[TN-Butterflies] out of area report - south Alabama

From: Avian Pursuits Nature Tours <naturetours@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: TN-Butterflies@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Mon, 25 Oct 2010 07:59:40 -0700 (PDT)
I like reading notes on people's trips outside of Tennessee, as it gives us 
information about what is happening elsewhere in the country. Especially if it 
is to nearby states because many of us can reasonably consider planning trips 
there.
I hope others will be interested in a recent trip to south Alabama, attended by 
two people currently on this list, plus two others.

From October 15-18, we headed to the Dauphin Island area on the Gulf coast, 
south of Mobile, Alabama. On the drive down, we stopped at one of the few 
decent 
birding areas (that I  know of) near the interstates - Rudder Road in 
Montgomery 
County, south of the city of Montgomery. It was sunny and warm and a few 
butterflies were about, including the first of MANY Gulf Fritillaries to be 
seen 
during the long weekend. Most notably at this site were 2 or 3 DAINTY SULPHURs, 
which we photographed http://www.flickr.com/photos/avian_pursuits/5102761526/. 
Upon checking with BAMONA, we found that there are NO records of this species 
for Alabama! We saw a few more in the coastal  counties, but only got 
photographs from one additional county.
Also at Rudder Road were Pearl Crescent, Common Buckeye, Fiery Skipper, Sleepy 
Orange, Checkered-Skipper sp. and a possible Tawny-edged Skipper.

Further south, we made a stop at a Nature Conservancy property in Baldwin 
County, called Splinter Hill Bog Preserve. Hundreds of White-topped Pitcher 
Plants were in the fields, as were the first of many Variegated Meadowhawk 
dragonflies seen during the weekend (probably the most common species).The 
major 
highlight here, and of the whole trip for me, was found as we walked in the 
pine 
woods. There we found a few extremely small LITTLE 
METALMARKs! http://www.flickr.com/photos/avian_pursuits/5102168245/
What a beautiful butterfly this is! I hope some of you can make a trip down 
that 
way next year to see them.Wish we had some in Tennessee.
Also here were our more Dainty Sulphurs and our only Variegated Fritillary.

At Dauphin Island, we didn't have any surprises. Lots of Monarchs and Gulf 
Fritillaries kept us busy with the binoculars - hoping the movement was a bird 
and not another one of these orange butterflies. (there were not a lot of 
songbirds migrating, perhaps because there had been no major weather changes 
over the past few weeks). Oh yeah...Dauphin Island is always a great place to 
see a lot of LONG-TAILED SKIPPERs. 
Other species on the Island:
Giant Swallowtail (1)
Red-banded Hairstreak (1)
Fiery Skipper
Cloudless Sulphur
Dainty Sulphur

I  may organize another Gulf Coast trip for September or October of next year. 
We'll concentrate on butterflies and dragonflies. If you are interested, let me 
know and we can start the planning soon.
David Trently 
Avian Pursuits Nature Tours 
...come see the real world!
Knoxville, TN 
http://avianpursuits.com/
[TN-Butterflies] out of area report - south Alabama

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