The Metolius Preserve 2024

Great Arctic Butterfly, Metolius Preserve, June 2024

        A year after I started watching butterflies, I wrote to the Bend (Oregon) Audubon Society asking for help with my new endeavor.  My query was rewarded with a response from two different ladies who watch butterflies at a high level in Central Oregon.  Amanda Eggerston has a job as a bureaucrat managing the environment and Sue Anderson is simply a really involved enthusiast.  I got several suggestions for places to look for butterflies and both recommended the Metolius Preserve.   

    The Metolius is a river that springs from the ground about ten miles west of Sisters, Oregon.  As the population of Oregon has grown, the Metolius, always a recreational magnet, has received increasing pressure.  What was once an out of the way stream is now a tourist magnet and is in the process of being loved to death. The hub for all this activity is Camp Sherman.  Little more than a cross roads with a small general store, Camp Sherman is surrounded by National Forest campgrounds on the river and numerous lodges.

Greenish blue on Sandra's finger

    The Metolius Preserve, on the other hand, is a highly managed tract of Ponderosa Pine forest well off the beaten track.  Although it has well maintained trails, there is little to attract the average tourist.  In fact, if it had not been for Sue and Amanda  I would have remained blissfully ignorant of this seemingly nondescript patch of forest about six miles from Camp Sherman.  The management involves the preservation of native plants and this creates a haven for numerous species of butterflies.  The ladies lead spring butterfly walks in the preserve and over the years have accumulated a list of 44 species that Sue kindly provided me with four or five ears ago.

    In fact, her list included host plants, plants upon which all these butterflies choose to nectar, etc.  Being an incompetent nincompoop when it comes to botany, all this information was pretty much wasted on me.  Pearls before swine!  But I preserved the list and that comes in handy from the What's Possible standpoint, a position which always serves well when watching birds.

Clouded Sulfur Butterfly, Metolius Preserve, June 2024

    And so, Sandra and I arrived at the preserve a week or so ago at about 10:30 in the morning.   As we prepared, three jolly mountain bikers pedaled through the tiny car park, but aside from that brief visitation, we were all alone. 

   We looked for butterflies for the next hour, in habitat that included the weedy area near the care par, a dusty trial through ponderosas, mixed forests, with willows, etc (remember, I'm not a botanist.) and a dry meadow.  The first butterfly we encountered was an orange and brown, medium sized  and engaged in fluttering flight.  This larger species, when examined back in the lab, proved to be a Great Arctic. 

    We captured a couple blues on this first day, Boisduval's and Greenish Blue. 

This was the first Greenish Blue that I had photographed in the laboratory and you can see that it's a pretty handsome fellow.  Although not very greenish.    

Western Tailed Blue, Metolius Preserve, June 2024

    We got the Pascivius Duskywing, a small black skipper,  and we captured a Clouded Sulfur, which was even more common than the Great Arctic, although not so physically imposing.  In all, we got seven species on our hour long walk and felt pretty good about our effort.

    Two days later, we took another walk in the woods.  Our start time was a bit earlier and in the car park we met three younger people with three dogs.  They headed off before us and we followed on the north trail a few minutes later.

   We saw a Clouded Sulfur, and then a California Tortoiseshell flew by, ascending to perch twenty feet up on a Ponderosa pine..  He stayed there for a while, presumably nectaring on pine sap.  Amazing as it may seem, this species is known to suck that viscous substance through the infinitesimally narrow lumen of its proboscis.  This defies explanation!  But they must be good at it, for the California Tortoiseshell is a fairly common species in the pine forests of Central Oregon.

   This north trail wound for a quarter mile through dense, moist woods and was worthless for butterflies.  When we broke out onto the Larch Trail, we saw the same Great Arctics and Clouded Sulfurs as before.  I captured one blue, which turned out to be an exceptionally natty silvery and Sandra netted a Western Meadow Frit, that tiny and widespread orange jewel that is a dirt bird for PNW butterfly watchers.

Lilac Bordered Copper, Metolius Preserve, June 2024

   So this walk wasn't really producing.  As we approached the tiny stream which bisects the preserve, I netted a small blue.  And when we made it back to the dusty car park I captured another tiny butterfly perched on a weed, whose name may be important, yet lost to the non-botanist.  Both of these required an intervention by Caitlin LaBar.

   The first she called a Western Tailed Blue.  I am loathe to question her identification, but the picture in her book is not similar to the one you see here.  Nevertheless, I guess we will accept the expert's opinion.

   The second may be the prettiest little butterfly we got on the trip.  If I had perused Cait's book with a bit more vigor, I could have identified the Lilac Edged Copper all by myself.  Her picture and mine match up perfectly.  The first picture you see was one taken early in the process.  We really wanted the butterfly to open up, revealing his or her dorsal wing surface.
  

Fully revives and ready to fly!

   To paraphrase Jeffe and El Guapo from the Three Amigos, Well, Guapo, when will the butterfly open herself up to you? ...    Tonight!  Or I will kill her!

   And so Sandra put the little dear in the freezer for a mere three minutes.  This period, although to us it seemed judicious, was enough to just about kill her.  We laid it out on the picnic table on the warm lanai and eventually it regained some color, sat up and flew away.  But not before we got the shot.

     So keep a good eye out when you are in those weedy car parks, and use your refrigerator for frosty beverages, not butterflies!

jeff