cgkoonce's Journal

This area of disturbed ground south of Lake Kittamaqundi in Columbia, Maryland, has been productive for butterfly-watching this year. I have been visiting it regularly during walks around the lake for our county butterfly survey*, and it continues to attract butterflies as a warm weather trend continues in November. Yesterday, November 4, felt like butterfly lisiting I had been doing in September and early October. Meanwhile, other areas nearby where I could expect to find butterflies might have only the odd orange sulphur or cabbage white, though bees and pollinating flies were active in them. The abundance of butterflies persists at this particular area thanks to abundance of white or heath aster, the main nectar supply now. Goldenrod continues to bloom here, but it does not seem to have the same attraction. (Boneset was another nectar source earlier.) Additionally, the wide expanse of disturbed ground created by the human activity provides plenty of puddling opportunity.

The staging site apparently supports ongoing development in the nearby Merriweather District. Various heaps of soil, gravel, rubble and other material appear and disappear. Some construction vehicles and equipment are left parked in the section closer to the road. In fact, when I'm visiting I must take care to watch out if operators are moving the vehicles and stay at the end of the site away from the road. I usually enter and leave through the narrow verge of mowed grass and wildflowers separating the site from the paved path along it, a branch of the lake circuit path.

Species of note: I list at other locations, but the only Common Checkered-Skippers I have found this year have been at this one. Two yesterday; one a month or two ago. I recall finding one here a few years ago before the construction activity began, and it was the only one I saw that year, too.

*Howard County butterfly survey, managed by members of the Howard County Bird Club.

As the unseasonable warm trend continued, I decided to visit Schooley Mill Park yesterday, Nov. 5. With its abundant wildflowers, this park had been a good place to find butterflies earlier this year. Temperature was about 75 F when I arrived; sunny with some cloud cover. However, it was also breezy, which I think kept the number of butterflies down. Total of five species found, also reported to our Howard County butterfly survey:

1 Sachem
2 Orange Sulphur
1 Variegated Fritillary
3 Pearl Crescent
2 Common Buckeye

The linked photos are pinned to the general area of the park where I found those individuals. Others were seen around the park.

After Schooley Mill Park, I drove up to the Howard County Conservancy at Mount Pleasant. This is usually a great place to find butterflies. (It is included in the list of noted places to observe in Butterflies of the Mid-Atlantic by Blakney and Gallagher.) By the time I was there, temperature was closer to 80 F, but breeze persisted and was quite gusty at times. Other than a probable lone pearl crescent flitting low over the mowed grass trail ahead of me, this visit to the Conservancy turned up no butterflies.