(We rejoin Dr. Glassberg’s journey through Oklahoma. Pictured above, a Monarch on Green Milkweed – ed)
Although the goal of the trip had been achieved, an identifiable photo of an Outis Skipper, today I set out to see if we could find any more individuals and to see if I could obtain better photos.
Sun – check; warm weather – check; Outis Skipper – check! We started on the same gravel road and, fairly quickly, found an Outis Skipper mudpuddling where the road was blocked by high water. I was able to get reasonable photos of this one. So – photos of three different Outis Skippers – I’m a happy camper.
We spent most of the rest of the day checking out Green Milkweeds and other flowers. Amazingly, the number of cloudywing dropped off markedly from yesterday. In fact, although it was warm and sunny, we saw many fewer individuals, and fewer species, than we saw yesterday. We did a few new species – Silver-spotted Skipper and Dusted Skipper.
With mission accomplished, I was able to take a leisurely drive back to my hotel, stopping to take in the local sights. For example, they don’t have a school of horseshoing in New Jersey! Also, although I knew that the Oklahoma City Thunder basketball team had disappointedly lost to the Portland Trailblazers in the NBA playoffs, I was stunned to learn that the loss had made the entire city impotent, at least according to the billboard that I saw.
