Sighting for June 26, 2022

On the drive from Anchorage we had dense, low clouds and cool weather with occasional drizzle well past Palmer, so I was beginning to despair for good butterflying conditions. However, as we drove into the mountains toward Hatcher Pass we left the clouds below and came out into beautiful sunshine with occasional small puffy clouds and a light breeze. Temperatures were in the high fifties as I got started at 12:15pm and were in the high sixties as I finished at 4pm. I’ve uploaded lots of photos due to the trickiness with some of these IDs. Observations were between 3,000 to roughly 3,600 feet in elevation, all above the treeline. I started near the parking area below Independence Mine just before the ranger station and on the eastern slope overlooking the parking area, and then spent the rest of the afternoon along the south-facing slope of Skyscraper Mountain. Polixenes Arctic (Oeneis polixenes) and Theano Alpine (Erebia pawloskii) counts are conservative. For the Polixenes Arctics, I only counted those I successfully photographed but other likely individuals were observed. The Melissa Arctic (Oeneis melissa), Theano Alpines, and Mountain Fritillaries (Boloria alaskensis) were all first-time sightings for me (at least documented with photos in the case of the fritillaries, which were very common). No White-veined Arctics (Oeneis bore) were observed but maybe it’s still early for them at this location. A beautiful day in the mountains and wonderful alpine butterflying.