Butterfly lovers don’t back down. A small group of people interested in the beautiful, beneficial insect joined lepidopterists Dana Ross and Linda Kappen on a free field trip Friday in southwest Oregon. The event at the Bigelow Lakes Botanical Area was part of this weekend’s Siskiyou Crest Festival.
The group gathered outside the Oregon Caves National Monument and Preserve well before 10 a.m. and caravanned up a forest road to the trailhead. For six hours, they quietly sloshed through muddy puddles, poked around incense cedar and other coniferous trees, and avoided crushing wildflowers vital to butterfly life cycles as they carefully crossed meadows.
When they spotted a silver-spotted skipper or Hoffman’s checkerspot, they gingerly swooped their nets to capture the fluttering creatures just long enough to identify them and marvel over the busy pollinators before releasing them to the air.
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By 4 p.m., when the temperature at the almost 6,000-foot elevation reached 80 degrees, talk about butterflies didn’t cool down. The survey report on Ross’ clipboard showed they identified 31 species (not counting moths) found in this rich lepidopteran habitat.
Ross of Corvallis, a Siskiyou Field Institute instructor who contributes to the Oregon State Arthropod Collection, recorded sightings of descriptively named Nivalis copper, orange sulphur and echo blue. He was especially excited they spotted a rare and elusive Johnson’s Hairstreak, which relies on the western dwarf mistletoe to thrive. The small butterfly’s rusty brown or orange wings are easily camouflaged in a forest.
Kappen, 66, an Applegate resident who conducts butterfly surveys throughout the state, led the group to places she has been exploring for almost half a century.
“It was fun to see grown-ups running around like kids chasing butterflies,” said field trip participant Dee Shea Himes, a self-taught naturalist and retired landscape horticulturist visiting the region from the California Bay Area.
“Dana and Linda made it fun and educational at the layman’s level to someone with some science background,” continued Shea Himes, who posts her photographs on the online iNaturalist database for researchers and also on @in2plantsandnature on Instagram to share the beauty of nature, she said.
The Siskiyou Crest Festival on Saturday and Sunday celebrates the arts, culture and natural majesty of the Siskiyou Crest, 100 miles of dramatically steep ridgelines and deep valleys hosting rivers, wildlife and so many ancient plants it’s called a botanical museum.
Nature-inspired talks, art displays and concerts take place at the verdant Pacifica Garden in Williams, once the home of musician Steve Miller.
If you go: The Siskiyou Crest Festival is July 15-16 at Pacifica Garden, 14615 Water Gap Road in Williams. Festival grounds with free parking are open 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Saturday; 10 a.m.-8:30 p.m. Sunday. For a complete schedule, visit siskiyoucrestcoalition.org/festival.
Presentations include Kristi Mergenthaler on rare plants, Susan Harrison on serpentine ecology, John Villella on non-vascular plant diversity, Dana Ross on butterfly and moth diversity, Romain Cooper on mammals and rare species, Justin Garwood on amphibians, John Roth on Oregon Caves endemism and biodiversity, Dominick DellaSala on climate change and connectivity, author Luke Ruediger of “The Siskiyou Crest: Hikes, History & Ecology,” Rich Nawa on fish biodiversity and threats, Michael Kauffmann on the Bigfoot Trail, Paul Murdoch on paragliding and Nathan Dwyer on Siskiyou Crest recreation.
Read more: New Siskiyou Crest Festival offers free hikes, talks, art displays and concerts this weekend
— Janet Eastman | 503-294-4072