This coming weekend I'll be leading a series of butterfly field trips at the Sinlahekin Wildlife Area (northern Okanogan County, Washington) as part of their 75th Anniversary Celebration this summer. I've been frantically editing several hundred photographs over the past few weeks and finally finished several pages for a condensed field guide of Sinlahekin butterflies that I will hand out to participants this weekend. I'm so thrilled to have finished it that I want to share part of it here. Sorry about the copyright watermark but because this will be part of a larger self-published book, I don't want it being circulated without credit... you'll have to come on a field trip if you want a clean copy :) and yes, there's a typo on the first page, I fixed it but don't have time to re-export these images for my blog at the moment.
The weather will be great for butterflies, but it's going to be hot so if you are planning to participate, bring lots of water! There will be several nets available if anyone wishes to use them during the field trip, but we will be visiting several places that should provide good photo-ops of butterflies on mud and flowers, and hopefully some caterpillars.
Visit the WDFW page for more info on this and other events:
http://wdfw.wa.gov/lands/wildlife_areas/sinlahekin/75thanniversary.php
Hi Caitlin- I hope you can help me out. I lead a Nature Walk in Wallace Swamp Creek Park (just north of Seattle) My main focus as I've walked through the park for the past 10 years has been birds. When the city of Kenmore asked me to lead a "Nature Walk" I had to start learning about other aspects of nature. Today I noticed 4 kinds of butterfly/moths I can identify the western Swallowtail and the cabbage moth but the little blue butterfly and the larger black one with white wing margins and orange tips have me baffled. I lead my next walk on July 7th and I hope to learn the names of these butterflies so I can point them out as I lead the walk. If my discriptions are adiquate for you to identify the species please let me know. Also if you know of a website where I can see pictures of local butterflies/moths that would be great too.
ReplyDeleteLinda
Search this page for "dead butterflies"
ReplyDeletehttp://www.slate.com/blogs/wild_things/2014/07/08/solar_power_plants_burning_birds_usfws_report_on_california_facilities_and.html
On a personal note, this is an amazing year on the Naneum Fan for fruit. Our cherry trees are loaded -- a once in 4 or 5 year thing. Strawberries and other things in abundance. The wild golden currants seem a bit small, maybe because they, too, are overloaded.
With the too warm weather -- we are seeing a lot of butterflies -- none I haven't seen before.
Caitlin, I had hoped to make it to the Sinlahekin when you were there, but something else came up unfortunately. A friend of mine went and love it. Would it be possible to purchase one of your Quick Guides to the Butterflies of the Okanogan? I've been studying butterflies for about 5 years now. The specimens in family order would be a great tool for me to use any where. I was up at Sheep Lake yesterday with my net talking to someone else about Fritillaries, and someone sitting in the distance asked if I knew you and that you had a downloadable key to the frits. I didn't see any information for that here. What about that?
ReplyDeleteJust gorgeous. Wonderful work! I am impressed and blown away.
ReplyDelete