FLUTTERBYS

Lake Winfield Scott… The Diana Saga

Charles Allen Haynes

August 23, 2022

Article changed 0.00% since publication. Last updated August 23, 2022.

My wife Franca met Pat Russell a couple of years ago… shortly before the beginning of covid. As a matter of course then I also met Pat and her husband Bill Russell. Bill is a man of many talents but over the years he has become well acquainted with the Lepidoptera; master understatement.

I’ve always been interested in wildlife and as a kid was very ”into” butterflies. So when the initial conversations with Bill turned to butterflies and moths I saw our friendship as a great chance to learn more about a childhood interest and take it further. It’s panned out that way. The four of us get together fairly often and over the months since our first meeting I’ve become more and more engrossed in the world of the Lepidoptera.

We’ve traveled a bit together mostly to North Georgia where they have a house, a great jumping off place to see all sorts of wildlife. And during the ongoing conversations I came to believe that the Diana Fritillary (Speyeria diana) was becoming my “grail” butterfly. The four of us went looking several time specifically for that species with no luck usually along Cooper’s Creek. Then covid stepped in and made it worse… we couldn’t look at all.

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Fast forward to August of 2022. Jay Davis, Franca and I went to Lake Winfield Scott Campground near Suches, Georgia to camp for three days, Franca and me in the RV and Jay in a tent alongside. There are fairly limited spaces to camp or park an RV so the campground is not crowded and the surrounding forest is dense, rainforest-like, quiet and peaceful. As fate would have it less than a mile before the turn off into Lake Winfield Scott Campground is the turn west to Cooper’s Creek Road. (I’m referring to Cooper’s Creek because Dianas had been sighted there in the past. We just never saw any.)

The first of our full days at LWS I was not well and thought we might have to leave (resdidual covid). But yesterday dawned cool and clear and I felt better. So on to Cooper’s creek it was. At first the road is paved, narrow but paved. Fairly soon it becomes gravel and wilder, less houses, finally no houses. There are deep tree-filled ravines on one side of the road, rising hills of forest to the other. The side of the road is lined with ferns, Black-eyed Susans, and Joe Pye weed… lots and lots of plant life. Butterflies love Joe Pye weed.

Several miles down Cooper’s Creek Road there is a pull-off where the ravine to the right isn’t so steep and we could see the creek ambling past. Even from the car and later from the bank with binoculars… we saw a male Diana on a Black-eyed Susan across the creek. We watched as it worked over the blooms and then passed on to the north. Wow! They’re here!

That was pretty exciting! We continued down the road. About fifteen minutes later we turned onto a crossroad and up a slight rise. There were flowers along the road, right and left. As we drew near a clump of Joe Pye on the left I looked up and saw her. The first Diana I could photograph and a female at that.

We watched her a bit. She changed flowers, changed plants and then wandered off. Wow!

As we continued our odyssey we discussed the likelihood of seeing both genders. Then we saw another female on a different plant I didn’t identify. Interesting that there was a considerable amount of variation in the markings of the two females. But nothing else looks like that…

As we continued we saw swallow-tails, a Pearl Crescent or two and an interesting skipper but no more Dianas.

We were getting to the end of our available time because we had to drive back for dinner before it got too dark to cook and eat outside. I murmured a bit in a benign sort of complaining way and Jay said, “Okay, one more Joe Pye clump and we turn around.”

I could see the next clump up ahead. As we drew near it we began to sound like children approaching an ice cream shop because there was very obviously a male Diana on one of the flower heads. We parked the car in the middle of the road and spent the next twenty minutes enthralled by this beautiful butterfly that was joined almost immediately by a female. They fed on the same flower head for ten minutes. My camera almost overheated.

First, meet the flighty couple up close.

Then they just …

Thanks to Bill Russell for priming the pump. Thanks to Jay Davis for driving the winding roads of North Georgia midst the constant, “Stop here a minute… well no,” “Now stop…” And thanks to my wife who puts up with this semi-obsession and has proven to be a keen observer herself and a joy to travel with. And… thanks to the Dianas for fitting us into their schedule.

Cooper’s Creek, Addendum

Of course there are other things besides Diana butterflies on Cooper’s Creek. As we wandered looking for butterflies there were bees, spiders, grasshoppers and harvestmen... other stuff. We even saw the extreme south end of a Black Bear headed north, a Red-shouldered Hawk and heard a lot of other birds and frogs through the afternoon and into the evening.