June 29 - Mormon Trail

 Sunny day with highs near 100.

Heading up to the Mormon Trail this morning. Again trying to get an early start and catch the butterflies on the way back.

I leave at 7am and slowly fight may way thru a road race on the dirt road to the trail. I arrive between 7:30 - 7:45 with a temp of 46 degrees.

I gear up and start along the trail. The purple clovers are very prominent now. The Hollyhocks are coming into bloom (love these)!

Spittlebugs are also increasing and the Lupine are now blooming. I find this beetle on one of them.

I also find a deer/elk carcass. Bones are picked clean but there's the hind. Would think a hunter would've taken the hide. Don't know how I missed it last week.

Lots of chipmunks running around this morning.

Looking for Bumblebees this morning. They are not very active yet so it's not to hard once I find them.

Also what I think is a tiny bee but it's a Bee-mimic beetle (pretty cool)!

At one point there were at least 2 Hairy Woodpeckers really going back and forth at each other.

I make it close to 3 miles where there's a small water crossing. My goal was 3 miles but for another day. Time to turn around.

The return was far less successful than last week. Only 10 species of butterflies. Where were the Ringlets, Crescents, etc? And the numbers were pitiful. (Even the mud puddles were empty)

But I did see:

Weidenmeyer's Admiral

Boisduval Blue

Pale Swallowtail

N. Checkerspots

N. Crescents

N. Cloudywing

Lilac Bordered Copper

Cabbage White

And the surprises for the day: Garita Skipperling and Great Spangled Frits (3).


The GSF are the 1st Frits I've seen this year. Where are the Mormon and Callipes?

Still a good day!

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