A New Day

Welcome back! With Google's technical difficulties over, let's get back to normal. I've added two new links to an intertwined pair of blogs by Douglas Watts. He's a fine writer on the environment with a focus on Easton and the Hockomock swamp. The archives of these blogs will keep you going for a while.

Back to the butterflies that I saw a week ago at Sheep Pasture. Getting ready for Farm and Fun Day last Saturday morning, I was walking by the Andromeda on the Rhododendron trail when I saw a Spring Azure, one of the earliest butterflies to appear in Easton annually. The swarm of perhaps two dozen tiny insects made a pretty blue contrast to the white of the flowering Andromeda.

This little butterfly has a wing span of .75 to 1.25 inches. An even smaller butterfly is the Eastern Tailed Blue which has also been found at Sheep Pasture although a little later than the Spring Azure. Actually there are two seasons for the Azure late March to June and a second flight from July to September. Here's the Tailed Blue:

The big mystery was a Comma or a Question Mark. Not the punctuation marks, but four species of butterflies in the Brushfoot Family. There are three Commas and one Question Mark, and I've been trying to discover which one of these relatively uncommon species is here in Easton. It should be a Question Mark which migrates throughout the whole state and can vary from uncommon to common from year to year with one or two the number found in one spot. Of the  three Commas the Eastern Comma is the most likely suspect, but it is less common here than the Question Mark.

The top is the Question Mark and the bottom is the Eastern Comma. I'm not in mid-season butterfly hunting form, but I could swear the specimen I saw lacked the tail of the Question Mark.

A butterflys eyes are very good at seeing color and motion, but they have rather poor depth perception. Sometimes you can slowly extend your arm with a camera directly at a butterfly and catch a good shot.

Last Saturday I had no camera and was too excited to move slowly.

You must be wondering why these two insects are named for punctuation marks. It has to do with the distinctive mark on the underside of their wings. Imagine my frustration when my mystery butterfly landed right behind a cameraman interviewing me for ECAT and folded its wings. Didn't know that shouting "Don't move!" is likely to have exactly the opposite effect. As the cameraman turned around, the butterfly flew into the bushes. I haven't seen it since. Here's what I was looking for on the wing:

That's the Question Mark above.

And there's the Eastern Comma. Once again while I missed the little swoosh, the basic shape seemed to be the Comma. I'll just have to keep looking!

The photos and information for this blog comes from two sources: the Massachusetts Audubon Society's Butterfly Atlas, and the Massachusetts Butterfly Society's website.

Tomorrow: Adventures at the Envirothon in Carlisle.