[TN-Butterflies] Re: Reakirt's Blue FOY for Shelby County
- From: kjchilds <kjchilds@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "tn-butterflies@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <tn-butterflies@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 13 Aug 2011 20:51:03 -0700 (PDT)
That's a great find!
Ken Childs
Henderson, TN
Chester County
http://www.finishflagfarms.com
________________________________
From: Bart Jones <bjones7777@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: tn-butterflies@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Saturday, August 13, 2011 5:09 PM
Subject: [TN-Butterflies] Reakirt's Blue FOY for Shelby County
Hi All,
I spent about 3 hours today (8/13) at Eagle Lake Wildlife Refuge hoping to see
Bronze Coppers again. This is the same time frame that Richard Connors saw
them there last year, so I was hopeful. As I was walking along the berm around
the lake, at almost the same spot as the Bronze Coppers were seen last year, a
Blue fluttered up and settled back down on a blade of grass. I first thought
it was an Eastern Tailed-Blue, but when I looked for tails, I didn't see any.
That's when I noticed the large black dots ringed with white on the forewings -
a Reakirt's Blue!!! To my knowledge this is only the second sighting of this
species in Tennessee, the other also from Shelby County, when, I don't know.
Amazingly, I saw 4 fresh individuals today, some hundreds of feet away from
each other. I only saw 1 Eastern Tailed-Blue, who would have thought Reakirt's
Blues would outnumber them.
We had a big rain last night, so the gravel road through the refuge was covered
with hundreds of Hackberry Emperors, American Snouts, Pearl Crescents,
Cloudless Sulphurs, and Question Marks. Also seen along the road were dozens
of Little Yellows, Fiery Skippers, Silvery Checkerspots, and Spicebush
Swallowtails.
Unfortunately, no Bronze Coppers, Funereal Duskywings, or Dainty Sulphurs this
time. Maybe next trip.
Here's a list of species seen and approximate numbers:
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail - 12
Zebra Swallowtail - 1
Pipevine Swallowtail - 1
Spicebush Swallowtail - 25+
Checkered White - 1
Orange Sulphur - 20+
Sleepy Orange - 15
Little Yellow - 30+
Cloudless Sulphur - 100+
Gray Hairstreak - 3
Red-banded Hairstreak - 1
Eastern Tailed-Blue - 1
Reakirt's Blue - 4
Gulf Fritillary - 5
Variegated Fritillary - 1
Pearl Crescent - 100+
Phaon Crescent - 1
Silvery Checkerspot - 20+
Question Mark - 50+
Eastern Comma - 3
Red Admiral - 4
Common Buckeye - 50+
Red-spotted Purple - 10
Viceroy - 8
Hackberry Emperor - 100+
American Snout - 100+
Monarch - 4
Silver-spotted Skipper - 20+
Horace's Duskywing - 2
Common/White Checkered-Skipper - 5
Hayhurst's Scallopwing - 1
Fiery Skipper - 100+
Sachem - 20+
Northern Broken-Dash - 2
34 species.
Bart Jones
Memphis, Shelby County
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