REECER CREEK BUTTERFLIES AND WILDFLOWERS- *Sundays with Sunny and Friends!
FULL DAY TOUR

DETAILED ITINERARY BELOW

Sunday, June 22

Email experience@evergreenescapes.com or call 206-650-5795 for reservations

Tour Length: 10 Hours
Tour Code: ES04
Pick-Up: Issaquah P&R
Departing: 8:00 a.m.
Returns: 6:00 p.m.
Activities: Butterfly and Wildflower Watching, Walking, & Educational Sightseeing
Difficulty: Easy
Carbon Footprint:
Min No of Passengers:

Inclusions:
Issaquah pick up and drop off; highly qualified and knowledgeable naturalist guide; travel in luxury vehicle; excellent casual lunch; selected fruit, energy bars, soda, juice, and tea; all entry and parking fees; and comprehensive commentary.

Description:
Enjoy this Sunday with tour guide Sunny Walter, professional wildlife photographer, nature photo tour leader, and co-author of “Washington Nature Weekends, 52 Adventures in Nature.” Our accompanying dragonfly expert is Dave Nunnallee, co-founder of the Washington Butterfly Association and long-time butterfly tour leader.

What We Will See
Since butterflies are cold blooded it is necessary for them to warm up their flight muscles. This is done by basking in the sun in order to absorb heat. We time our trip to start when the butterflies are most active.

We make a brief rest stop at Indian John Rest Area, then take a shortcut via the Taneum Creek exit north to scenic Old Hwy 10. We then head up Hwy 97 for our butterfly adventure. Our first stop is near a patch of coyote willow. Here we will see Hairstreaks, skippers and other lowland scrub butterfly species. As we drive up Lower Reecer Canyon Rd, watch for buckwheats along the side of the paved road, which attract small butterflies such as Hairstreaks, Coppers, and Blues.

We are in sage steppe habitat at our first stop, but as we drive north up Reecer Canyon we quickly pass into riparian habitat along the creek. We then encounter Ponderosa pine habitat, then mixed conifers, then subalpine forest near Lion Rock and beyond.

As June progresses, the wildflower and butterfly show slowly moves up the mountain. We will see more than 50 species of shrub-steppe wildflowers as we drive up Reecer Creek Road and about 30 more wildflower species in the vicinity of the springs and meadow near Lion Rock. Although the record for this area is 70 butterfly species, we expect to see 35 to 40 species today.

To grow into an adult, butterflies go through 4 stages: egg, larvae, pupae, and adult. Since caterpillars (larvae) need to eat a lot, most butterflies lay their eggs right on plants that will be eaten by the caterpillar when it hatches. The life cycle of a butterfly (one generation) is highly variable. The smallest butterflies may live only a week or so, while a few butterflies, such as the larger Mourning Cloaks, can live up to twelve months.

Adult butterflies feed only by drinking various liquids to maintain their water balance and energy stores. Many sip flower nectar, but others drink fluids from sap on trees, rotten fruit, or even liquid animal waste. Sometimes a dozen or more butterflies will gather round a puddle or wet place. This behavior is called "puddling" during which butterflies sip nutrients with their proboscis to get extra minerals and salts to supplement their diets. Butterflies most often seen puddling include swallowtails, fritillaries, blues and skippers.

Our butterfly guide will provide enough nets so everyone can catch butterflies to take a closer look at them. He will show us the right way to catch them, as well as how to hold them with a special tweezers and put them in a jar so the delicate scales on the wings are not damaged. These scales create the wonderful colors and patterns observed in butterfly wings.

We will have an opportunity to photograph several species, so bring your cameras. After looking at these beautiful creatures, we will release them undamaged into their familiar habitat. Our guide will also provide 3 pairs of special close-focusing binoculars, but bring your own if you have them.

Our second stop is right along Reecer Creek where we will see a mix of over wintering and new hatch butterflies.

We then switchback up Reecer Creek Rd, park our vehicle, and walk up an old gravel road to a leaking water tank and a natural seep. Here we will find nettles, penstemons, and mountain shrubs and hopefully some butterfly larvae (or caterpillars) which feed on them. We will look for Blues and other early butterflies. There may be as many as 100 butterflies here; we will likely see 10 to 15 species in this vicinity.

