Butterfly Watching...Pick the Right Habitat for the Season

Bass Creek National Recreation Area (mature Ponderosa Pine habitat) is a premier butterfly watching late winter, spring and summer. Not so much late summer, early fall. Found only four species (9-15-14) of seven butterflies. Why? It might be lack of flowers (nectar) and moist soil (for uptake of minerals).

The grassland/Ponderosa Pine habitat immediate to my yard doesn't look like much. But embedded in the brown cured grasses is rabbitbrush (expanded blog treatment - http://goo.gl/IZVhxu), a nectar "well" for many butterfly species. Yesterday (9-14-14), under similar weather conditions as today, found seven species of butterfly comprising 25+ individuals. The photographic opportunity was...excellent (see below).

William Leach (2013) published Butterfly People An American Encounter with the Beauty of the World and summarized the butterfly naturalists of the 1800's: "...began their careers in this way, awash in the heat and smells of the meadows and forest, sensitive to something worth losing oneself in, worth knowing, worth a lifetime of vocational loyalty and reflection." That's how I feel, for sure not with their accomplishments though :-)

Try this activity... you will find it overlaps the many themes of history, culture, biology, ecology, research, exercise, critical thinking and learning to name a few.

Purplish Copper

Hoary Comma

Milbert's Tortoiseshell

Orange Sulphur

Painted Lady

March Butterfly Emergence...4 Species Day



Milbert's Tortoiseshell

Stopped in at Kootenai Creek for a possible look see at the Canyon Wren. No wren, but did find four species of butterfly somewhat easily along a short distance of the trail. No wonder as it reached the lower 60's for temps with sunny skies...great day to be outside. Mourning Cloak (Nymphalis antiopa), Hoary Comma (Polygonia gracilis), Compton Tortoiseshell (Nymphalis vaualbum) and Milbert's Tortoiseshell (Aglais milberti) were flying and perching close enough for photographs:


Compton Tortoiseshell

Hoary Comma

Mourning Cloak

A visit to Bass Creek Recreation Area, just south of Florence, Montana (foot of the Bitterroot Mountains) provided early spring color in the form of Compton tortoiseshell (Nymphalis vaualbum). This butterfly is a member of the Nymphalidae family (5,000 species worldwide), some of the world’s most eye-catching butterflies. The upper side of the wing is very colorful while the underside is cryptically colored for camouflage. Tortoiseshells, in particular, are known their fast and erratic flight. This species is identified by white spots on both the forewing and hindwing. Adults hibernate over winter in tree crevices or logs. Compton tortoiseshell habitat consists of openings and edges of forest. Aspen, birch and willow are important foodplants for larvae. Range maps indicate this species is somewhat restricted to northwest Montana.
Already (?) second butterfly species of year! Have you seen any yet?