USA Trip

[Mark Tutton]

I am currently in the USA in Santa Fe, and will be travelling on to New Orleans and North Carolina - I will give a more detailed report later but for the time being a couple of photos to whet the appetite.
Regards Mark

[David M]

Appetising stuff, Mark. I await with interest subsequent instalments.

[Mark Tutton]

To follow up on my brief teaser, I accompanied my partner Sarah on a business trip to Santa Fe which we subsequently combined with a holiday to visit New Orleans and Raleigh in North Carolina to see my sister. Perfect butterflying opportunity!
All identifications are tentative and I would welcome any corrections and or comments.
My ID’s have been derived from The Butterflies of North America - A natural History and Field guide by James A Scott and the website http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org which is great as you can filter by county to narrow the number of species. I have to say that the skippers and spread wings are bewildering!!!
On arriving in Santa Fe the weather was unseasonally hot with temperatures approaching 100F . Santa Fe normally experiences a Maritime temperate climate with chilly winters, and very warm summers and is located at 7,199 feet (2,194 m) above sea level, making it the highest state capital in the United States. The altitude makes it essential to take on board plenty of fluid and use copious amounts of sunscreen to protect you from the intense UV.
I did succumb to the altitude once and it made me feel very sick and resulted in a painful headache. 
The town is the most un-American I have encountered with low rise adobe style buildings a small population with randomly arranged streets that are completely dominated by hundreds of art galleries and copious museums.
On the first day we took a guided tour of the town on a tour bus which gave me the opportunity to view some potential butterfly areas I had spied on Google earth. We were only there for four days and two areas stood out for subsequent exploration.
The first day we caught the bus up to the Botanical gardens on museum hill which is another 2000ft higher up and we both struggled with the altitude, having to take regular breaks. The visit was fruitful producing a number of Monarch Danaus plexippus which proved very obliging, including one which posed outside the ladies loo which caused some amusement as I dashed in front of the queue for some photos! The only other butterflies were an elusive swallowtail and a Sulphur  which both avoided the camera.

Monarch

On return to town we tracked a Western Tiger Swallowtail along the high street into the grounds of the cathedral where it nectared, somewhat appropriately, in the shrine to St Francis of Assisi but I could only get a distant shot on my iPhone, and as it turned out, despite seeing good numbers, it was the only one that ever stopped.

iPhone shot of Western Tiger Swallowtail

On the next-day I walked to a recreation park and sat in the shade whilst watching a female Ruby Throated Hummingbird Archilochus colubrid hunting insects to feed its young - I watched intently to try and spot where she returned to to see if I could find her nest but to no avail.
In the park I spotted a Clouded Sulphur Colias philodice feeding on clover, a Variegated Fritillary Euptoieta Claudia, Common Checkered-Skipper Pyrgus communis laying eggs on some form of geranium and a Checkered White Pontia protodice.

Clouded Sulphur

Variegated fritillary

Common Checkered-Skipper

Checkered White

On the other side of the park I managed to clamber down into a dried up river bed which looked promising and became very frustrated when both Mourning Cloak and Western Tiger Swallowtail zoomed past!
The riverbed  continued up behind some houses and I decided that it was not wise to follow it too much further so I retraced my steps back to the road. 
My next destination was Fort Marcy Hill, an old earth hill fort built to defend the town which had looked promising on the tour - little did the guide know that I was not that interested in the various sculptures he pointed out during his tour! 
A walking pedestrian in one hundred degree heat and no sidewalks is obviously something of a novelty in Santa Fe as at least four cars beeped me as they passed by! 
I climbed the three hundred or so steps to the top of the hill stopping to watch the numerous lizards of various species but no butterflies until I got to the top.

View from Fort Marcy Hill

On reaching the top of the hill four or five variegated fritillaries were ovipositing on some pretty unappetising host plants, and as I photographed them, trying to avoid numerous annoying burrs catching on my legs, I spotted a couple of blues which turned out to be Lupine Blue Plebejus lupini and Ceraunus Blue Hoemiargus careens. There proved to be a good number of these blues around which in the whole trip proved to be one of the more numerous butterflies I encountered as it's fair to say that no butterflies were found in huge numbers. Another of the Clouded yellows also appeared and led me a merry dance but eventually settled to reveal itself as - I think - an Orange Sulphur Colias eurytheme

Lupine Blue

Lupine blue

Ceranus Blue

Ceranus Blue

Orange Sulphur

As I was photographing the blues something caught my eye that at first I thought was a fly, but that subsequently turned out to be the most diminutive butterfly I have ever seen, the Western Pygmy-Blue Brephidium exilis. It makes the small blue look a giant - probably only half the size, not blue and a complete gem - one of the stars of the holiday.

Western Pygmy Blue

Western Pygmy Blue

More Skippers were evident at this location - all of which I think were Common Checkered-Skipper Pyrgus communis Calthough one looked much more brassy.

Common Checkered Skipper

Common Checkered-Skipper

During my time at the fort I again was teased by Mourning Cloak, Western Tiger Swallowtail and this time Pipevine Swallowtail too. One that did stop very briefly was a pristine West Coast Lady Vanessa annabella which sadly only gave a fleeting glimpse.

