The Alexandria count in 2023 at Huntley Meadows Park was pretty much washed out. Scouting for this year indicated that there wasn’t much in bloom on the boardwalk side, so I was reassigned to the hike-bike trail side and trip leader Ana. Oh, what a difference! Huge swaths of Bidens, full of skippers, including Ocola Skipper (Panoquina ocola) (new to me this count week) and Fiery Skipper (Hylephila phyleus).
We did take an hour on the boardwalk as well: the highlight of this side was a thistle with a half dozen Great Spangled Fritillaries (Speyeria cybele) nectaring on it.
And snakes and spiders and shorebirds and more wildflowers and more butterflies.