EVENT CAPACITY: 30
Event/ Program Description: Birding has been aptly described as the gateway drug to butterflies! If the weather cooperates, we expect to see common species like Eastern Tiger, Zebra, Pipevine, and Spicebush Swallowtails as well as specialties like Falcate Orangetips and Yucca Giant-Skippers. Mourning Cloaks, Goatweed Leafwings, and Spring Azures are also possibilities. We will experience behaviors like “hilltopping”—a mate location behavior where male butterflies gather on or near the highest places in their habitats and wait for receptive females to fly uphill to meet them.
We will also look at some of the trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants that serve as the caterpillar host plants that support these butterfly species. Butterfliers of any skill level are welcomed. Binoculars will enhance your experience. Birding on this field trip will be a bonus as we look for the butterflies.
Paulette Haywood and Sara Bright are leading this field trip. Paulette and Sara co-authored Butterflies of Alabama: Glimpses into Their Lives and currently administer the Alabama Butterfly Atlas (www.alabama.butterflyatlas.usf.edu). They can be reached by email at albutterflyatlas@gmail.com. If you have questions, feel free to contact them.
We will plan on meeting in the parking lot of Perry Lakes Park at 9:30am.
More information about Perry Lakes Park can be found here.
Directions: Traveling south on AL-5 from Brent-Centreville, watch for AL-175 on the left (18 miles from the intersection of AL-5 and U.S. 82). Turn left onto AL-175 and proceed to the entrance to Perry Lakes Park. If traveling north, from the intersection of AL- 5 and 183 in Marion (gasoline and limited food and lodging nearby), follow AL-183 north for 3.4 miles. Turn left onto AL-175 north and continue for 2.2 miles.
GPS: 32.69808, -87.259219
The entrance to Perry Lakes Park is a dirt road along the side of the administration building for the Alabama Aquatic Biodiversity Center. Restroom facilities are no longer available at the park and the trails are generally not wheelchair accessible.
Trip Leader: Marj Young // (205) 515-8394
Please contact your trip leader on the day of the event if you need assistance or have questions.
All Image Rights & Ownership: Matt Hunter