July 18: Bishop (and Butterflies)

Day 5: A non-hiking (rest) day as its time to hopefully find the Alkali Skipper. This bfly flies near alkaline saltgrass flats in deserts (and it has a pretty small range because of the required habitat - parts of western NV and small section of CA). I have a good tip (by the same bfly author) that there's a good chance I'll see them about 5miles north of the city of Bishop. Keeping my fingers cross on the 30-40 minute drive down.

The road I turn on is a gravel road and its pretty brown, dry and barren but my instructions say to go a couple hundred yards and sure enough, I'm back in the green again. There's a little road going south with a truck parked and an official looking guy around. I drive past simply because I want to make sure I'm in the right area and when it turns brown, dry and barren in another 100 yrds or so, I knew I past the spot.

But before I turn around, I take a quick walk at the far end of the green. Nothing but me, saltbrush plants and cow pies. I'm looking for a white heliotrope (an alkali plant) - which I can't find here. So back in the car and up the road a bit. (Oh, I did manage to scare up a jackrabbit.)

I stop near the side road and the guy promptly comes up and wonders what I'm doing there -- told him I'm here looking for a bfly. Which he was OK with as he was with CA water and power and he (and some others were doing a plant survey --- don't think this area will take long :))

Right outside my car were a bunch of Melissa blues -- beautiful blue with a bright orange outline. And they were everywhere!

Well I wandered around for about an hour trying to kick up a skipper; wandered back and forth looking at the heliotrope and finally, there it was almost at my feet and orange Alkali Skipper (yea!).

I managed to get 2 photos and he was gone in a blink of an eye. Probably the fastest bfly I've seen.

I wandered around for another 1/2 hour or so, saw a couple of Western Pygmy Blue - the smallest bfly in the States w/ about a 1/2in wingspan) and a monarch. Time to leave as its getting very hot!

Its still earlier but too late to take a hike, I think I'm going to try and see a bit of Yosemite.

On my way back north on 395 -- its a 4 lane divided hwy that is surrounded by sagebrush - a coyote decides he's going to trot across the northbound lanes, I had to slam on my brakes to avoid hitting him. Must be hungry for lunch as its about noon. He just looked at me and continued across -- hope he made it across the SB lanes.

Well I about get to the Yosemite gate but there's a long line of people, so I decide to turn around and stop at a Nature Trail just a little bit down the road. The parking area is empty. So off I go. Its a little 1/4 mile trail; its has nice signs describing the habitat etc. There's a little wet meadow off the trail so I decide to investigate it for bflys. There were Edith Coppers, Clodius Parnassians (black antenna), Ruddy Coppers, Sierra Blues, Mexican Cloudywings and a Mariposa Copper (lifer!!!).

The trail continued around a lake and back to the parking lot. A fine little stop and the end of my day.

Worked out just fine!!