown Swallowtail - 1 Unknown Satyr - 1 Total Species - 45 Total Individuals - 1290 Bart Jones Memphis, Shelby County
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CarolinaSatyr_IndianCreek_JeffersonCoTN11Sep11.jpg
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