Saturday, April 12, 2014

MBC Trip to Mt. Tom State Reservation

Today I joined the Mass Butterfly Club on their first field trip of the season to Mt. Tom State Reservation in Holyoke, MA.  What a beautiful day!  What a beautiful place!  What great butterflies!  I logged in 6.2 miles and the equivalent of 54 flights of stairs in climbing.

We saw Mourning Cloaks and Eastern Commas in good abundance!  It was so much fun!


We also some several Yellow-Bellied Sapsuckers.  Not all were cooperative for pictures, but this one was pretty good.


There were tons of people enjoying the day, but these were the two cutest hikers by far.


But I digress.....back to the butterflies.

Mourning Cloak

We were seeing Mourning Cloak after Mourning Cloak and not Eastern Commas when someone spotted some on a Black Oak Birch Tree that had sap running.  It turned out there were about six gathered around that sap!

Eastern Comma

 Eastern Commas (4)

Just a reminder that today is April 12th in Massachusetts!  There's still snow!

 The view

Infant Moth

 Eastern Comma


A gorgeous specimen!

 Ditto

 Dog fighting at the top of the mountain


Turkey Vulture

 We stopped to chat with this young hiker on the way down.  He had a butterfly visiting him!

 Not to be outdone by the young hiker, our club president also had a friend!

 Eastern Comma



2 comments:

  1. Great to hear that butterflies are flying with you. The Mourning Cloak must be a difficult butterfly to photograph with the contrast between dark and light colouring.

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    1. I haven't had trouble with it.....it is a curious species. It often lands on people who enter its declared territory. Last year, one repeatedly landed on my hat, but since I was alone, I couldn't capture the moment in a photo!

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