On August 17th, we held a Blue Ridge Center butterfly walk. We found 18 species of butterflies on the walk, most on Mountain View Farm, the organic farm that leases land from the center.
Because Mountain View does not use any pesticides or herbicides and relies extensively on Integrated Pest Management techniques it is always a great place to find a rich variety of butterflies and yesterday was no exception.
We began the walk on Mountain View Farm and then went by the old farm pond and a short ways down the Old farmstead Loop. Most of the butterflies that are more shade tolerant were along the latter along with the caterpillars. The Zebra Swallowtail was seen by a couple of the participants as the rest of us were driving off.
Not everyone stayed for the entire walk, which started at 9 am and concluded at 11:45 am but all told there were about 25 participants on the walk at one time or another.
Zebra Swallowtail, Black Swallowtail, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Spicebush Swallowtail, Cabbage White, Clouded Sulphur, Orange Sulphur, Eastern-tailed Blue, Summer Azure, Silvery Checkerspot, Pearl Crescent, Hackberry Emperor, Northern Pearly-eye, Silver-spotted Skipper, Clouded Skipper, Little Glassywing, Northern Broken Dash, Zabulon Skipper
Thank you Teresa McAllister for the photo of the Clouded Skipper!