I spent the work day driving to some of our field offices and managed to take my lunch break at Shawnee Campground. This is a small, primitive campground that sits at the mouth of Shawnee Creek on the extreme lower Jack’s Fork River. Mainly river bank forest, there are also some scattered cane breaks and a large hayfield nearby. Being the middle of the week and pre-Memorial Day, the area was deserted. Shawnee is a major horse use area and the local wild horses are usually close by, so it’s always covered in horse hockey and I was hoping for a bonanza of butterflies.
Even though I arrived at about 12:30, there was a lot of bird activity, possibly because it was so overcast. Walking around for 20 minutes or so, I saw the following:
- Red-eyed Vireo
White-eyed Vireo
Swainson’s Thrush
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Great Blue Heron
Turkey Vulture
American Crow
Chipping Sparrow
American Goldfinch
Brown Thrasher
Eastern Kingbird
Eastern Bluebird
Northern Parula
Blue-winged Warbler
Kentucky Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
American Redstart
Common Yellowthroat
Ovenbird
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
Indigo Bunting
White-crowned Sparrow (totally unexpected)
Butterfly-wise, I was actually a little disappointed considering the area. I guess they don’t like horse poop as much as I thought they would! I did see a Zebra Swallowtail, a couple of Clouded Sulphurs, several checkerspots (probably Pearl Crescents, but I need to look them up to be sure,) a Red-spotted Purple, a Pipe-vine or Blue Swallowtail
and some Eastern Tailed Blues.
I also spotted this guy in one of the campsites:
Six-spotted Tiger Beetle