Crane Management Area

Baltimore Checkerspot

  The day after going to the WWII Museum, Laurie went to Crane Wildlife Management Area in Falmouth. It was already our second or third time there this year. We went looking for wildlife but mostly butterflies. My hopes were not high because it was very windy. It turned out that it didn't matter, butterflies were everywhere. 

    We walked for hours and probably covered over five miles. Crane is a giant meadow/field. Because of this, it has different bird species than are found in the forested state. Eastern Kingbirds, Orchard Orioles, and Grasshopper Sparrows are common nesters. Grasshopper Sparrows, especially, are very rare nesting birds in Mass/RI. Blue Grosbeakes also nest at Crane. It is the only known place in Massachusetts where this southern species nests. Until this year, I had never seen one there. However, this year, I have seen them the last two times I was there (sorry, no photos)

   When we opened up our car doors in the parking lot we were disappointed by the wind but it was over an hour drive so we planned to mke the best of it. Even without butterflies, we weren't going to be disappointed. huge parts of the field are covered by acres of a wildflower meadow. Countless species of wildflowers in many colors were everywhere. 

   Crane is a known spot for a species called Baltimore Checkerspot. We went to Crane a few years ago to see them. It had been a couple of years since we went back to see them. Checkerspots are a very beautiful butterfly. We hadn't seen any during our previous adventures there so we thought it was either a bad year for them or we had mussed their season. During our visit we ended up seeing a few. The first one that we found resulted in some fist bumping and high fives. I got some half way decent but not spectacular photos. 

 

Grasshopper Sparrow

 We didn't see any herps at all but did find many other species of butterflies. While walking around we saw two other species of butterflies that were lifers for us. The first was an Edward's Hairstreak. Hairstreaks are a family of small butterflies that look very similar. I am a novice when it comes to identifying butterflies so luckily there are useful online guides the most important is the app Seek. Seek told me that my little Hairstreak was an Edward's. 

   The other species that was new for us was a Common Buckeye. It was near the end of our walk and sitting right out in the dirt path so we looked at it for a very long time. I took all of the photos that I wanted nd we moved on.

   While most of this post has been about butterflies, Crane is just a beautiful place anyway. As I said, wildflowers are everywhere. Living in the Northeast, it is almost astonishing to be walking in a field this large. We could see the car from the edge of the woods on the other side of the field and we were at least a mile away.

Edward's Hairstreak on Butterfly Milkweed

   We saw a dozen Grasshopper Sparrows. Many were perched up on small shrubs singing. We had a Blue Grosbeak and Orchard Orioles. There were many other birds and it was nice to see a thriving mini-ecosystem.  We had a great time. Walking at Crane on this date was one of the highlights of my summer.  

Common Buckeye

Beautiful Wildflowers