Schooley Mill Park Butterflies; Another Warm November Day

As the unseasonable warm trend continued, I decided to visit Schooley Mill Park yesterday, Nov. 5. With its abundant wildflowers, this park had been a good place to find butterflies earlier this year. Temperature was about 75 F when I arrived; sunny with some cloud cover. However, it was also breezy, which I think kept the number of butterflies down. Total of five species found, also reported to our Howard County butterfly survey:

1 Sachem
2 Orange Sulphur
1 Variegated Fritillary
3 Pearl Crescent
2 Common Buckeye

The linked photos are pinned to the general area of the park where I found those individuals. Others were seen around the park.

After Schooley Mill Park, I drove up to the Howard County Conservancy at Mount Pleasant. This is usually a great place to find butterflies. (It is included in the list of noted places to observe in Butterflies of the Mid-Atlantic by Blakney and Gallagher.) By the time I was there, temperature was closer to 80 F, but breeze persisted and was quite gusty at times. Other than a probable lone pearl crescent flitting low over the mowed grass trail ahead of me, this visit to the Conservancy turned up no butterflies.

Posted on 06 November, 2022 13:23 by cgkoonce