Martha's Vineyard Atlas of Life's Journal

We're at an exciting point in the annual cycle, where every day can bring a noticeable increase in the numbers and diversity of wildlife that can be found. Warmer, longer days, and a higher sun angle rapidly heat up the soil, encouraging plants to begin breaking dormancy and arthropods to resume activity. We're still a long way from the peak days of summer. But careful observation will reveal more wildlife than most people expect.

My favorite place to explore in early spring is Manuel F. Correllus State Forest, that remarkable tract of about 5500 acres that occupies the center of Martha's Vineyard. The forest's network of fire lanes gives easy access to the interior of Correllus. And the mowing regime used to maintain the fire lanes guarantees plenty of exposure to the sun and conditions that favor plants and animals adapted to periodic disturbance. It may look dull, but this is excellent habitat.

Visits to fire lanes on March 20 and 21 yielded two species of tiger beetles, three or more species of flies, and several types of spiders (which, unfortunately, I'm not very good at identifying). See this project's recent records for a sample of what I could photograph. The activity wasn't exactly overwhelming: looking for insects at this point in the season requires a certain amount of patience. But I'm always surprised at how much I can find, and activity will increase steadily over the coming weeks.

You can access fire lanes at multiple points around the forest (just be sure not to park blocking a gate). My personal favorite fire lanes are the one across Barnes Road from the entrance to the Martha's Vineyard Business Park and the fire lane that heads north from the West Tisbury Road immediately west of Deep Bottom. But all the fire lanes are potentially productive, and ones I don't visit much could really use more coverage.

Walk slowly, keep your eyes on the ground, and divide your time between the bare soil of the fire lane and the low vegetation on either side. Generally speaking, the way to find insects is to flush them, then track them carefully and note where they land. Approach low and slow, with your camera at the ready, and begin shooting photos as soon as you can get your subject in your camera viewfinder (you never know when it will notice you and flee). With caution, you'll sometimes be able to approach insects down to your camera's close focus limit, sometimes capturing frame-filling images. Calibrate your eyes and mind to look for VERY SMALL THINGS: tiger beetles, among the most detectable insects out there right now, are only about a half-inch long, and most insects are smaller and even more challenging to spot. But finding insects is a learnable skill, one that improves rapidly with practice.

Early spring bugging may not be the first thing on most people's minds right now. But the fact that few observers are active right now is all the more reason to get out and explore: very little is known about what's out there now, and any observation could potentially be an important discovery. I look forward to seeing what you find here in the Martha's Vineyard Atlas of Life!

--Matt

I've assembled a simple identification guide for the four elfin species that occur on Martha's Vineyard. It can be viewed here:

https://www.inaturalist.org/guides/13462

or accessed through the Guides menu, in the dropdown under "More" on the bar at the top of your iNaturalist screen.

Technically hairstreaks, elfins are small, brownish butterflies generally active early in the season. The first ones may emerge as early as the first week of April, so the time for looking for them is upon us! Their habitat and larval host plants give our elfins a strong affinity for barrens habitat: lean, sandy soils with a mix of oak, pitch pine, bluestem grasses, and blueberry. The edges of the fire lanes in Correllus State Forest are the best place to search for elfins on Martha's Vineyard, but they also occur on bare hilltops and in expanses of open habitat such as are found at Wasque and Long Point. Elfins are generally found basking on the ground, usually near their larval host plant, and while they're capable of rapid flight, they tend to circle back to land at their original perch when they are flushed. Their small size and dark color makes them hard to spot, though this gets easier with practice. Elfins look superficially alike but are easy to identify if you know what to look for. I hope this guide is helpful, and please be sure to post to iNaturalist any elfins you're lucky enough to find.
--Matt Pelikan