Herps and Butterflies

 

  Over the last few days Laurie and I have been out looking for herps and butterflies. I usually get really bad seasonal depression in June. When May migration is over I go into a funk that takes me some time to get out of. The crash after the high of May is hard for me to overcome. The past few years I actually planned vacations in June so I'd have something to look forward to. This strategy worked to a T. However, Laurie and I are planning a long trip to Florida in October so I don't want to use any vacation time.

   On my days off, we have been spending time looking for snakes, turtles, and butterflies. Besides looking at the ground to find snakes, we've been bringing a butterfly net to try to capture some butterflies for easier identification. This time in the field has really been fun and I have not been seasonally depressed. 

   Laurie has really been into this hands on nature viewing. Neither of us are any kind of butterfly expert so we have been taking a field guide with us.

   In terms of herping, we have had quality over quantity. Over the course of my life I had seen a total of three Eastern Box Turtles in New England. Of the three, two of them were at BioBlitz where hundreds of eyes would look at the ground. However, over the course of the last three days I have seen two additional Eastern Box Turtles. Laurie found both of them while we were out hiking for herps. Thanks to her keen eye I have some fantastic photos

Below is the first one that she found. Many pictures and more text below it.

Of the seven species of butterflies that we identified the last few days this is the best photo. The species below is a Red Spotted Purple

  Today's Eastern Box Turtle was at a different location. It did not move when we saw it. We did wait for it to move into tall grass out of the view of possible poachers.