Snail Spirals

Emma and I went camping yesterday, overnight at Emigrant Springs State Park, and it was lovely. We went there Friday afternoon for my company picnic, and stayed overnight just for fun. We took the tent, since Shaun is living in the camper up in Friday Harbor, and it was nice to travel light. A tent, two sleeping bags, two sleeping pads, a few clothes, some food for breakfast, and we were set. We didn't even have to bring food for dinner, since we ate at the picnic!

So we went to the picnic, ate and played and ate and talked and ate. There were games for the kids, which Emma enjoyed, and I spun silk yarn on my spindle while chatting and watching the games. It was very fun.

After it started getting dark, everyone else started heading home. Emma and I moseyed back to our campsite, jammied up, and crawled into our sleeping bags. I read a while and Emma dropped right off to sleep. Nice cool air and a warm sleeping bag, hermit thrushes singing somewhere nearby, with Emma making her little comfy sighs as she snuggles in. Really, does it get better?

This morning, we went for a big long walk on the trails near the campground. We were out about 2 1/2 hours, and surprisingly, not much whining was heard. We saw lots of midsummer wildflowers



and LOTS of butterflies. It was fantastic. I identified ten species (there were more that I didn't get a good look at), and of those, six (SIX!) were new for my Life List. WooHoo!

By far the most common species was the Variable Checkerspot (Euphydras chalcedona). This wasn't one of the new species for me, but it was still exciting because of the sheer numbers flying around. There were hundreds.



As the name suggests, the patterning is quite variable. This was one of the darker varieties, and there were others with more orange spotting:



I also saw Northern Checkerspots (Chlosyne palla), which were new for my list.



One of the best butterfly concentrations on the walk was at a mostly dried up mudpuddle. I saw four species of Coppers here (Ruddy, Edith's, Blue, and Mariposa), as well as a Boisduval's Blue, more Variable Checkerspots, and a California Tortoiseshell.

This Mariposa Copper (Lycaena mariposa) was very cooperative with the camera, and is quite a pretty little butterfly.



We finally headed back up the range access road (luckily we didn't come across any cattle during our walk), down the hill through the forest and back to pack up the campsite.



We had a quick snack and headed home, stopping along the way for a drive up the Forest Service roads in the Spring Creek Wildlife Area. I've never been up in there before, and have heard it's a good birding area.

It is. I saw two new birds, a Black-backed Woodpecker and a Rock Wren, in addition to chickadees (2 sp.), juncos, tanagers, thrushes (2 sp.), hawks (2 sp.), kinglets, and all the other usual suspects.

It was such a fun day!