West Coast lady

Day Two to follow

Kind regards Mark

[LancsRover]

Great pics Mark, you lucky devil
Russ

[Mark Tutton]

Thanks for the comments guys.
The next day the Santa Fe river park beckoned http://www.santafewatershed.org/restora ... and-trail/ This is a small stream that flows down off of the Sangre de Cristo mountain range above Santa Fe eventually flowing into real cowboy country - the Rio Grande. Although the stream flows through the town, a thin strip on both sides is maintained as a park which has some good plant and tree life, most of which has been planted as part of a restoration project. There are benches adjacent located for picnics etc. and it looked really promising.
After walking from the hotel I sat at one of the benches whilst I gathered my thoughts and I heard some juvenile birds begging for food, I looked up, and only two metres away a Downy Woodpecker Dryobates pubescent landed on a willow and proceeded to feed its young completely oblivious to me.

Downy Woodpecker and young

As I walked parallel to the river I spotted a Mourning Cloak [Camberwell Beauty] Nymphalis antiopa patrolling a section of river below a high bank, this was my chance I thought!  As I sat and watched it became apparent that a female was present in a small willow and sure enough the patrolling male crashed into the roots of the willow and flushed a female who quickly rejected him and returned to safety giving me a precarious photo opportunity. I managed to get some snaps whilst dangling over a fifteen foot drop supported by a small willow whose roots had been eroded by the stream and survived to tell the tale. It turned out that there were three Mourning Cloaks present managing to photograph two in the willow in what I have presumed to be a female avoiding/rejecting a male but I stand to be corrected.

The Mourning Cloaks were in this Willow

Mourning Cloak

Two!

Further down the river I found some flowering plants, which were a real novelty as nectar sources seemed very thin on the ground. These had attracted a number of butterflies including two new species Taxiles Skipper Poanes taxiles and a couple of very delicate Mexican Yellow Eurema mexicana

Taxiles Skipper

Mexican Yellow

Next stop was a quick visit to New Orleans, which was very hot and humid and only gave one butterfly opportunity - a Juvenal's Duskywing Erynnis juvenal right on the banks of the mighty Mississippi itself. We spent the evening [well into early morning actually] on Bourbon Street - which was a real eye opener - and woke up with a very sore head - not the altitude this time!

Juvenal's Duskywing

Then on to my sisters in Raleigh. She owns a small holding in pristine forest so I was hopeful of some good results..
During the day I explored the paddock and found an Indigo Duskywing Erynnis baptisia, a beautiful Question Mark Polygonia interrogationis, which is very appropriately named and I also stumbled upon a pair of Eastern Tailed-Blue Cupido comyntasin the grass. 

Indigo Duskywing

Eastern tailed blues

Question Mark

Appropriate name?

The next morning I finally caught up with the Swallowtails - Eastern Tiger Papilio glaucus this time - managing to photograph both male and female as they warmed in the early morning sun before beginning their incessant patrolling.

Female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

Male ETS

The garden also has a resident pair of Eastern Bluebirds Sialia sialis which use the various posts as lookouts to survey the paddock for suitable insect prey, the male of which was stunning. My sister also puts out feeders for the hummingbirds and I spent a good while trying to photograph the beautiful male Ruby Throated Hummingbird Archilochus colubrid but sadly only managed to get the the female. Who needs Blue Tits and peanuts!!!!!!

Eastern Bluebird

Ruby Throated hummingbird

The next day I went water skiing with my nephews on Falls Lake, more like an inland sea than a lake, but still managed to track down a beautiful Pearl Crescent Phyciodes throesSouthern Skipperling Copaeodes minima as we launched the ski boat! Whilst on the lake, in sweltering heat, we watched an Osprey Pandion haliaetus catch a catfish and take it back to its nest and passed under a road bridge where there were hundreds of Cliff Swallows Petrochelidon pyrrhonota nesting - wonderful!

Pearl Crescent

Southern Skipperling

Osprey and Lunch

Cave Swallows

On the last day I explored one of the forest tracks that ran parallel to a small stream at the back of my sisters farm whilst a Broad Winged Hawk Buteo platypterus harassed me all of the way, but butterflies were very scarce. Copperheads are relatively common in the area and my sister has encountered them in her horse barn - I must say I found it pretty unnerving having to be aware of venomous snakes, unlike the UK!, Another Pipevine Swallowtail teased me and avoided the camera but I did discover an abandoned terrapins nest[or Turtles as the Americans call them]. As the path broke into a meadow with a pond that was alive with at least seven species of dragonfly, a butterfly caught my eye landing on a dead twig - I recognised it immediately as American Snout Libytheana carinenta one on my wish list. The photos had to be taken from a distance so aren't great but a brilliant way to finish my holiday.

Hawk

Terrapin Nest

Dragonfly

American Snout

Now off to hunt Emperors
Kind regards
Mark

[bugboy]

Lovely stuff Mark, I'm particularly drooling at the sight of those Mourning Cloaks/Camberwells