Watching for Butterflies in El Dorado County

If you want to add tremendously to the fun of visiting Iron Mountain Road, Carson Pass, and Wrights Lake, the Yosemite area, etc., simply start watching for the butterflies. I started in summer of 2007 and now I know why I never saw them before: I wasn't looking! Now my eyes are open and I see them pretty much everywhere. If you want to race ahead, jump to the page of butterfly photos! Otherwise, pace yourself and read my info on why you want to pay attention to these fluttery marvels of Nature.

As in all other aspects of Nature that you walk by, there is an amazing lot of detail in pattern and color that will be missed if you simply look at something casually. With flowers, the tiny markings inside the flower that guide the pollinator can easily be missed until you pick up a 10x lens and actually look in; having a pair of binoculars will quickly let you see that not all birds are brown! And if you have some close-focus binoculars (for immediate results) or a good camera with close-focusing and can get some good digital images, you can later bring them up on your computer screen and be surprised by what you couldn't easily see in the field. You really should start watching butterflies. Here are some great reasons...

Good Reasons to Study Butterflies:

Unlike flowers, butterflies are found over a greater range of elevations and for longer periods of time.
Unlike birds, butterflies are more numerous and much easier to observe; try sneaking up to within six feet of a bird!
You don't have to kill anything to figure out what you have; a few good photos will allow you to match pictures with ID books, and that's a good thing.
Butterflies extend your season. Late-blooming flora will support a whole variety of new species to look for and at. You won't get bored.
There are only 132 butterflies listed for the county and 236 species of butterflies in the whole state! (There are more than 1200 plant species in the Eldorado Nat'l Forest.)
BONUS: Unlike plants, where common names are often useless, common names for butterflies seem to be almost as valid as binomials.

How NOT to Study Butterflies:

I found this on a site that wants to promote butterfly awareness for kids:

What exactly is a live butterfly garden?

A live butterfly garden is a kit you can buy that includes five to six caterpillar larvae surrounded by the food that they will need to grow and it comes with a mesh net.

What happens?

"The larvae turn into caterpillars and the children can watch as they build their cocoon and emerge into butterflies. The whole process takes two to three weeks so make sure you don't buy it in the winter because after about three days you'll need to set the butterflies free so that they can get food" ... [Yes, before they die without finding the appropriate host plant.]

For the photo collection, go to the next page.

Join in and discuss this subject on floralore.blogspot.com:

What Happened to this Pine White (Neophasia menapia)?

It was a victim of a crab spider, Misumena vatia; you can notice the spider's leg above right wing.

The crab spider has a clever trick: it can change its color from white to yellow, better to disguise itself on a flower head while it waits for a bee, a moth, or in this case, a butterfly. It grabs the prey and injects a venom, sucks out its meal and leaves. The luckless victim hangs there for awhile longer, looking like the real deal (to me). That's why I was so successful at sneaking up on this one: it was already muerto!

The Police Car Moth (Gnophaela vermiculata):

"The caterpillar on Cynoglossum is the Police Car Moth. The plant contains very poisonous pyrrolizidine alkaloids and these are taken up by the insect and used for its own defense; both larva and adult are 'warningly colored', gregarious and unafraid of predators." —Arthur Shapiro

Photo Threefer:

I came upon a large patch of wooly sunflower (Eriophyllum lanatum) while heading up from Wrights Lake. The flowers were being heavily visited by what certainly looked like several species to my untrained eyes. Turns out I was right.

This photo shows three butterfly species: The top one is Hoffman's Checkerspot (√), Chlosyne hoffmanni; the lower right one is Variable Checkerspot (√), Euphydryas chalcedona sierra, but what of the lower left? Is that a California Crescent? That would be surprising if so; they are described as "uncommon"! Well it's verified! "The one at lower left is in fact a female California Crescent (√), Phyciodes orseis herlani."

Be Advised...

Buy this excellent book! Taking pictures of butterflies will test your patience. I have discovered that they have an uncanny ability to sense when you are going to press the shutter button, and use that information to launch into flight and out of the view. Or if they are perched with wings up and perfectly posed for that side-shot of the underwing, they can also sense the absolute moment to suddenly turn and face the camera, leaving you with a photo of the front wing edges.

In my opinion, the best book for ID purposes is the Butterflies through Binoculars. The other books available all use illustrations, and while quite nice, they don't always work for me; it's the details of the photos that really help figure out intricate wing patterns. Check the Gallery to see what I have found so far

The middle of August doesn't provide many opportunities to butterfly unless you're willing to head up high, or go to a new place where something is coming into bloom. I tried to do both.

