Butterflies of Shawnee

Henry's Elfin photo Dave Riepenhoff

Dave Riepenhoff sent this wonderful photo of a Henry's Elfin recently seen in Shawnee Forest. Henry's is a dime-sized beauty that utilizes the Red Bud tree as its host plant, and in just a week or so, Shawnee will be a blaze with blooming Red Buds like the photo below.

Shawnee Red Buds photo Ian Adams

Flora-Quest has added a trip specifically for photography this year. If you are interested in taking better flora photos, Ian Adams will be teaching a fabulous workshop. Check out the details here. Butterflies and Flora will also be featured in 2009, and the amazing Jaret Daniels will be leading a workshop/ field trip combined. Jaret is the author of Butterflies of Ohio and this guy really knows his stuff. If you have an interest in butterflies, check out the occurrence list (below) for Scioto/Adams counties and you'll see we will pick up some nice rarities there!

More news on the butterfly front: Toledo Rare Birds has added a Lepidoptera section! Now butterfly folks can report their sightings. I don't know about you, but that adds the Pop! to my Snap and Crackle! It doesn't take much butterfly talk to get me excited about spring!