<< Back 7/31/02 The Naturalist's Corner By Don Hendershot Bird watching is, indeed, a slippery slope. Birders, always alert for the slightest movement that might direct them to one of their feathery targets, are constantly detracted by the erratic movement and flapping of butterfly wings. At first it was, “Oh, a darn butterfly,” and back to business, searching the treetops for birds. But birders began to notice that there was a lot of similarity between tracking down and identifying birds and discerning exactly what species of darn butterfly was gumming up the works. Butterflies are, after all, airborne and many have colors and patterns as striking as their avian counterparts and with practice and a good field guide species may be distinguished. Today, when a passing butterfly interrupts a group of birders, there is usually at least one in the group who will acknowledge it to some degree. The more common, easily identified butterflies will probably be named — “It’s a tiger swallowtail,” or “It’s a pipevine swallowtail.” If it’s a member of a closely associated group, it will generally be ID’d, at least, to that level: “That’s a sulfur,” or “That’s a fritillary.” The time spent on the butterfly is usually determined by the expertise and bent of the group. Most birders today are still primarily focused on birds when they take to the field. However the interest in butterflies has led to lepidoptera groups across the country and here in the Carolinas. These groups head to the woods and fields with binoculars and field guides in quest of butterflies and the above scenario is reversed. A passing passerine or rapacious raptor is likely to be noticed — “That was a blue grosbeak,” or “That was a red-tail,” but the emphasis will be on butterflies. There are, probably, two factors responsible for this expansion of interests in the field. The first is sheer volume. Approximately 70 million people across the U.S. consider themselves “wildlife watchers.” This is the largest and fastest growing segment of outdoor recreation in the country. It’s easy to understand, how, with that many people in the field, there would be a variety of interests. The second factor would be the improvement and accessibility of optics. There has been a revolution in the manufacturing of optics over the last couple of decades. It wasn’t long ago that many birders I knew commonly carried a couple of pairs of binoculars, one pair of 7X or 8X for up-close viewing and a pair of 10X for identifying raptors in the distance. Today there are 10Xs that will focus eight feet in front of you. They are becoming lighter and, while you can spend as much as you want to on a pair, there are numerous brands of affordable, adequate binoculars. It was only a matter of time before other critters began to catch the fancy of well-equipped wildlife watchers. Birders are, without a doubt, the largest component of wildlife watchers. The number of butterfly watchers has already prompted a second, expanded edition of Jeffrey Glassberg’s 1993 Butterflies Through Binoculars. And now, there is a new kid on the block. It only took one taste and I was hooked. Dragonflies Through Binoculars, by Sidney W. Dunkle, will definitely be my next field guide. Josh Rose, a Duke graduate student in biology, was passing through the area recently on his way to Chattanooga where he was leading an Odonata (the order of dragonflies and damselflies) field trip for the Chattanooga Aquarium. Josh is also an avid birder and wanted to look for some high-elevation specialties when he passed through the mountains of WNC. Bob Olthoff and I led Josh to some of his target species: alder flycatcher, veery and hermit thrush. Josh, as always, was also interested in odonates in the area. We took him to Ferguson Fields, in Swain County to check out the small beaver pond. In about an hour Josh had pointed out and identified 10 odonates, nine dragonflies and one damselfly. We were able to get terrific looks at these beautiful creatures. Some of the most striking included the ruby meadowhawk, band-wing meadowhawk, twelve-spotted skimmer and eastern amberwing. Next week we will discuss a little bit about the natural history of these interesting creatures. (Don Hendershot can be reached at don@smokymountainnews.com)