Friday, November 15, 2019

Butterfly list grows

The Garberia is in bloom all over the preserve, offering the main nectar source for pollinators in late fall in scrub.

This week I found a Monk Skipper, which is my first sighting of this species here.
It is the 56th butterfly species I have observed here during the past 17 years of monitoring the site.
That is a respectable number for a small site in the middle of an industrial /commercial/residential area.
Some other recent additions to the butterfly list included Three-spotted Skipper and Polydamas Swallowtail.

I also photographed a Polka Dot Wasp Moth on the Garberia.
This is a fairly common diurnal moth, but I can't recall whether I had seen one here.

Where do those golf balls come from?


I was walking through the south tract yesterday looking for Indian pipes when I found a golf ball.
I have found several of the these balls over the years, but their origin remains a mystery.
There is no golf course nearby. There is no driving range nearby.
The demographics of the surrounding neighborhood doesn't suggest there are any golfers.
I threw it into the fire lane and will pick it up later.
The weather is beginning to moderate and I thnk I will plan to resume work mining the windrows along the fire lane to recover more legacy trash.