Counting Butterflies

The rain picked a fine day to return. Today is the 11 Annual North Montpelier Butterfly Count, organized by the North Branch Nature Center.* When the sun peaks through, we’ll be counting every butterfly we see in a 15-mile-diameter circle centered in North Montpelier. It’s like a Christmas bird count, only you get to sleep in and need not wear seven layers of clothing. Here’s a Two-spotted Skipper (Euphyes bimacula). It’s a bog specialist here in Vermont, feeding as a caterpillar mainly on the sedge Carex trichocarpa. Skippers, considered the bane of butterflyers because so many skippers look alike, are now widespread, like little orange flames scattered about the landscape. Most are tiny, no more than three-quarters of an inch in length. Good field marks on this skipper include those faint white veins on the underside of the hind wings and that white margin along the abdomen. Females do have two spots on the upper side of the forewing, which you can’t see in my images here. Occasionally, an adult will alight on your pant leg (above) to lap up salt on a steamy day or drop onto a gravel road for trace minerals and salts. These guys are showing what we call a probing proboscis.

* As it turns out, the count was canceled today because of the rain. I’ll post an update when it’s rescheduled.