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Date Posted: 19:54:21 07/10/03 Thu
Author: Becky
Author Host/IP: BGHOST018-126.bghost.com / 198.30.18.126
Subject: For dragonfly and butterfly lovers only...

I've spent some time exploring Irwin Prairie this past week. I initially went in search of butterflies but ended up spending more time on the dragonflies there. The place may be virtually birdless these days but it still has plenty to offer.

Dragonfly species encountered:

Common whitetail - many, many between parking lot and woods
Widow skimmer - several, same area as whitetails
Carolina saddlebags - several, in meadow between woods and the road and also in meadow on east side of road
Twelve-spotted skimmer - only a couple in the more open areas
White-faced meadowhawk - many, in woods towards east end of boardwalk
Blue dasher - several, in the wet area at eastern most end of boardwalk

There are also a large number of one of the red meadowhawk species in the same area with the whitetails. I can only assume, since these species are basically impossible to distinquish from each other, that they are immature or female white-faced meadowhawks given the large number of adult males I saw at the other end of the boardwalk. If someone can come up with a more positive ID, I'd love to know about it.

Dragonflies are great to study because they SIT STILL so you can actually look at them for as long as you want. For the most part, they have little fear of us humans and several tonight seemed quite inquisitive in fact, flying up to me and hovering just inches from my face as if to study me as much as I was studying them.

The place is not totally without it's butterflies, however, including a few species I had never seen before:

Mourning cloak
Sliver-spotted skipper
Viceroy
Monarch
Little wood-satyr
Eyed brown
Black swallowtail
Great spangled fritillary
Appalachian brown
Tawny-edged skipper

The wood-satyr and the browns are in the woods nearest the parking lot and are quite cooperative in perching right next to the boardwalk for intensive studying. The remainig species were all seen between the parking lot and the woods.

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