If the season is well advanced (no snow on road) we will then follow USFS Rd 35 up toward Lion Rock (6300’) with its spectacular views. On the way up, we pass lovely meadows ringed with subalpine firs and filled with wildflowers and butterflies. Lion Rock is a good spot to enjoy our excellent box lunches from “On Safari Foods” picnic-style (we will bring ground cover for guest seating).

After lunch we will either retrace our route down Reecer Creek or, if the roads are snow-free, head up over Table Mountain and down USFS Rd 9712 for more wet meadows and fine butterfly locations – returning to Hwy 97 just north of Mineral Springs.

Around 4:00, most butterflies will start retreating to their nighttime locations - the underside of a leaf, deep between blades of grass, or in a rock crevice or other shelter. This is our cue to start our trip home.

Our quest for butterflies and wildflowers ends with a 2 hour drive back to Issaquah, arriving at the Issaquah P&R around 6:00pm.

Butterflies we may see during our adventure include:

• Butterflies of the Skipper family are mostly brown or gold, with ~3/4-inch bodies and 1+ inch wingspans.

• Some of the easiest butterflies to see are in the Swallowtail Family – the dramatic yellow and black swallowtails are more than 4”; the Parnassians about 3”.

• We will see 4 or 5 species of butterflies in the Whites and Sulphurs Family, which are colored just like their names. The Whites are less than 2”; the Sulphurs run from 1.5” to 2.5”.

• In the Gossamer Wings Family, species we will see include Coppers, Blues, and 4 to 8 species of Hairstreaks. While the color of the Coppers and Blues is fairly self-explanatory, Hairstreak colors can run from green to gray to brown to gold. These are all small butterflies – 1” to 1.5”. Coppers and Hairstreaks are especially fun because they are easy to get close for photographs and many are quite attractive.

• Most of the rest of the butterflies we expect to see belong to the Brush-foot family (note: we will also see whites and sulphurs). They have evolved to have only 4 legs instead of 6, their fore feet shortened to brush-like appendages. They are perceptive, highly responsive, agile and adaptive to changing conditions. Many of our biggest and brightest butterflies belong to this family.

• Greater Fritillaries are big (2.5” to 3”) fast-flying butterflies with bright orange, yellow and brown markings on the top of their wings and silver orbs under their wings. Their larvae all feed on violets. We expect to see 3 species of them in various locations, especially around the leaking tank and on the buckwheats. We should also see one species of Lesser Fritillary.

• The orange, black and yellow Checkerspots are less than 2” and their larvae feed on penstemons. Depending on the season we may see larvae, pupae or adults. We may also see up to 3 species of the smaller Crescents.

• We will also see 3 species of Anglewings, which are mostly orange with brown markings and are about 2”, with scalloped wings. If you stand completely still after flushing them from a bush, they may land on you.

• The 2.5” California Tortoiseshells feed on mountain lilacs. Their populations fluctuate widely from year to year. There have been 5 good years in a row; we hope that is a trend. Pupae can occasionally be so abundant that when adults hatch out all at once, thousands of butterflies cover the bushes. It would be a miracle to hit it just right, but that is always something to hope for. They have big, beautiful caterpillars also. In the same genus, we expect to see the 3” Mourning Cloak, chestnut brown w/ gold edging along the wings. Also the 2” Milbert’s Tortoiseshell, brown with an orange/yellow band along the wing.

• We may see some of the Ladies. The 3” Painted Lady (coral with black blotches) numbers also fluctuate widely. They migrate here from California and if there is adequate moisture in the south (which there is this year) we may encounter a large number of these butterflies. The 2.5” long Red Admirable is black with a wide orange stripe. All of these butterfly larvae feed on nettles.

• At 3.5”, Lorquin’s Admiral is one of the larger and more dramatic butterflies we will see and is brown with bright orange wingtips and a row of white spots on the ventral wings. Older larvae and pupae have unusual shapes, with humped spines and horns.

• Ringlets and Wood Nymphs are both in the Satyr sub-family. They are brown with big eye spots and are from 1.5” to 2”. • The tawny 2.5” Great Arctic, is seen only in even years due to a two-winter metamorphosis. They are much prized by butterfly enthusiasts for their soft handsome textures and aggressive escape behavior.