Seward, Alaska
Sunrise 4:42 am, sunset 11:12 pm, for a total daylight of 18 hours and 29 minutes. Tomorrow will be 2 minutes and 46 seconds longer.
Couldn’t stay away from “my” national park on another beautiful day.
Today, while enjoying the birdsong and emerging flowers along the Glacier View Loop Trail and lower part of the Harding Icefield Trail, I focused on butterflies.
White butterflies patrolled the trails with purpose, seemingly unfazed by the breeze. Back and forth they flew, occasionally engaging in fierce butterfly combat with another in a tight acrobatic swirl until one admitted defeat and veered away. Almost as hard to photograph as erratic warblers, I lucked out when they fluttered down for a drink of nectar on flowering rockcress and willowherb. One had a bill-shaped wedge in one wing, likely a narrow escape as a snack.
I learned that the Arctic White butterfly, Pieris angelika, is a northern butterfly of woodlands and alpine tundra. They overwinter as pupa, hidden in a chrysalis, and emerge in the spring to mate and lay eggs. The caterpillars feed on mustards, something to look for this summer. http://www.turtlepuddle.org/alaskan/butterfly2.html
I also caught a glimpse of the much larger, striking Canadian Tiger Swallowtail butterfly sailing past through the alders, too quick to photograph.
Like the birds and other wildlife, butterflies have a tight timeline to accomplish their mission to ensure the next generation. It sure would be fun to find a female laying eggs on a mustard, or find the emerging caterpillars. The secret life of butterflies, right under our noses.
Happy Birding!
Carol Griswold
Seward Sporadic Bird Report Reporter
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