Sighting for July 17, 2021

A hike from Upper Canyon Road to beautiful Rabbit Lake and back, approximately 9 miles round trip, from 9:30am to 4:30pm. The hike takes you through mountain alders, cottonwood, willows, and mountain hemlocks until about halfway up toward the lake you emerge onto open high tundra with beautiful views of the mountain peaks. Clear but hazy skies on the warmest day of the year to-date with temperatures in the mid to upper seventies and a nice breeze. Lots of fresh bear sign on the lower section of the trail, often at points where the brush is especially overgrown and visibility is limited, but the only mammals we saw were Arctic ground squirrels. Butterflies were low in density but visible in fair numbers from the start to the end of the hike. Many of the cranberry blues (Yukon blue is the local subspecies) and Arctic fritillaries (Butler’s fritillary is the local subspecies) were very worn looking. One blue was so battered it hardly seemed capable of flight. Palaeno sulphurs were very active along the trail and hard to approach and photograph, but several were found puddling in mud and shallow standing water near the parked car after the hike. The Arctic Skippers were a surprise as their flight period is typically in June per Philip & Ferris (Butterflies of Alaska) and I hadn’t yet encountered any in July. Several skippers were puddling near the sulphurs.