I have been told that there will be butterflies to be found in September if I just head for an area near the Nevada state line on Hwy 88 that will be blooming with rabbitbrush by then. Since I know that rabbitbrush is already blooming from Carson Pass on down into Hope Valley, I figured I might as well go take a look, especially since the story all season has been plants blooming too early because of dry conditions.

Well, I was too early! In fact I still have to determine what kind of rabbitbrush it is that is all over that hillside? It's beautiful: silvery gray, dense foliage, and only just started to bud. Looks like a few more weeks. It isn't the Chrysothamnus nauseosus I was expecting (which was in bloom) because C. nauseosus has green foliage. Perhaps it's White Stemmed Rabbitbrush? I did think it curious that I couldn't find any butterflies enjoying a chance at it.

It was windy like crazy, so even if something were out there I don't know if it would have wanted to fly. I thought about heading up to Monitor Pass! There is a patch of Showy Milkweed (Asclepias speciosa) that is growing up above its listed limit of 6000', and just maybe it would be attracting a few Monarchs? Thinking about the wind and the distance, I wisely decided that the possibility was too slim to bother with, so I turned back to look over Iron Mountain Road yet again.

This proved to be the right thing to do. I stopped at a few places where I have had luck before, and sure enough it was loaded with Great Basin frits attacking a few remaining roadside mints. There were dozens of bugs darting from plant to plant, keeping me busy trying to get a good side shot to prove if they were indeed Speyeria egleis. I believe they were: a dry meadow is the habitat that could help separate them from Mormon frits which are wet meadow critters.

As part of my reward for the day, a pair of Anna's Northern Blues (Lycaeides idas anna), a male and a female, appeared, apparently the last of their group. And just to be sure that I was teased by the bugs, an Orange Sulphur (Colias eurytheme) was flying back and forth, back and forth, ... doing its best to resist landing, until finally it saw an aster that was irresistible: Bingo! A better picture for me.

So it was not the most productive day as far as finding anything new (zero), but I find that I am getting familiar with what I see, and I spent a day looking at magnificent scenery. Not bad.

I had never known that there were binoculars made specifically for close-up viewing of butterflies and flowers! Now that I know this, it makes sense. My usual binoculars focus down to maybe eight feet; that's not really as useful as the Papilio binoculars from Pentax. These babys focus down to 18 inches. Now I can easily see the value of having a way to check markings even when the bug is fairly close. They don't always hold still and wait for their picture. A good close view can help verify when a photo won't be available.

Field Guide to Butterflies: San Francisco Bay, Sacramento Valley Regions _*****

The information is well-presented, with excellent color illustrations that are far better than those in the Peterson Guide*. The only "down side" for us in El Dorado County is that the book is not designed to cover this area, but it still warrants five stars because of the support text that explains butterfly details, with notes that pertain to our geographic area. This is a book that belongs on your shelf (or in your day pack).

Expanding the Search Area

If you have a tendency to wander up to areas higher than Placerville, you're going to want to have a source for those places too, and I am quite pleased with...

Butterflies through Binoculars: West _*****

This book (still small enough to go into a daypack) is loaded with photos (side and top views) and will prove very helpful I have learned that the underside of the wing is actually a better aid in identifying than the more colorfully-marked tops. If I have one complaint it would be that the side photos are not always lined up with the top photos, causing some initial confusion when you must look in two places for photos of the same species. Still, it identifies hundreds of butterfly species and identifies whether they would be found in the Sierra Nevada, and when. (If I had two complaints, the other would be that the author insists on using the incorrect "Sierra Nevadas" to identify our region. Please!)

[Also available: Butterflies through Binoculars: East]

Butterflies of North America _*****

When I have a picture that is good enough to have the details for matching, yet I cannot come to a real conclusion, is that the fault of the book? Of course not. But at this stage of my learning I do appreciate photos in "Butterflies through Binoculars" over any well-done artwork. Ironic, because with flowers it is well-done artwork that is easier to use because photo details can confuse the issue.

Peterson Guide to Western Butterflies _*****

I have always recommended a Peterson Guide to Pacific States Wildflowers as a very useable book to start with, so I expected the same from their butterfly guide; I'm a little disappointed that the artwork is not as accurate as I'd expected (pale colors, doing no justice to the butterflies I have been finding) and the famous call-out arrows are not very useful in this book (in my opinion).

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