Birding/Lep-ing with Hunter Around OC

Today I went birding/leping with a former camper of mine. We hit Harriett Wieder Park first for a look at the Lesser Sand-Plover that's been hanging out there. Gorgeous bird and super easy tick off to start the day. We then headed up Silverado Canyon to do some birding and butterflying. The weather was incredibly hot and clear, great for butterflies, not so good for birding. It was so wonderful just to be outside again, even if it was pretty quiet bird-wise. We had California Dogfaces flying around near all the stream crossings at the base of the canyon. We found a gorgeous lily that I think might have been a Weed's Mariposa Lily. I forgot to bring my camera, which put a kink in IDing plants we didn't recognize. Higher up we had an Acmon Blue, and a number of sulfurs we weren't able to identify - one smaller and more vividly yellow, another larger and pale lemon-y yellow. 


Bird-wise, we had ash-throated flycatchers, yellow warblers, a singing black-headed grosbeak, and a single mountain chickadee. As it got even hotter, we headed toward Dilly Preserve and the Nix Nature Center where we had a few more butterfly species, including a Mormon's Metalmark and Square-spotted Blue. The heat finally drove us to call it quits, but it was such a joy to spend time out in nature again, and all the great butterfly sightings had me kicking myself for not bringing my camera... guess it's time to wipe off the dust and get back out there!


Butterfly List:

1. Tiger Swallowtail
2. Mourning Cloak
3. California Dogface
4. Acmon Blue
5. Mormon Metalmark
6. Square-spotted Blue (or whatever its new name is)
7. American Lady
8. Cabbage White
9. 2 Sulfur Species (Cloudless?)
10. Gray Hairstreak