Birds and Butterflies at Picture Lake or Mount Baker with Jackie

         It was a sunny afternoon at Picture Lake and two young Mexican girls dressed as fairies, fleecy blue gowns, flamboyant wings, bearing magic wands, had passed by me on the trail.  We had come to Mount Baker with our friend Jackie to look for birds and butterflies.   The fairies, who were associated with a young couple getting wedding pictures, were an unexpected benefit. 

Picture Lake, Mount Baker  August 2021

         We had left LaConner in the late morning and by the time we had completed the perilous ascent to Picture Lake it was early afternoon.  The lake, with its famous reflection, is near the Mount Baker ski area at 6000 feet, just below the timberline.  It was our hope that searching this alpine habitat in August would yield wildfowers and butterflies. There were lots of wildflowers and so, even though we weren't seeing butterflies right away ,we were hopeful.  

       As we stood, taking pictures of the lake a flock of small birds settled on the water about 50 yards away.  When we got a look through the binoculars I was pleased to find that we had a small flock of Wilson's Phalaropes.

Gray Jay, Mount Baker, North Cascades Washington. Ausust 2021

   Although phalaropes are closely related to shorebirds, like turnstones and tattlers, they are definitely birds of the water..  Two of the three species of phalaropes are primarily pelagic;  the red necked phalarope is occasionally seen off the coast of western North America.

   These were Wilson's phalaropes, which live inland, breed in the lakes of the northwest and migrate to South America for the winter.  to some extent they have a preference for salt lakes, like the one found in Utah and Mono Lake in California.  In this respect, one might say, they are peculiar birds inhabiting an unusual environment.

   All three species of phalaropes feed in a singular manner.  They spin around in the water, stirring it with their webbed toes, and then pluck small tidbits from the surface.

Jackie and Sandra are very impressed with the phalaropes.

    The sex lives of phalaropes is as unusual as its feeding.  They engage in sex role reversal, with females being larger and more colorful than the males. Females lay eggs then leave the male to hatch them and rear the chicks.  Ornithologists tell us that females may engage in polyandry, taking more than one male for the purposes of breeding...the female equivalent of a harem.  In the animal world, this is quite unusual.It also occurs in marmosets, bandicoots, jacanas and honey bees...a select and diverse group to be sure.

   Suffice it to say, the small gray phalaropes, out in the middle of the lake, were of only passing interest to the non-birders.  Luckily at about this moment Jackie spotted a family of Gray jays that had occupied the trees right where we were standing.  These silent denizens of the high country were so close that anyone would have enjoyed that..

Ruddy Copper Butterfly pair  Mount Baker August 2021

    All of a sudden it was time for some butterflies.  Jackie had the sharp eyes and spotted a pair of small butterflies in the ground cover near the lake.  The male was a handsome rufous with gray and black wing lining,and was easily identified as a ruddy copper butterfly.  The map in our butterfly book put the range for this butterfly a little further east.  However, unlike some butterflies, this was a pretty easy identification.  Here I am showing you a pair of Ruddy Coppers in the wildflowers near Picture Lake.  The ventral surfaces of the male and female are identical.

     We drove around the ski resort without finding another bunch of wildflowers full of butterflies.  Before heading home, I asked our hostess to stop by a chalet near the lake.  On the slope near the car park three was a field of wildflowers, in which were many Ruddy Coppers.  Suddenly Sandra saw an orange and black butterfly land on a rock ten feet from where we stood. 

Satyr Anglewing, Mount Baker, Wa.  August  2021

    I snuck up on it and nabbed two quick pictures before it flew, in a flurry of orange and black, back into the middle of the weedy field.  I circled the field and even plunged into it without finding another.  There were many ruddy coppers which were now like dirt birds.  Being new to the sport, I don't know if lepidopterists call them dirt butterflies, or something equally derogatory.

    Both Sandra and I had a pretty good sight of eye look at this butterfly.  Here I am showing you the best of my two pictures, nursed to the best possible condition.  Obviously, this is what the butterfly guys call an anglewing, which comprises the tortoiseshells and commas.  I have no idea where they got the name tortoiseshell.  But now, in the process of striving for an identification,  we learned where the name comma came from.  If you look carefully you will see a tiny white slash on the back wing of our butterfly.   Its not unlike a Nike swoosh, although there is no evidence that Phil Knight is a lepidopterist.  You might also think it looks like the smile on the Cheshire Cat. 

Satyr Anglewing (nee comma)  photo iNaturalist

    In preparation for my butterfly exhibits I had produced several paper mache Green Commas and can confidently state that none of them bore this tiny white slash.  I mean, Who knew?  At least three of my friends and relatives are proudly displaying their jeff Hill originals in their home or office.  And I am willing to bet that not a one of them is sitting their looking at their statuette and saying,  "Jeff really screwed up when he left out the comma."

    In any event, there are several of these butterflies and some are called commas, which is apparently what the swoosh looks like to someone in the naming business.  Apparently this tiny white comma is slightly different in each species of this group.  With this new found knowledge and my inferior picture we set about to identify the comma.  I am providing you with first rate pictures of the two finalists.

Compton's Tortoiseshell

     The species that we had been encouraged to expect at this altitude and season was the Satyr Anglewing, sometimes called the Satyr Comma.  Our hero, Jeffrey Pippen, found them in profusion in a meadow near Paradise on Mount Rainier in August a few years back.  Pyle, in his butterfly book, asks us to pay special attention to the tiny hooks at each end of the comma in this species.  Subtle, no?

    When I went through Pyle's butterfly book,with its excellent pictures, amps and field characteristics,  along with that  complete source of zoologic pictures,  Google Images, I thought Compton's Tortoiseshell was also a good candidate.  Initially I associated this name with Compton, California, a suburb of Los Angeles renowned for its production of fierce, fleet footballers.  Compton might well be known as the Cradle of Cornebacks.  In fact,  just about the time that Professor Pippen was ogling his anglewings on Mount Rainier, a quarterback from Compton was leading the Huskies down by the Montlake Cut.  To bring this thing full circle, you can see Mount Rainier from the east end of the student section in Husky Stadium.  Go Dogs!

 Check out the swoosh: a Green Comma by JP in the mountains of Montana

    So tortoiseshell or anglewing, we made our way back down the hill to  Chez Jackie, where we dined sumptously on butterfly shrimp and dreamed of a cloud of butterflies spelling out "Go Huskies" in a cloudless northwest sky.  May all your dreams be as sweet as that.

jeff