Bob Pyle, founder of the Xerces Society, author of The Audubon Society Field Guide To Butterflies, Wintergreen and more than a dozen other books, is engaged on a Butterfly Big Year in 2008, raising pledges for the Xerces Society as he chases butterflies across America. Pat & Clay Sutton hosted him at their house in Goshen this week and organized an expedition led by Will Kerling to two local hot spots. Our primary targets were Hessel's hairstreak, one of Bob's "grail butterflies," and roadside skipper, a South Jersey rarity. We found those & more. (To see earlier days of Bob's Year, go to his Xerces blog here or his Orion blog here.)
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Jack Connor > Bob Pyle, Will Kerling, Pat Sutton, Clay Sutton, Jesse Connor, Jack Connor.
Jack Connor > Bob & Will comparing notes.
Jack Connor > Bob points to his first Hessel's hairstreak of his Big Year.
Jack Connor > "It's a Hessel's all right."
Jack Connor > Hessel's on blueberry flowers (beneath white cedar, its host plant).
Jack Connor > Bob pointed out it was a female, its abdomen filled with eggs. Note also the false-head-deception: the tails look like antennae and the dark spot at the end of the hindwing looks like a head. Birds attack the wrong end of hairstreaks.
Jack Connor > Another female Hessel's on other side of trail, on red maple & in different light.
Jack Connor > Bob & Juvenal's duskywing.
Jack Connor > Jesse w/Juvenal's duskywing.
Bob Pyle, Will Kerling, Pat Sutton, Clay Sutton, Jesse Connor, Jack Connor.
> Bob Pyle, Will Kerling, Pat Sutton, Clay Sutton, Jesse Connor, Jack Connor.
Bob Pyle, Will Kerling, Pat Sutton, Clay Sutton, Jesse Connor, Jack Connor.
Gallery pages:  1  2  3  >  
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