Rosemary Seidler, Jean and Jeff Trahan and I sent a nice day Sunday canvasing
numerous locations within Kisatchie. The weather was mostly sunny in the
morning with temps in the upper 60's, then mostly cloudy in the afternoon w/
temps in the low 70's. Not a great deal blooming. Some dewberry in certain
locations. Some false garlic, some coreopsis lanceolota, some verbena.
The picnic/bathroom area where we typically start was roped off so we didn't
get a chance to check the redbuds for Henry's Elfins. The only redbud tree I
did check was already past bloom.
We checked 3 known yucca locations w/o any Yucca G-S sightings. We checked
several locations w/ good stands of blue stem, but saw neither Cobweb nor
Dusted Skippers. I had one possible Cobweb, but it just might as easily been a
Whirlabout (I only saw it ever so briefly sunning dorsally, but I did see that
it had a stigma).
We typically see Falcate OTs in March in the back by the bayou, but saw none
yesterday.
Lots of swallowtails and Northern CWs. After yesterdays thunderstorms, the
swallowtails were puddling on the road in several locations. I had hoped to see
Barred Yellows, which would have been another westward extension of that
species, but we saw no small sulphurs at all. I have been seeing many Monarchs
in the Acadiana area the last 2 weeks, but we saw none yesterday. Still, 28
species is not a bad day in March.
8 Pipevine ST1 Zebra ST1 E. Tiger ST1 Giant ST19 Spicebush ST29 Palamedes ST2
Cloudless Suls6 Frosted Elfins (the indigo is 10-12" tall and just beginning to
bloom. As this has been an early spring, it appears the Elfins were at the end
of their flight. The majority were in one location down a hunter's road off of
the main road.)35+ Pearl Cres (quit counting at 35)1 Am Lady1 Red-spotted
Purple5 Goatweed LWs3 So. PE (at the back location by the bayou. All were a
very pale, yellowish color)3 Gemmed Satyrs (at the same location as the PEs)22
Caro. Satyrs1 Little Wood Satyr (same location as the PEs)1 Silver-spotted
Skipper4 Hoary Edges1 Sleepy DW (a fresh female)2 Juvenal's DWs1 Horaces DW2
So. CW27 No. CWs (they were seen at each locations at which we stopped)6
Swarthy Sks1 So. Sklg2 Clouded Sks1 Dun Sk1 Dusky RS Sk (at the location were I
found most of the Frosted Elfins, very fresh)
Craig Marks
